“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• For the first time in nearly four years, Downtown Tracy again has a full-service restaurant as of this year.
“Thelma and Louise’s Bar and Grill” opened its doors to its first customers Tuesday. The business is located in the former 21st Century Bank building.
“We’re very grateful for the support that we have gotten,” said Shirley Matson, who is opening the Third St. business with partner Marge Kronback.
“Everyone has been great and we really appreciate that.” The family restaurant will be open Tuesdays through Sundays, from 3 to 10 p.m., with the kitchen being open from 5 to 10 p.m. The women purchased the landmark building at 101 Third St. in late March. The last business to occupy the building was Mace’s, a bar and restaurant business operated by Greg Frederickson.
The restaurant property is actually two buildings. The southerly, two-story, Sioux quartzite was erected in the late 1890s as the original home of the First National Bank. The northerly building was added in the late 1980s when 21st Century bank expanded onto what had been a city library.
The original bank building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
First National Bank operated in Tracy until it became insolvent in the Great Depression.
• Last week’s answer: Work to convert the former Tracy Hotel into a apartment houses began in 1985.
