Historic Preservation in Indiana: Essays from the Field

7. Preservation as Good Business

93 Gayle Karch Cook Preservation as Good Business Bill and I had always liked Indiana history and architecture,andwespenthoursexploringsouthernIndianainthe1960s when we could spare the gasoline and the time. That was our recreation, eking out a few hours from our small Bloomington business, which we had started together at home and were gradually growing. In 1976, the bicentennial year, historic preservation was emerging intothelimelightnationallyandlocally.BloomingtonRestorations,Inc., newly organized as a non-profit, was bringing attention to worthy old buildings in Monroe County. “Preservation is Good Business” was a National Trust theme, and adaptive reuse was being widely promoted. Astately1850downtownBloomingtonhome,theJamesCochranhouse, wasvacantandprobablyheadedfordemolition,whileourthirteen-yearold medical business was outgrowing its quarters each year. Bill and I decided that we should see if preservation really is good business and renovate the Cochran house as an additional office building–our own bicentennial project. We kept careful records during the restoration process, including property purchase price, the demolition costs of removing nine surrounding tenement additions, and the cost of the subsequent restoration –construction work, landscaping, carpeting, window treatment, and security. When the finished product was evaluated on a square-foot basis, there was no question: we had a bargain. The cost of renovating the Cochran House was just $52.28 per square foot, considerably lower than the cost of erecting a comparable new office building at the time. seven 94 Gayle Karch Cook 7.1. Before restoration, the Cochran House and its various tacked-on additions were used as a rooming house. The newer buildings at the front are believed to have housed a used furniture store. A contemporary photograph of the Cochran House shows the completed restoration and landscaping. Photo courtesy of Gayle Karch Cook. Preservation as Good Business 95 We kept clippings of all concurrent print publicity. There was generous , unsolicited publicity, because the Cochran House was Bloomington ’s first major restoration, it had high visibility on a downtown street, and the building’s emerging stateliness (on the unfashionable west side of town, no less) was a surprise to see. From a business standpoint, the goodwill generated and the free publicity–over seventy print articles– added greatly to the return from dollars invested. We were hooked. Wedidmakesomebeginners’mistakes,suchasbeingalittletoovigorous in removing old mortar joints. Our contractors, Pritchett Brothers , and our property managers, CFC Inc., were learning along with us. TogetherwehavedonealmosteveryCookrestorationproject,including the massive French Lick Springs/West Baden Springs resort, completed in 2007. We had some techniques to learn at the start: how best to preserveoriginalfabric ,howtoverifyoriginaldesign,howtoreplicatewhen necessary. From the beginning, Bill and I also learned that we needed to be present, on site, to make the quick decisions that allow fast work and cost savings. “Time is money” is more than a saying: it is a decree. Governmentalandpreservationrepresentativesandcommitteesneedto keep that in mind when issuing permits and restrictions. From our first projectonward,thearchitects,engineers,andbuildershaveencountered everyimaginablekindofconstructionchallengeandconqueredthemall quickly, while often the only delays have been bureaucratic. In 1977 Indiana’s governor, Dr. Otis Bowen, dedicated the Cochran House offices during a National Preservation Month open house. Local guests were astonished at the transformation from what had been an abandoned eyesore inhabited by generations of pigeons. The original walnut woodwork was gleaming, as if just installed by lumberman James Cochran. Two beehive ovens were newly visible next to cooking fireplaces in the basement, and the mammoth double doors were once again open to the spacious dining room. Most visitors had not had any idea that such elegance had been hiding behind the tenement additions. OurcrewundertookmanysubsequentrenovationprojectsinBloomington : the eight-story Graham Hotel; Illinois Central Freight Depot; Washington Terrace Apartments; Fountain Square (a block of storefronts on the city square); an old jail; the Grant Street Inn; the Showers 96 Gayle Karch Cook Brothers factory; a Seventh Street warehouse; the RCA factory; other city square buildings and several West Side houses. Many of the structures are in historic districts, some are on the National Register of HistoricPlaces ,andsomearejustoldbuildingsbeingreused.Tohelpensure a lively city center and to support goods and services offered there, we addednewapartmentconstruction,too.Thisdiversitycontributestothe overall vibrancy of the downtown. Therewereafewobjectionstoourdowntowninvolvement.Wewere accused of gentrification by eliminating the cheap–and substandard– housing that had existed around the square on upper floors. Naturally, rental rates increased in the renovated buildings, as did safety, code conformance , and amenities. In fact, during renovation the contractors had found that rear parts of many old storefronts had been in danger of collapsing , and steel braces were necessary to prevent cave-in...