INDIANAPOLIS — After a years-long search for a suitable site to house the state’s collection of historical records, state officials have settled on a property near the Statehouse in downtown, west of the Senate Ave. parking garage on the Central Canal.
The State Budget Committee gave final approval to begin work on the $102 million building in June. When completed, it will be five stories high and have 133,000 square feet. The new building will provide space for storage, as well as have facilities to maintain and restore archival documents. The state archives have executive, judicial, and legislative records dating back to the 1790s, including the 1816 and 1851 state constitutions. The collection has been stored in a warehouse on the east side of Indianapolis since 2001; but the building does not have the appropriate climate controls. It was meant as a stop-gap measure after being moved from the basement of the state library building during a 2001 renovation.
The new building will include office space for staff, as well as areas for processing and imaging state records using new technology, climate controlled storage for archive documents, and flexible space for meetings and events. In addition, there will be a tunnel connecting the archives to other buildings on the state government campus.
One lane each on Ohio and New York streets will be closed to facilitate construction, and construction is expected to start in spring of 2024. Officials expect the building to be complete in late 2025 or early 2026.
The archives are not open to the public, but many of them are online at in.gov/iara/ where you can view some of the photos, documents, and historical objects kept in the collection.