August 2004 The Megaphone Page 8
Endangered -- October 2003
Elwood
City Hall is endangered – again. It earned a spot on Historic Landmarks’ 10
Most Endangered list back in 1997 when city officials announced their intent to
move offices out of the 1899 Neo-classical city hall. We helped sponsor a
feasibility study on the costs of keeping city offices in the building, and
declared the building safe when the city agreed to keep using the structure. But
it looks like we spoke too soon.
When built in 1899, Elwood City Hall served as one-stop
shopping for citizens on municipal errands. The building housed the police and
fire departments, public library, city courts and city council chambers, with
third-floor space set aside for a community center. Today, the former city hall
is vacant and for sale.
In
1999, the city of Elwood finally decided it had outgrown its home of more than a
century, voting to build a new downtown structure big enough to maintain all
municipal services under one roof – a difficult choice for a community
sentimentally attached to its historic city hall. City employees moved to the
new building last April [2003] and offered the vacated city hall for sale.
“We want to do everything possible to get someone in there,” says Jason
Hester, Economic Development Director for the city of Elwood. “But we need to
be sure they have the resources and reputation to take on renovation.” In the
meantime the city will maintain the vacant structure to the best of its ability,
recognizing that deferred maintenance and the detriment of allowing a building
to sit empty mean the clock is ticking.
Elwood City Hall, with its two-story tower and dome, is an exceptional civic
building for a small city. Rumored to be modeled after the original Chicago City
Hall, the Neo-classical structure was built at the peak of the gas boom in
Elwood, when the city had more than 15,000 residents. Preservationists and city
officials believe the current population of 10,000 can support other uses in the
building, especially because Elwood is a growing bedroom community for people
who work in Indianapolis and Anderson but prefer a small-town lifestyle.
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