It needs a deposit of TLC: Long gone are the days of teller windows, loan departments and paper ledgers for the former First Financial Bank building at 643 Wabash Avenue. Here, the interior of the building can be seen on Friday, June 3, 2022. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
Cleanup crew: ServPro employees enter the building during cleanup at 643 Wabash Ave. on Friday, June 3, 2022. The building, which was once a First Financial Bank building, now belongs to Indiana Landmarks which is overseeing efforts to stabilize the structure. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
Still on the wall: Artwork from a different era still remains on the walls in the building at 643 Wabash Avenue, which is shown here on Friday, June 3, 2022. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
Cleaning every nook and cranny: ServPro employee Kristin Sauer is silhouetted through an interior window during cleanup of the building at 643 Wabash Avenue on Friday, June 3, 2022. The building, which was once a First Financial Bank building, now belongs to Indiana Landmarks which is overseeing efforts to stabilize the structure.
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Stabilization work nears completion and a major interior cleanup is underway at a former downtown Terre Haute bank building, although its future use is yet to be determined.
The building, located at 643 Wabash Ave., now belongs to Indiana Landmarks, which is overseeing efforts to stabilize the structure.
Initially slated to become the future home of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center that move is now up in the air.
“CANDLES is not currently planning to relocate to the bank building,” said Troy Fears, the museum’s executive director. “In the future, if something would arise, it would still be an option.”
In 2018, First Financial Bank donated the building to Indiana Landmarks, and it contributed $110,000 to help the organization stabilize the building and replace the roof.
Tommy Kleckner, director of Indiana Landmarks western regional office, says that CANDLES “is still keeping the building in consideration, but with the change in leadership at CANDLES, they are re-evaluating priorities for the organization.”
A major cleanout of the building was one of the things CANDLES needed to better assess the structure, and, “It was one of the last phases of work that we intended to undertake,” Kleckner said.
The first priority was exterior stabilization, and that has included a new roof; masonry repair and repointing; stone repair on the front facade and cleaning of the facade; a new panel system installed on the west facade; and restoration of the large front window system. “We need to address windows on the rear facade and we’re working to finish that up this month,” Kleckner said.
Keymark is the general contractor for the project.
Now, a major interior cleanup is underway, and ServPro is the subcontractor doing the work. “That’s been needed for some time,” Kleckner said. “We’re playing a little catch up on deferred maintenance.”
The building was full of debris and materials damaged by moisture over many years, including plaster, ceiling tile, contents, carpeting and paneling. The building has been vacant since 2008, and “until we got the new roof on in 2018, there was water coming straight through the roof,” Kleckner said. On Friday, Chad Overton, who owns ServPro of Vigo County, described it as a “pretty intense project,” with 20 employees working 10 to 12 hours per day.
“I can’t imagine how many dumpsters we’ve been through,” he said. As of Friday, crews had been working for two weeks, and Overton anticipated a few more weeks of work.
Very little could be salvaged, except for a few smaller antiques and niche items, including a few vending machines, he said.
ServPro also has been removing additions or changes made to the original structure, including internal walls and partitions.
“It’s a structure that with a little bit of forethought and planning, can be saved,” Overton said.
According to Kleckner, the building “is in what we consider to be more of a mothball state, where we stabilize it, get it cleaned out and secure the exterior. And that provides time for that ultimate long-term solution to be found.”
Indiana Landmarks hopes to complete the exterior stabilization and interior cleanout by early July.
The historic preservation organization “would love to see CANDLES take the building on as the new downtown facility, but we’re not sure that will be the end use,” Kleckner said.
For now, the priority is to “at least get the building into the condition where it can be fully assessed by whomever,” Kleckner said.
His hope is that “most people would recognize this as an important landmark in downtown Terre Haute ... and certainly one that deserves to be saved.”
Indiana Landmarks’ goal “is to see this building rehabilitated, reused and preserved long term,” Kleckner said. Kleckner has received inquiries from a few parties interested if the building becomes available; those parties have not seen the interior. “It still will require substantial investment,” he said.
Determining the future will involve working with CANDLES and First Financial Bank.
Indiana Landmarks owns the building “but has a commitment to First Financial to complete this work, and ultimately what it becomes is an ongoing conversation with First Financial,” Kleckner said.
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