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-- a project to save and restore the old Evansville Municipal Market Building to its original use.
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provided by OPENAIR-MARKET NET
The Evansville Municipal Market Preservation Corporation (an Indiana nonprofit corporation) is devoted to a very special task. That task is to resurrect a unique architectural structure and hopefully the quality of life it once supported. It seems that it has become far too easy to just wipe out the past. In our rush toward the future, we have left behind and forgotten the basics which have helped bring us to the present!
We, in the Evansville Municipal Market Preservation Corporation believe that people now realize that our disposable society has gone far enough, perhaps too far. As we emerge into the 21st century can we perhaps muster some of the wisdom our forefathers used as they emerged into the 20th century.
Our purpose is to save, restore, repopulate and reuse the building known as the Evansville Municipal Market. This building, dedicated in 1918 was built on the site of previous farmers' market activities dating from the early 1800's. This building has served the city of Evansville Indiana as a market, a firehouse (for which it lost part of its' structure to facilitate overhead doors), and a bus barn. Since the buildings closing as a municipal market in 1954, it has fallen into disrepair and been abandon.
The Municipal Market Preservation Corporation has developed a plan of action in which the building not only will be saved and renovated, but filled with businesses that will be able to support the building and the out-side farmers market activities indefinitely. See an artist's rendering of a part of our design.
We have just been in a bidding battle with a micro-brewery that is bound and determined to use the building to brew beer, a use that the National Registry building should not be put to if for nothing more than out of respect for what it once was. We have lost that process.
OUR ONLY HOPE IS AN APPEAL TO THE CITY COUNCIL. This appeal will happen soon! PLEASE HELP US. We need everyone to contact the people below.
Let them know that there are people out there who care about free market enterprise. Tell them that enough of our landmark architecture has been destroyed. Speak to them for a building and a way of life that can not speak for itself.
We need you to assist us in the notification process. We will raise the funds necessary to rehabilitate the grand old girl. We already have merchants willing to open small shops in the main building. We have people who will rent our by-the-day tables for fruits, vegetables, and all kinds of crafts. We have a community that is ready to bloom around this one-of-a-kind historic jewel.
We need you to help. Send E-Mail, if you have the time; FAX the Mayor or the City Council. Call them and tell them not to let another gift of the past be trodden down to make way for the new. Tell them that the treasures of the past can be used as a guiding light to find the best path into the future if we only use them.
Thank you for reading this story. We have already fought long for this building and what it stands for. The fight is not over yet. Please help us in what may very well be the LAST BATTLE for this once proud Municipal Market!
Thank You, Gene A. Miller
President, Evansville Municipal Market Preservation Corporation, <GAMiller@concentric.net>.
Comments from the Community
IT WILL NOT HELP THE CITY TO DESTROY ANOTHER HISTORICAL SITE.
PLEASE HELP TO SAVE THIS OLD AND LOVELY BUILDING FOR OUR HISTORY!
--Veterans of Foreign Wars & Ladies Auxiliary Post No.
1114
We have seen time and again how the successful reuse of one historic
structure has turned around a block, a neighborhood, or even an
entire city -- Hays Birkhead Hendricks, Historic Landmarks
Foundation of Indiana
You have the chance to put the natural sparkle back into these
neglected historical structures. Please give all your support
to this very worthwhile project -- Lawrence Daly, President,
Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve
The listing of a property in the National Register often changes
the way communities perceive their historic resources and gives
credibility to efforts of private citizens and public officials
to preserve these resources as living parts of our communities.
(Placed in National Register of Historic Places on December 22,
1983) -- Carol D. Schull, Keeper of the National Register of
Historic Places, United States Department of the Interior
Speaking for the 200 member families and businesses in adjacent Warrick County, we urge every possible action to save this unique farmers market. --Warrick County Citizens Group
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