Changes at 7th and Wabash

BF@XR part 2

2009-09-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Hilton Garden Inn was booked for Saturday Night so we transferred to the Candlewood Suites on the south side of Wabash Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets. The refurbished Tribune building if you remember. I mention this as explanation from missing the National Anthem at noon and the first 20 minutes of Daphne Willis & Co. Daphne is a charming young lady who accepted my apology later.

if the people around us were slow to get started, Daphne was not - the part of her set that I saw was fast paced and much of the rhythm came from her guitar play. She got a lot of sound out of her acoustic guitar.

Packing and moving was painless but took some time away from the blues so, unlike ex-Mayor Burke who was front and center throughout, we missed a little. Here is last night's hotel as seen from the window of today's and a picture of His Honor avec le chapeau d'orange.

Hardline Drive arrived.

and played not blues but bluegrass to the surprise of all but those who had read the program. Everyone seemed to enjoy it - even blues fans might not be completely ready for hard hitting blues first thing after breakfast even, as it might be for us, if breakfast is in the early afternoon. The professionalism and talent of Hardline Drive won out.

Miche Fambro was next. BF@XR caught Miche in transition from single act to group. They have been together 8 days and he's still doing some of his one man band guitar as percussion, keyboard and strings act while they stand around. I was embarrassed when he dismissed the number I liked most as a 3-chord tune. Everyone around me in the front of the crowd seemed to love Miche so I figured he must have been good then I noticed that he was playing electric guitar left handed and had not restrung the guitar and was playing very intricate fast paced runs (not like surfer music icon Dick Dale who was also upside down and backwards on the guitar but got all his speed from quick double picking) but fast licks that would be hard to replicate on a keyboard. This Miche Fambro needs to be seen to be believed. His style is complex to say the least.

Then Duke Tumatoe and the Power Trio took over. Stopped traffic at 7th and Wabash at 5pm. The crowd laughed at Duke's jokes, swayed to the blues sound and the crisp professionalism of The Power Trio and Duke Tumatoe's blues voice and then gaped when he shifted to a powerful rock falsetto.

Not too dirty dancing.

Then a little past 6 another young girl sang with The Right Now. She looked a little like the actress who played Wonder Woman on TV. She wowed us all. Her name is Stefanie Berecz, a name to watch for.

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I had not recovered from Ms Berecz when this guy named Guy Forsyth came out. I have not heard anyone compare Guy to Tom Waits but I don't know why not. Seems apt to me.
Many were standing when he did Summertime which he turned into a blues saw playing anthem. Here's Guy Forsyth -

The Kelly Richey band followed. The base player and drums were rock solid. That's the base player in the foreground of the picture shaking his head of hair around to such extreme that my slow camera shows him with two faces. That's Kelly Richey behind him. Her virtuosity on guitar had the crowd standing and cheering for song after song.

That's when I crashed. alas
I missed the Clayton Miller Blues Band and Ellusion.

Blues Fest at the Crossroads

2009-09-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

In Southern California they say the best way to see Disneyland is to check in at one of the hotels in walking distance. The Blues Fest at the Crossroads is the same. Hilton Garden Inn or Candlewood Suites will put you at the center of the action if you like loud music. No careful drive home after "two" beers, no taking a tired family member home when the best band has not yet played, no nothing but music and music lovers all night long.

Jill Shutt (pictured above) opened the BF at the XR and her set was highlighted (for me) by Georgia on My Mind which I always thought was about one of Ray Charle's girlfriends but she made it her own song.

but before that, there was a moment of 911 silence and the THFD color guard adding red and white to the blues
lest we forget

but before that ... I need to point out that the 7th and Wabash (US 41 and 40) is only an historic location with a marker that says what it was before the interstate highway systems were built. From the west side of South 7th Street it looked like this (shaky camera holder and bad light and all)

Mike Milligan was next up and the first of many blues/rock groups. Knowing only what I like and don't gives me no right to judge or rank these many hard working groups and I won't try. I'm probably no better judge of the crowd around me but I made certain observation. After Jill Shutt entertained the crowd, they settled in to hear blues played as night fell and Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel blasted it at the crossroads. ...

