Contact: Tom Wyman, Editorial & Media Coordinator, 317-639-4534 or 800-450-4534, twyman@historiclandmarks.org, or Christy Randolph, Hetrick Communications, 262-8080, christy@hetcom.com


On Thursday, May 19, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana presented its annual Indianapolis Preservation Awards at the Governors Residence, a 1928 landmark and one of the winners in 2004. The awards recognize owners who have restored, reused and maintained landmarks in the metropolitan area.

During National Preservation Month in May, Historic Landmarks honors people who turn dilapidated structures into buildings that turns heads, says Mark Dollase, Vice President of Preservation Services. The winners are stewards who maintain and restore history in public, three-dimensional form. These owners have preserved landmarks that lend richness and meaning to the city in a way that everyone can enjoy.

The Indianapolis Preservation Awards event benefited Historic Landmarks Fund for Landmark Indianapolis Properties (FLIP). FLIP saves vacant and endangered buildings by buying and reselling them with protective covenants to owners who restore them.

Joe Everhart and Ken Ramsay received the Angies List Old House Rehab Award for their restoration of The Saengerchor at 1238 North Park Avenue in the Old Northside historic district. Angie's List sponsors the Old House Rehab Award because it exemplifies our goal of assisting owners in the maintenance and improvement of their homes and supports neighborhood revitalization," says Angie Hicks, the Angie of Angies List. Although it served as a single-family home from its construction in 1873 until 1942, the Italianate house was known for decades as the home of the Saengerchor, a German social club. When Everhart and Ramsay acquired the massive home, it was dilapidated, with its original architecture altered and painted a solid, dull gray. The pair restored the house to its nineteenth-century appearance except for the basement where they retained the German-styled bar in honor of the landmarks social club era.

Cathedral High School won the Sensitive Rehabilitation Award for the renovation of Loretto Hall, 5225 East 56th Street. Built in 1927 by the Sisters of Providence for Ladywood School, Loretto Hall became part of the Cathedral campus in 1976. Cathedral High School restored the building to its original appearance and expanded it with an architecturally compatible addition. Loretto Hall now serves the schools international baccalaureate program, journalism department, and other uses.

Lockerbie Commons, LLC won the Adaptive Use Award for the renovation of the citys former Fire Headquarters at 301 East New York Street and the former Municipal Garage next door. Lockerbie Commons-a partnership of Mansur Real Estate Services, Haskin Lauter LaRue & Gibbons, and Sherwin-Williams-retooled the 1913 Neoclassical fire department building and the Jacobethan-style 1927 garage as office and retail space. The firm also sought and won the project listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Carmelites of Indianapolis received the Continued Use Award for the sisters outstanding care of the 1932 Carmelite Monastery, 2500 Cold Spring Road. The cloistered order of Catholic nuns came to Indianapolis in 1922 and built the medieval style monastery ten years later. The monasterys 13 sisters continue their orders historic contemplative tradition of prayer, silence and solitude while sharing their presence in the world through an award-winning interactive website, www.praythenews.com.

John and Suzanne Hickey received a Historic Preservation Award for their decade-long project to restore Cedar Point Farm, 8185 East State Road 252 near Morgantown. Established in 1853, the 210-acre farm displays a fine collection of historic agricultural buildings, including a Greek Revival farmhouse, a three-bay English barn, and other outbuildings. After farming the land since 1944, the Hickeys bought the farm and its dilapidated structures when the previous owner died in 1994. The Hickeys have researched the history of the farmstead, nominated it to the National Register of Historic Places, and restored the structure, each of which remains in active use on the farm.