BRI History 2001 to 2005
2001
• BRI members contribute their expertise in research and writing to Bloomington Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Click here for information about the book copy of the survey (http://www.bloomingtonrestorations.org/bri_store.html) Read more about the survey on the City of Bloomington’s website, too.
• Monroe County government appoints a county historic review board at BRI’s urging.
• BRI helps the McDoel Gardens Neighborhood obtain designation as the city’s first Conservation District, protecting more than 250 old houses from possible demolition.
• BRI saves a bungalow at 518 S. Rogers St. that otherwise would have been demolished. Instead, the BRI Affordable Housing Program moves it to 415 W. Allen and restores it.
• BRI’s Afforable Housing Program restores a house at 1005 W. Seventh on the Near West Side and the Hoadley House on Hotel Street in Stinesville.
• BRI purchases a Craftsman bungalow at 103 E. 15th St. as its offices. The group reopens the enclosed porch.
• BRI buys an abandoned double-pen type house on Elm Street in Stinesville to restore as affordable housing. The house comes with three extra lots.
• BRI saves the rundown old Christian Church on Main Street in Stinesville and sells it to a new owner who agrees to restore it. The former owner had planned to demolish it.
• BRI loans restoration funds for a Spanish Revival house at 610 W. Third St. in Prospect Hill.
• BRI loans restoration funds for the Bauer House in the Maple Grove Road Historic District.
2002
• BRI saves a Craftsman bungalow in Clear Creek that was to be demolished for a school bus turnaround. Instead, BRI’s Affordable Housing Program moves it to 700 W. Wylie, where it fits into the neighborhood pattern of front gabled bungalows.
• The City of Bloomington’s HAND Department grants BRI $50,000 to restore building facades for income eligible homeowners in the McDoel Gardens and Near West Side neighborhoods.
• BRI authors a local history book, Bloomington and Indiana University.
• BRI joins the call for a demolition delay ordinance after three landmark historic houses are demolished to make way for new apartment buildings.
• BRI buys three houses in the Near West Side Neighborhood to restore as affordable housing. The houses are a shotgun house at 904 W. Seventh, a gabled-ell at 902 W. Seventh, and a Queen Anne cottage at 934 W. Sixth St.
2003
• BRI begins restoration of the facades of nine Bloomington houses. Three homes are in the Near West Side Historic District (1131 W. Sixth St., 715 W. Eighth St. and 1201 W. Sixth St.) and six are in the McDoel Gardens Conservation District (712 W. Wylie St., 604 W. Dodds St., 513 W. Wylie St., 1112 S. Madison St., 603 W. Wylie St. and 1129 S. Madison St.).
• BRI loans funds for the restoration of the Gothic Revival Worley House at 888 Fourth St. in Harrodsburg.
• BRI saves a two-story Queen Anne style house on North College Avenue that was to be demolished. BRI finds a new owner willing to move the house, which is relocated to 718 W. Kirkwood Avenue.
• BRI buys two structures from the 1890s to restore as affordable housing. One is a double-pen type house at 820 W. Oak St. in Ellettsville and the other is the old doctor’s office at 8225 N. Market in Stinesville.
2004
• BRI buys a poorly maintained gabled-ell house at 1125 W. Seventh St. in the Near West Side Historic District to restore as affordable housing.
• BRI buys a Queen Anne house at 2102 W. Vernal Pike that was headed for demolition. Instead, BRI sells it to a new owner who agrees to restore it.
• BRI buys a circa 1945 house at 425 E. Driscoll that otherwise would have been razed. BRI sells it to a new owner who moves it to the corner of Miller Drive and Henderson Street.
• BRI receives the Hinkle-Garton Farmstead, a 14 acre property with two houses, barns and outbuildings. The two story Queen Anne farmhouse (2920 E. Tenth St.) becomes BRI’s headquarters and a museum.
• BRI buys a gabled-ell house at 1409 S. Rogers St. and begins seeking a buyer who will agree to restore it.
• BRI helps arrange for a Ball State University group to prepare a guide booklet for the restoration of downtown building exteriors, in conjunction with a façade grant program offered by the Bloomington urban enterprise zone.
2005
• BRI supports the creation of a demolition delay law in Bloomington. The ordinance is passed by the city council and gives the city’s historic preservation commission the right to review demolition proposals and delay the issuing of demolition permits. Before the law was enacted, owners could demolish historic buildings before the commission could arrange a meeting to decide whether to preserve them.
• BRI takes a circa 1945 house at Dunn Street and moves it to a nearby new location at 506 E. Driscoll Drive, where BRI rehabs it to provide affordable housing. The house was to be torn down.
• BRI saves a 1940s house that was to be demolished on South Henderson St. by acquiring it and selling it to a new owner who moves it to 703 E. Moody Drive.
• BRI receives the Building Community Award from the Bloomington Council of Neighborhood Associations for its extensive work in local neighborhoods.