In October of 2001 late on the last night of a week-long visit to Terre Haute I drove down Wabash Avenue and noticed that Boone Dunbar was playing at The Verve. I slowed and put the driver side window down and let the guitar and drums sound in. I thought I needed rest for the flight back to California more than to see Boone again.
The next time I saw him was at his funeral. There's a lesson there somewhere.

Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors, when they went Ray Charles call and answer with the BF@XR crowd, made me think of Boone at The Spot and all the other joints in the midwest that rocked all night with blues based sound.

Looking west from 7th Street onto Wabash Avenue at midnight.

The nightcap group, W. T. Fester, cranked up the volume to 11 so folks could hear their music all the way home with the windows rolled up. When I approached the stage to take a picture, I could feel the sound blast head to toe.

W.T. Feaster rocked all of the town and this new generation of blues fans.

It would be a short night of sleep for this old one if I was to be ready for more at noon Saturday.

A Good One

2007-09-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

Terre Haute

Three recent conversations, ended with the same farewell. The 92-year-old retired physician, the door to door meat salesman and an Amish youngster agreed separately that I should "Have a good one."

As if taking this ubiquitous well wishing literally, I went downtown to the Oktoberfest for lunch. The Oberlandler Club moved the event to a new location on Cherry Street opposite Hulman Center this year but the menu was unchanged. A heaping plate of hot kraut with German Potato Salad, Weiner Schnitzel and Rye bread and an apple strudel dessert sent me home to sit and ponder just what the doctor, the peddler and the farmer meant.

But before that, I noticed the new Multi-modal Transportation Facility rising, as pictured above, on the north side of Cherry Street between 7th and 8th. Even taking into account that the nature of parking garages is to have sloping floors and that there is a 6 foot drop between 7th and 8th streets at Cherry - the Multi-modal seems askew. I am glad to take this picture with my camera phone at a time during the construction before the darkened windows will hide the stairwells behind the arches. There's something eerily familiar about the new Multi-modal Transportation Facility. ... I wonder if the architect had M.C. Escher's Ascending/Descending Stairs in mind.

I vowed to take a sack of marbles into the new building when it is complete and to drop a few to see which ways they roll.

7th and Cherry

2007-08-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

At 7th and Cherry Streets, just one block north of the THH Hilton, the Multi-Modal Transportation Facility rises. I am told that long distance and local buses will meet there at a new parking garage. It will overlay the site of a small office where I applied for my first driving license on the north side of Cherry Street west of 8th Street 52 years ago. I remember parallel parking perfectly for the test on Cherry and that it was not yet a one way street. (Other pictures from that day)

between storms on the last Saturday in August

2007-08-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

this is the way the new construction downtown looked:

From the old South Seventh Street Bus Stop, the new Terre Haute House Hilton exterior looks almost done - just hang a sign out above the corner, sweep the sidewalk and it's good to go. I haven't heard anything new about when the interior will be ready - Halloween is a good guess. (Other pictures)

status report mid-May 2007

2007-05-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

The new Hilton Gardens Terre Haute House has reached its full height and is visible over the rooftops of the south side of Wabash Avenue and looking east. The yellow insulation board will be covered with brick.

new THH grows downtown

2007-04-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

from the old South 7th Street bus stop perspective.

for comparison

3rd floor

2007-02-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

The Wabash Avenue side of the New Hilton Garden Terre Haute House begins to take shape. The temperature is in single digits causing me to view progress through the window of the top floor of the city parking building in the 600 block on Wabash Avenue. The red brick of the Hulman & Company is the background. It looks like the Hilton is 3 stories high now. It will rise to 6.

