A college hall in Merom, a recreation club in South Bend and Prince Hall Masonic Temple in Indianapolis are part of a new crop of iconic and historic Hoosier buildings that face uncertain futures.
Indiana Landmarks on Monday released its 2024 10 Most Endangered list — an annual effort to advocate for sites that could potentially be lost because of neglect, new development, lack of funding and other challenges.
All of these structures have long been embedded in the fabric of their communities, serving as civic, political, industrial or manufacturing spaces that highlight significant parts of Indiana history. Many have been lauded for their architectural style, which lend artistic identities to their respective towns. And four of the 10 sites are repeat entries from 2023 as they continue to be in jeopardy.
The goal of Indiana Landmarks' list each year is to advocate for the buildings by educating people about their significance with the goals of helping to find new uses for them and to raise the money for critical repairs.
Since the list's 1991 launch, 20 of the 170 sites named have been demolished and 105 have been restored or are no longer facing extinction, according to the nonprofit.
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Here's the full 2024 list.
Bethlehem Healing Temple
700 Jefferson St. in Gary
When finished in 1923, the home of the Central Christian Church was a Renaissance Revival darling. Around an eye-catching bell-tower, architect A. Frank Wickes designed a brick and stone structure that included 36-foot ceilings, a Bible school wing, and an assembly room with a kitchen and serving pantry.
Just more than 100 years later, Bethlehem Healing Temple — the building's current congregation — faces a bevy of maintenance issues. Worshippers are holding services in the basement as they try to raise money to repair the consequences wrought by a lack of gutters, including a partially collapsed wall and water damage.
College Hall, Merom Camp & Retreat Center
8555 Phillip St. in Merom
The five-story College Hall has overlooked the Wabash River since 1863, when it was completed as part of Union Christian College just south of Terre Haute. After the college's closure in 1924, the building became a religious camp and meeting space called Merom Institute. In the early 1940s, the campus housed a Soil Conservation Service base camp for conscientious objectors, who created stock ponds, drainage systems, fences and more on farmlands.
The Romanesque Revival-style College Hall remains a gathering space today for the Merom Camp and Retreat Center. But the nonprofit is unable to meet the cost of repairs for crumbling masonry, leaking windows and plumbing, and mechanical systems.
Rudicel-Montgomery Polygonal Barn
C.R. 700 South at 400 East in Waldron
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Indiana saw the construction of more than five dozen multi-sided barns prized for their efficient layout and cost. The 12-sided Rudicel-Montgomery structure — built in 1910 by George Rudicel and carpenters Roy and Earl Henderson — housed livestock on the lower level and hay on the upper one.
More than a century later, these polygonal barns have become rare, and changes in farming have left them without the necessary upkeep. The Rudicel-Montgomery structure, which is southeast of Shelbyville, currently stands mostly vacant and is in need of fundraising for repairs.
Sollman School
4214 IN-168 in Fort Branch
Constructed about 1875, the modest white-frame structure with a bell tower was a school and gathering space for those who lived in Gibson County. People used Sollman as a woodshop after it ceased to be a school in 1927, and it remains a vacant landmark between Vincennes and Evansville.
The structure is the county's last surviving one-room school, according to Indiana Landmarks. At this point, a lack of funding is keeping county leaders from achieving their goal of moving the building and fashioning it into a destination for field trips.
Sposeep & Sons Building
55 W. Water St. in Wabash
The 1890 building came into being as a warehouse that housed Russian immigrant Simon A. Cook's scrap business. Abe Sposeep & Sons later acquired the recycling center and used it into the early 21st century before closing. With beige limestone, plank floors and wooden columns, the building has become an iconic site in the city.
The property isn't far from the commercial historic district, and the Wabash Redevelopment Commission is looking for someone to revamp the building, which needs repairs for damage caused by water infiltration.
