PENDLETON — Downtown is about to get a bit more historic as work begins on a facade restoration project estimated at more than half a million dollars.
The Pendleton Town Hall meeting room building was recently approved to receive $50,000 in state funding from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology. The town will match around $70,000 to bring the building back to resemble its original facade, including reopening second-story windows and adding large shop-style windows to the front.
“It really shows the community has a focus on preservation,” said Rachel Christenson, the town’s assistant planning director.
The town hall isn’t the only building getting a face-lift. Work began this week on the first of six downtown buildings to be restored to their approximate appearance when the town was in its infancy.
A $500,000 grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs will allow the town to restore Gallery 119, Burmeister’s Old Town Antiques, The Pendleton Shop, The Chambers Building and the Knights of Pythias Building. Each building owner is paying 25 percent of the renovation costs for their location.
The work has also been expanded to include directional signs for downtown attractions and speakers to play music or announcements during community events downtown.
The work is set to finish by the end of October.
“I have no doubt that all five buildings, even the smaller ones, will have an impact on downtown,” said Pendleton Town Manager Tim McClintick.
Jerry Burmeister, owner of Burmeister Old Towne Antiques, said he’s excited to see the brick facade beneath his building’s current stucco exterior. As a history buff, taking the building back to its origins is exactly what Burmeister would like to see.
“I’m excited, I think it will be neat when it’s done,” he said. “I want to keep it (as) historically correct as possible. It’s up to us to protect the historic district, and I think it shows they want to protect downtown.”
Downtown isn’t the only place in Pendleton receivinga makeover. Community leaders are working with a cemetery restoration company to provide maintenance to Grovelawn Cemetery, which dates back to the town’s founding in 1820.
Many of the cemetery’s older stones are falling or sinking into the ground, and some are desperately in need of preservation, said Kayla Hassett, planning and zoning administrator for Pendleton.
The town is working with restoration company Graveyard Groomer to plan a week of cemetery cleanup, culminating in an event open to the public to learn how to properly maintain the cemetery.
The June 29 event will include a workshop led by John “Walt” Walters of Graveyard Groomer and speaker Jeannie Regan-Dinius of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
During the afternoon, attendees will be released to do hands-on restoration. The event is $10, which includes a sack lunch.
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