shadows and light

2007-01-26T06:58:00.000-08:00

From the WTHI-TV tower, the Hilton Gardens Terre Haute House constructions site -

Wabash Avenue from 8th (at bottom) to 7th. Yes, the tall buildings that remain on the south side cast their shadows on Wabash Avenue and the edge of the construction site but the Hilton Gardens THH is taking form and casting its own shadow onto north 7th Street. It begins to look real.

looking at the construction from the tower camera of WTHI

2007-01-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

skyline

2007-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

If that is the term to use for a small city like Terre Haute, I'll call it a skyline and note that it is about to change. The Hilton Garden Terre Haute House at 7th and Wabash rises and will soon threaten the flight path of our beloved crows coming home from the outlying corn fields to roost at the top of the bank building.

borrowing my THH blog for the W57 wkly msg

2006-10-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

by jdmcfall100 Click on the picture for a better view.

From an examining room at the AP&S clinic at 4th and Poplar, I noticed a view of St. Joseph's twin bell towers and the Sycamore Building.

But I promised you all a picture of boys in shoulder pads and girls strapless.

You've seen this before but it is one of my favorites so I'll show it again. In the background, there's that Sycamore Building again.

The last picture for this week:

A young girl; strapless and seated at the foot of the famous picture of Axtell in the lobby of the gone forever Terre Haute House.

Sigh

I have seen a building with a cupola ...

2006-09-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

I mean I've seen a building without a cupola but have never seen a cupola without a building (apologies to Lewis Carrol). Click on the picture for a larger view of the only part of the main building at Wiley that remains.
This starts the 50th anniversary of the senior year in high school for me and my classmates. When we returned to Wiley after the summer, most of us thought we seniors were big stuff. Now being a senior gives me discounted coffee at McDonalds (I'm not complaining).

This time last year I visited my life long friend on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and when I got home I wrote about it here. We played in the water by day and watched TV coverage of Katrina at night. This year tropical storm Ernesto visited instead and left behind more water than the roads and the dunes could handle.

This is from the September 13th Virginia-Pilot and shows the street in front of Dick and Jodi's house. You could almost kayak to the beach.

link to Wiley 56 reunion pictures

2006-07-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I put those pictures on my webshots album where you can see them in slideshow format

and at my BackHomeAgainInIndiana blogspot for a slightly higher resolution picture.
(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Send corrections or comments to johnmcfall@gmail.com

Downtown Terre Haute Today

2006-06-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

WTHI-TV tower camera points at where the Terre Haute House, the Ft. Harrison Savings and Loan and the Bement-Rae Building stood for many years. This is where we expect the Hilton Garden Terre Haute House to rise up. Last I heard they break ground in July.

Plan your work then work your plan

2006-06-03T02:55:00.000-07:00

Here's what it looked like in December 05 when I (right) met Mike McCormick at 8th Street and Wabash Avenue downtown Terre Haute.

Shortly after this, it was announced that a contractor would be selected and they would start work on a new hotel at 700 Wabash in April 2006. April came and went and
then May and now the front page of the Terre Haute Tribune Star says July. (This is making it tough on the Wiley High School 1957 reunion committee site selection subcommittee... summer 2007 will be here before you know it and each class gets only one 50th reunion).

I wanted to show you the frontpage as it appeared on the Tribune Star website in high resolution pdf format but they only save one frontpage in that format so a link to it will get you the front page from the day before you click on it no matter when that might be. That's too bad because it is a neat front page with pictures of an empty, fenced construction site surrounded by familiar landmarks by staff photgrapher Bob Poynter. His and other TS phtographers photos might be for sale sooner or later so it wouldn't be right for me to give them to you here.

You get to see a thumbnail of the Poynter photos of the construction site here or here if those links hold up. I'll copy the text here just in case it doesn't because there are a couple of items of interest in it.

