INDIANAPOLIS — In 2021, Indiana Landmarks awarded more than $140,000 to help nonprofits and cities around Indiana save meaningful places. Drawing from a variety of funds, these grants support efforts ranging from architectural assessments and repairs at historic houses of worship to digital walking tours and workshops, videos and summer programs for youth. Some of the local properties they helped include:
• Madam Walker Legacy Center, for general support at the 1927 Madam Walker building.
• Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, to update the Historic Delaware Street Walking Tour brochure highlighting the history and architectural styles of still-standing and demolished buildings along Delaware Street between 12th and 16th streets.
• Indianapolis Museum of Art/Newfields, for development of a self-guided digital tour of the museum’s historic Lilly House.
• Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, for a public event celebrating the unveiling of the museum as a literary landmark, with free tours of the museum’s building to share its history and the significance of the surrounding Indiana Avenue neighborhood where it is located.
• Marian University, to create an online repository about landscape architect Jens Jensen’s work at Riverdale, the Allison family estate on the college campus, as well as the architect’s other Indiana landscapes.
• Saint Rita’s Catholic Church, for a feasibility study at the 1959 church.
Indiana Landmarks and the Central Indiana Community Foundation jointly manage a fund created by contributions from each organization and private donors to award grants supporting preservation of landmarks in Marion County.
• Aspire Higher Foundation, Indianapolis for a preservation plan for the 1897 former Indianapolis Fire Station #9.
• Irvington Historical Society, Indianapolis to replace the front doors at the 1903 Bona Thompson Memorial Center with alternates that more closely match the original bronze doors long missing from the historic building, originally Butler University’s library.