INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Landmarks has announced the 10 Most Endangered, an annual list of Hoosier landmarks in jeopardy. The list includes a rare polygonal barn; a historic Black social club; a picturesque one-room school; a popular high school fieldhouse; a rugged reminder of the industrial revolution; an early tribute to higher education; a historic Springs Valley hotel; a covered bridge; a classic high school gymnasium; and a threatened turn-of-the-century neighborhood.
Places that land on the 10 Most Endangered list often face a combination of problems rather than a single threat—abandonment, neglect, dilapidation, obsolete use, development pressure, or owners who simply lack money for repairs.
The 10 Most Endangered in 2025 include the following places:
• College Hall, Merom Camp & Retreat Center, Merom
• Emily Kimbrough Historic District, Muncie
• Kiwanis Field, La Porte
• Mineral Springs Hotel, Paoli
• Rudicel-Montgomery Polygonal Barn, Waldron
• Shields Memorial Gymnasium, Seymour
• Sollman School, Snake Run (near Fort Branch)
• Sposeep & Sons Building, Wabash
• Traders Point Covered Bridge, Indianapolis
• West Side Recreation Club, South Bend
Local bridge builder Josiah Durfee constructed Traders Point Covered Bridge c.1880, originally located over Fishback Creek in northwest Marion County. The bridge first faced demolition in 1959, when the state highway commission began making improvements to West 86th Street to feed traffic onto a newly built Interstate 65. To save the covered bridge, farmer DeWitt V. Brown bought and moved it to his land nearby, where it remains on private property today. Of more than 600 covered bridges believed to have been built in Indiana during the nineteenth century, only 90 are estimated to remain. Indiana Landmarks wanted to move it to Eagle Creek Park, and funded a study to find out how much the moving and stabilizing the bridge would cost – estimated at $2 million in 2022.
To find out more about each of the 10 Most Endangered, visit www.indianalandmarks.org or contact Indiana Landmarks, 317-639-4534 or 800-450-4534.
