Indiana Landmarks helps arrange donation of building and $110,000
- Tribune-Star staff report
- Updated
Indiana Landmarks will restore the former First Financial Bank building at 643 Wabash Avenue in downtown Terre Haute and, once completed, the structure will become the new home of CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center.First Financial CEO and President Norman L. Lowery said the bank is donating the structure to Indiana Landmarks, plus contributing $110,000 to help Indiana Landmarks stabilize it and jump-start the renovation.
"As our main office headquarters for 60 years, it represents a significant part of the bank's history of service to the community," Lowery said of the building opened in 1903.
CANDLES Executive Director Dorothy Chambers said the museum has increasingly been limited by space for offices, exhibits and public programs.
"We look forward to working with Indiana Landmarks in transforming 643 Wabash Avenue into a vibrant place for the community to gather and learn," Chambers said in a statement.
CANDLES will join other downtown museums including the Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute Children's Museum, Clabber Girl Museum, 500 Museum of Wheels and Vigo County Historical Society Museum.
The bank building was built for the United States Trust Company, getting a "neoclassical makeover" in 1928, a year after the United States Trust merged with the Terre Haute National Bank, creating Terre Haute National Bank and Trust Company.
Chicago architect Solon Beman designed the structure and the Terre Haute architectural firm Johnson, Miller, Miller & Yeager was awarded the 1928
The building's limestone facade was reconstructed to include a grand arched
A former stairway leading to the basement in the center of the lobby was floored over to
The 1928 redesign also added seven murals by Italian-American artist Vincent Aderente (1880-1941) of New York City. He painted many other structures including the Denver Mint, Utah State Capitol, Detroit Public Library and
Another renovation of the building was undertaken in 1932, when Terre Haute National Bank and Trust Company became Terre Haute First National Bank.
Indiana Landmarks and CANDLES first approached the bank requesting the building be donated in 2016.
"We knew that CANDLES needed more space and wanted to move downtown," said Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. "And having been a tenant in the old First National building many years ago, we thought it could be an ideal location for CANDLES."
First Financial moved out of the bank building in 1988, after completing a new headquarters at 6th Street and Wabash Avenue. The building was then occupied by the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce. The building was then shared with tenants including Wabash Valley Community Foundation, Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.; Terre Haute Convention & Visitors Bureau and Indiana Landmarks' Western Regional Office.
All of the tenant began leaving the building in 2004, with the building vacant since 2008.
Davis said former Indiana Landmarks board member Fred Nation urged the state preservation group to save the former bank.
"Instead of going to a landfill, this majestic structure will continue to build memories for and serve new generations as Terre Haute's downtown continues to grain vitality," Nation said.
Indiana Landmarks will stabilize the structure and replace the roof over the next six months. Indiana Landmarks intends to pass ownership to CANDLES while retaining a protective covenant on the building.