West Side Recreation Club
1415 W. Washington St. in South Bend
After a stint as a dry goods store, the club in 1929 became a gathering space where the local Black community hosted political and social events. Professionals who led desegregation efforts — including attorney and politician J. Chester Allen, attorney Zilford Carter and dentist Dr. Bernard Streets — set up offices there.
The building, which was constructed about 1912, later became a target of police raids for gambling operations. In the 1980s, the recreation club ceased using the building, which then housed a food pantry for a stint starting in 2005, according to information from Indiana University South Bend's African American Landmark Tour. The currently vacant property needs funds to fix issues caused by years of neglect and a plan for a new life.
Historic fraternal lodges
Indianapolis and statewide
Lodges that housed fraternal orders including the Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks and others appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in almost every town in Indiana. The structures became community landmarks, but their future is uncertain as orders' memberships decline.
Highlighted on the list this year is the Indianapolis home of the Prince Hall Masonic Temple Association, an Exotic Revival structure with patterns and keyhole windows that nod to Islamic architecture in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. It was built in 1916 at 22nd Street and Central Avenue for Oriental Masonic Lodge No. 500, which lost membership after World War II.
Starting in the 1980s, Prince Hall Masonic Temple used the building as its Grand Lodge of Indiana, and the organization now wants to sell it — a plan that could usher in its demolition if a buyer wants to build a new development in a neighborhood undergoing revitalization, according to Indiana Landmarks.
Fraternal lodges around the state were on Indiana Landmarks' Most Endangered list in 2023 as well, which helped save the structures in Vernon, North Vernon and Bedford, the organization reported.
International Harvester Engineering Building
2911 Meyer Road in Fort Wayne
The midcentury building's shape is inspired by the logo of International Harvester — the company that manufactured more than 1.5 million heavy duty trucks and 500,000 early sports utility vehicles from 1923 to 1983. From 1986 to 2012, Navistar International owned the building and used it as an engineering facility.
Harvester Homecoming began celebrating the city's truck heritage in 2019 and displayed trucks and artifacts inside the building. Festival organizers wanted to install a permanent museum there but announced plans in July for a new home for the collection in New Haven, according to WANE-TV in Fort Wayne.
Since the building appeared on Indiana Landmarks' Most Endangered list in 2023, Allen County Commissioners decided to study how to reuse the site as county offices. Preservation advocates want to ensure that the architectural integrity and history is retained and recognized, according to Indiana Landmarks.
Starr Historic District
Between North A Street, North E Street, North 10th Street and North 16th Street in Richmond
Industrialists, financiers and business owners once lived in the neighborhood packed with Victorian-era homes built in the Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne styles. Charles and Elizabeth Starr — whosesons helped start the famous Starr Piano Co.— bought the landand platted it.
But the district — with most residences built between1860 and 1920 — has fallen into disrepair, and Indiana Landmarks is including it on the Most Endangered list for the second year in a row. Only 23% of the homes are owner-occupied, and almost 70% have absentee owners, are rentals or are abandoned, according to a 2018 Ball State studyreportedon by the Richmond Palladium-Item.
Organizations devoted to the district's preservation continue to advocate for it, and Indiana Landmarks has invested in multiple properties and moved its Eastern Regional Office to the Reid Center, which falls within the district. Since the district's appearance on the 2023 Most Endangered list, city leaders have been discussing granting the district a local historic designation that would help protect it, but more action is necessary to fight the neglect, according to Landmarks.
State Theatre
1303 Meridian St. in Anderson
Publix Theater Corp. of Chicago brought The State to life in 1930, one of a bevy of theaters that populated downtown. Its Spanish Baroque facade, modern sound and projection technology beckoned patrons. On the building's outside were a glowing marquee, stately trim and elongated ornate windows.
But the theater closed in 2008 and remains vacant after multiple failed redevelopment plans. The city bought it in 2019 after the former California-based owners sued Anderson because the building sustained water damage, theAnderson Herald Bulletin reported. A year after its appearance on 2023's Most Endangered list, no clear plans are in the works to save it, according to Indiana Landmarks.
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.