Hoosier Cardinal, which was founded in 1937 by Thomas Jesse Morton Jr. It was an injection molding plastic company. The building, at 605 W. Eichel Ave., still stands. Today, another plastics business, named Indiana Cardinal in honor of Hoosier Cardinal, occupies this same factory space. NOTE: the company was founded earlier than this, beginning as a a stamping company that made metal refrigerator parts, including ice cube trays. Evansville used to be known as the Plastics Hub of the Nation. The modern plastics industry dates back to 1935 to a businessman named Thomas Morton, Jr., who owned Hoosier Cardinal, a stamping company that made metal refrigerator parts, including ice cube trays. One day Morton was introduced to a man named Jack Bauer, whose father owned a machine company in Springfield, Ohio. Bauer had the idea of making a better ice-cube tray out of plastic. It could be done with a new injection-molded plastics method developed in Germany. This photograph was identified as when the company was shifting its remaining operations to Belton, SC. Photograph from the Evansville Courier. According to Home Town History, this service bridge is over FIrst Ave. Employees and production goods were delivered from one plant to another for decades. In the far background is the First Avenue Bridge.