Construction on the Hilton Garden Inn slated to start in July
By Howard Greninger
CNHI News Service

— Construction on the Hilton Garden Inn-Terre Haute House is slated to start in early to mid-July, said Paul Thrift of Thompson Thrift Construction Inc.
“It is a done deal. We closed on the property [Thursday morning] and the hotel is going to be a reality,” Thrift said.
Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp. is the owner of the hotel, Thrift said, declining to say if Thompson Thrift is involved in a partnership for the hotel. The new hotel is to be built at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue on the site of the former Terre Haute House, which was demolished last year.
Thompson Thrift Construction Inc. is the general contractor on the nearly $12 million, 113-room, six-story hotel project.
“Our roles have been developer and general contractor. As developer, we have been trying to coordinate all the development to get it to closing,” Thrift said.
Terre Haute developer Greg Gibson, who obtained the former Terre Haute House from the Hulman family, said the sale of the property was delayed because “we were waiting on the architects to finish, so that is why the closing is happening so late.”
“I think this will be good for the community and the downtown,” Gibson said, adding it will help get revitalization of the city’s downtown moving.
The construction site “is prepared … the soil compaction reports are in and site is ready for construction. We are waiting on drawings from the architect, which are due next week,” Thrift said. “Once those arrive, the plans will be distributed and all the subcontractors will be contracted through June and hopefully on-site construction can start early to mid-July.”
The project will take 11 to 12 months to complete. The building will have a brick and stone exterior. The interior will be constructed with structural concrete, Thrift said. The hotel will have 109 rooms and four suites. That room number has scaled back from an original plan for 127 rooms.
Timothy J. Dora, co-owner of the corporation, is on vacation, according to a telephone message at his office in Fishers, and could not be reached for comment Thursday. A message seeking comment was left on the answering machine of a company representative and with co-owner Bob Dora.
Thrift said the hotel interior may use some memorabilia of the former Terre Haute House, but the cost to salvage much of the former hotel’s limestone for use on the new hotel was cost prohibitive.

I'll have to review the old articles to see if an architect was named. His, whoever he is, is a big responsibility. I'm glad to read that the soil compaction report is in because some folks expressed concern that the basement was merely covered with fill dirt and not compacted at all. I figured that was to keep someone from getting hurt in the basement hole and that it's the soil below the basement that matters. This could be fun to watch, this building of the Hilton Garden Terre Haute House. Too bad they won't use any of the distinctive limestone that was saved during the "Terre Haute House Tear Down" last winter?
The 127 rooms has shrunk to 109 but there will be 4 suites... no one says the four suites will be as big as the 18 rooms they replace but if so then there will be a places for the "haves" and the "have mores" to rest their weary heads.

In time for the class of 57's 50th reunion? We'll see.

WHS

2006-06-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

I found this 19th century picture of Terre Haute High School in the online section of the Vigo County Public Library. It looks familiar.

No News

2006-05-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

I don't need to show a picture of 700 Wabash as it is today. Just imagine a fenced sandlot waiting for a ball game to break out. April came and went and May is near the end. No one has even threatened to break ground for the new Terre Haute House.

WTHI has a camera that looks out from 500 feet above Ninth and a half and Ohio Streets to show the city on the TV news and on the Internet. You can't have a dance at St. Bens or a Strawberry Fest on Ohio Street or a fair down at the river without the WTHI-TV Towercam recording you but the news that nothing is happening at 7th and Wabash goes without comment or picture.

Anon comments that the property has not been transferred to the new owners. I guess property transfers are public record but I haven't checked this out myself. Maybe the public records lag behind the legal a few days or weeks but not by months. I hope that whatever kind of snag this project has hit (every time the interest rates rise, pending deals are subject to renegotiation and it's a wonder any project fits into its window of opportunity)... let's hope it doesn't kill the deal.

Watch this space

2006-03-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

When a new Terre Haute House (Hilton Garden) begins to rise at the Crossroads, I intend to keep track of it here. There are reports in the local paper but the links to them often evaporate. Don't be dissapointed if this takes you nowhere. I hear they plan to break ground 4/1/2006. Until then, you may want to enjoy the Terre Haute House Tear Down reports below. Most of the pictures enlarge if you click on them.

