Published: October 19, 2009 11:47 pm      

Plans get under way for Russiaville Interurban Station

RUSSIAVILLE – A red-brick building sits back from Ind. 26, camouflaged by the warm-toned leaves on the trees surrounding it.

Around the one-story building, which is void of windows, lights and human life, lie broken bits of concrete. The limestone and mortar ruins serve as a reminder to Russiaville residents of what the building once was and many hope it will be.

It has been almost eight decades since the last interurban passenger train passed through the town of about 1,200.

Between 1912 and 1932, the rail line connected Russiaville with Kokomo, Frankfort and Marion.

Since the passenger lines halted, the station has been attributed as home to freighters, a lumberyard and apartments.

It currently sits gutted and abandoned on the town’s east side, but the Russiaville Historical Society plans to spend the next several years restoring it to its original state.

The widow of the building’s previous owner donated it to the town. It traded hands over to the historical society last year.

Since then, plans have been under way to transform the building into a museum dedicated to the history of western Howard County, Russiaville and the station itself, historical society president Marsha Berry said.

The historical society contracted last month with Indianapolis-based architecture firm Brenner Design Inc.

Brent Mather, an associate director for the firm who specializes in historic restoration, met with the historical society and other Russiaville residents late last week to discuss what will need to be done to transform the building into a museum and to convince the National Register of Historic Places to declare the station one of its own.

“It’s already a historic landmark, as far as our community is concerned,” Joe Scott, a historical society board member, said during the meeting. “... A lot of people are familiar with it. The structure is solid, so we’ve got a place to start.”

Plans for the building will consist of a complete restoration of the building’s exterior to what it was like in 1932. Inside, the building will be a mix of the old train station’s layout with historic artifacts and modern amenities, such as restrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Mather said.

The building has a design that is “unique to America,” he said, because it went up before World War I and World War II.

When soldiers went to Europe to fight in the wars, many of the ones who went on to be architects brought back designs that were nostalgic of buildings overseas, Mather said. The interurban station was built before the war, which gives it a native appearance, he said.

“It’s an interesting study in what was going on in 1910,” he said.

Structurally, the biggest projects for the building will be work on the roof and replacing the windows, he said.

The roof and window work will be part of the first of three phases for the project.

The first phase will stabilize the building, the second will transform the interior into a museum and home for the historical society, and the third will landscape the area around the building.

Once the first two phases end, the building can open as a museum, Mather said.

But before the first phase can begin, Russiaville needs to find the funding.

Mather and Berry estimated the project would cost between $200,000 and $500,000.

Brenner Design and the historical society have been working with Kieser Consulting LLC in Indianapolis to track down grant money for the project.

But eligibility for most of the grants requires matches from the community. Most of the matches require between 20 and 50 percent, Berry said last week.

“A $12,500 investment for a $500,000 project is a small investment,” Mather said during last week’s historical society meeting. “... If you’re going to go and request money, it needs community support.”

In order to cover the required matches for the grants, Mather suggested to his audience they consider seeking smaller grants for a few thousand dollars each. The small grants could be used to pay for the matches for the bigger ones, he said.

Once the work is complete, the historical society plans to move its artifacts out of the organizations 10-foot by 10-foot room in Russiaville Town Hall.

Displays will include scale models of the interurban rail line, highlights of Russiaville’s and Howard County’s origins, clippings from the town’s former newspaper and exhibits detailing the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak that leveled almost the entire town. The interurban station was one of the few buildings that survived the storm.

Berry and Mather said they plan to schedule another meeting to discuss the interurban project and update the town on its status before the next regularly scheduled historical society meeting in December.

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.