TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – The Time Travelers Club hosted a tour of the old Terre Haute National Bank building on Wabash Ave. on Wednesday.
The Vigo County History Center alongside Indiana Landmarks guided the tours around. This is the first time in 15 years that the public has been able to get a glimpse inside the old building.
Western Regional Office for Indiana Landmarks Director Tommy Kleckner said he was thrilled to guide tours and welcome the public. He said that it’s important to keep this historical building alive and well.
“If you look at Wabash Avenue and the amount of historic fabric that remains, any remaining buildings are extremely significant,” Kleckner said.
A lot of work has been done in and around the building since Indiana Landmarks acquired the building. The interior of the building is the main focus right now. Over the last few weeks, getting the building cleaned out was the priority.
“We then had to move to the interior and that was an intensive clean out of the entire building,” Kleckner said.
Unfortunately, some of the historical artifacts in the building did have to be removed, but there’s plenty that still remain.
There’s still plenty of work that still must be done on the building in order to potentially continue the tour groups. This was only a one-time event as the building still isn’t open to the public.
Kleckner said that he’s open to the thought hosting tours in the building restoration is complete. The long-term future of the building is still unknown. Kleckner said they’re still crunching the numbers on funding of the project.
“Long-term is still a little bit unknown,” Kleckner explained. “Right now Indiana Landmarks is working quickly to pull the numbers together for what a full rehabilitation will cost.”
This will be the first of few stops for the Time Travelers Club. They host tours like this at various historical buildings the area. Vigo County History Center Curator Suzy Quick said that this is the perfect place to start.
“We put together some locations that we can visit with the time travelers folks and get some interesting history so this was on the top of this list,” Quick said.