CLASSMATES not interested in the Terre Haute House might like this Wiley story from Back Home Again In Indiana September 2003.

Mid-December view from WTHI-TV Tower Cam

2006-01-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

(start at the beginning)
The Terre Haute House continues to be broken up, dismantled and trucked away throughout December. It is fascinating to watch in person or from the internet via the camera on the TV transmission tower a few blocks away.

Bus Stop Review

2005-12-25T05:51:00.000-08:00

(go to the beginning)

Prior images from a similar angle are: 1, 2, 3.

(this concludes my view of the Terre Haute House Tear Down. See it from the start.)

Roof level review

2005-12-25T05:13:00.000-08:00

(skip)
You might want to compare that picture to this from similar perspective when there were still a few floors of hotel standing or this when most of the south wing was visible or the "before" view of the Terre Haute House on the last Saturday in September.
--------------------------

LAST DAYS

The above picture taken by hanging over the north wall of the city parking structure roof wall shows the last day of the Terre Haute House. You may want to compare it to an earlier picture from a similar perspective or from this taken in October 2001 from the same angle but two blocks away and 11 stories up and showing the parking garage in the foreground. The last days picture was taken from about where that pickup truck sits.
(next... bus stop review)

On Christmas Eve eve

2005-12-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

(skip)
I stopped by the Crossroads Cafe to say Merry Christmas to a couple of old friends and they wanted to know if I had been out at the Terre Haute House Tear Down site when the ball came off. Wow, the ball came off! I had visions of the six thousand pound sphere flying into what's left of downtown. In a previous entry I have expressed concern that the rubber tire that served as a shock absorber had no safety cable and was told by the hard hats, "If it falls, it falls."
Think of a yo-yo. You might guess that the string will break on a yo-yo sooner or later. Why else would you buy yo-yo strings in a package of 5? Similarly, the crane operators brought a number (also about 5, I'm told)of shock absorbing tires to the demolition site. They were down to the last one but were not swinging the ball into the wall of the building when the tire shredded. According to the boy in the picture, a witness I believe, the tire shredded and the ball came off while pounding down on some of the last few floors of the southwest section above the old Sandwich Shop. He didn't see the ball fall into the hotel ruins but saw the hook and cable come up empty.

I suspect the tire shredded when the crane operator was retrieving the ball after a drop. They unhooked the shredded tire and affixed a hook to the boom and began to lower it into the ruins. Bystanders were saying that they would not go in there so I looked through a third story window and saw the last man to visit the old Terre Haute House. He wore a red hard hat as he walked on the rubble. I raised my camera but he stepped out of sight and hooked the cable onto the ball. I didn't see him leave.
The crane operator brought the ball out to the street for adjustments and testing. He may have pounded a few more floors down with it

but most of the remainder of the hotel was raised with this machine.

The crane boom was decorated with Christmas Lights and raised in silent celebration.
(next... roof level review)

Terre Haute House Tear Down

2005-12-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

(next)From South Seventh Street bus stop the corner of the old botel seems stubborn (or I am). I guess it's me. I won't realize it is going to be gone until I'm photographing a hole in the ground.
(skip... 12-23)

From the southeast corner of the city parking garage roof, the cityscape has changed.
It has changed even more from the northeast corner... and will change some more soon.

DUELING CAMERAS

2005-12-23T04:11:00.000-08:00

(skip)
Yesterday (the 22nd) I stopped at the Terre Haute House Tear Down (it has taken me two months to come up with a name I like) before a late lunch at the Clabber, a beer at the Terminal and a basketball game at Hulman Center. I snapped some pictures of the last stages of the remaining corner of the hotel (I'll show you later).

