We were founded in 2004 to provide professional training for students wanting to work for preservation organizations and agencies and assist grassroots advocates in the emerging preservation movement.
It all started in 1997 when James Glass, director of the master’s degree program in historic preservation within the Department of Architecture, and a cadre of graduate students began working with the Muncie Public Library.
The collaborators developed a series of walking tour brochures, which highlighted the historic architecture of downtown Muncie and adjacent historic neighborhoods. In addition, the program and library worked with Burris Laboratory School, Ball State’s Teachers College, and Minnetrista to develop a heritage education curriculum on the history of Muncie and Delaware County for fourth-graders.
These projects were well-received, but there were limits to the number of projects the graduate program could undertake—the initial impetus behind the creation of the center.
Glass found a model for Ball State’s Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University, where the preservation center was founded and fully funded more than 20 years ago by the Tennessee state legislature. Conducting a market study, establishing an advisory council of civic and preservation leaders in the state, drafting a business plan, and raising funds were all preliminary steps in making the center a reality.
A Clear Mission
Those involved agreed on a clear mission: to assist communities in revitalization through historic preservation services and providing educational and professional opportunities for graduate students in the historic preservation program.
The advisory board helped develop a strategy for raising enough funds to start operations and engaging in projects for a three-year demonstration period to establish a track record for larger-scale funding. Focus and purpose nurtured the project, and the Center for Historic Preservation opened on the Minnetrista campus in May 2004. The center’s location—the historic Mary Lincoln Cottage, one of the historic homes built by the Ball family—was provided as an in-kind contribution by Minnetrista. But the building offers more than shelter. As a historic building, it is not only a valuable, visible facility, but it is an enriching and inspiring environment for our work.
We have grown into Indiana’s preeminent resource for communities as they identify and preserve the unique features of their Main Streets, neighborhoods, bridges, and other built structures—features that become focal points for community revitalization.