The Channel 2 camera man shot me and I shot him back.
(next... Tear Down)

TERRE HAUTE HOUSE STATUS

2005-12-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

(skip)
It looks to be about 2 thirds gone from this view as compared to what you see if you scroll down to the second picture from this link.
(next... Dueling Cameras)

THH DEMO WATCH KIT

2005-12-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

update: Now that the n/e corner of 7th and Wabash looks like a skinned softball field and amateur photographers are snapping shutters elsewhere, some of the links in the following are dead.

(skip)Hautians near and far, you may participate in the Terre Haute House watch.

This camera may be pointed anywhere but is often pointed at the east (EES) side of the old hotel. Click onto the link in one browser window.
This frequently refreshed camera image is often of the west side, the diminishing face, of the hotel.

It has been said that they will use water to keep the dust down and I have wondered what they will do on cold days. The high temperature forcast for today was 35 but the current is 28 or 4 degrees below freezing. However, I've seen hose spray in some of the pictures from these two sites.

The demolition continues. These three links comprise the Terre Haute House demo watch kit:

http://www.vigoschools.org/thhousecam/index.sh
http://www.wthitv.com/towercam.asp
http://www.wthitv.com/weather.asp

(next... status)

Stand Clear

2005-12-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

(skip)
Avoid North 7th Street between Cherry and Wabash.

The skilled crane operator will use the outer wall to contain the debris and they will use water to keep the dust under control but on cold days, they can't spray water and there comes a time when the containing wall must be knocked down.

Chunks of the Terre Haute House fly farther astray than the demolition crew would like to acknowledge. The piece of concrete with reinforcing wire held by the youngest of these observers was found west of the west sidewalk of North 7th. Maybe someone tossed it there from the street.
(next... DEMO WATCH KIT)
These boys in the Packer jackets can't be trusted to wear their own and their grandfather can't be trusted to know the difference.

the view from the bus stop and back

2005-12-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

(skip)
From this angle there's little visible difference in the upper floors between December 3rd and 6th but the stone facing and the columns from the ground floor east side main entrance is down opening a view to the ISU Business School and the Education School Buildings a half mile to the north east.

From the east side of North 7th Street you can get an idea of the size of the columns. The Crossroads Cafe is visible in the distance on the southwest corner and the red awning on South 7th Street marks the spot where I take the bus stop series of photos.
(next... Stand Clear)

December 6 view

2005-12-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

(skip)(skip)
The exposed skeleton of the old hotel points to some tricky crane operations ahead if they are to pull the debris down onto the west side of North 7th Street. My photographic angle in this picture makes the building seem taller and more likely to fall upon the Vigo County School Corporation than it is.

The top of the City Centre building is visible beyond the VCSC and the Sycamore Building stands two blocks away. Click on picture to enlarge.
(next... view from bus stop)

Now I see

2005-12-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

(skip)
Here's a peek-a-boo view of the Clabber Girl Museum clean through an east/west opening in the Terre Haute House. The museum occupies the Ninth Street Hulman and Company building.
Here's a summary of the financing for the new hotel (when the Trib/Star web site is not busy) and how tax dollars will figure in.
(next... December 6 view)

PROGRESS (if you call it that) ON THE DEMO (if you call it that)

2005-12-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

(skip)
From the east, it looks like there has been little progress on the demolition project this week until you look carefully and see that you can see sky out the west window. How much longer can the 6000 pound ball pound into it without piercing the 7th street wall above the entrance?
The grand entrance to the hotel lobby was between the third and fourth of 6 giant cylindrical columns. I never thought I would see them uncapped let alone horizontal.(next...now I see)

FROM THE SOUTH 7TH STREET BUS STOP

2005-12-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

(skip)Hautians are drawn to the Terre Haute House in its final days. Many circle it taking images into their memory, trying, perhaps, to square their remembered picture of the building with what confronts their eyes, a hotel with skin torn off and the insides pounded down to rubble. From the north or the east now, it is already hard to remember what it looked like last year or before. I remember a black and white photo my brother took from the bus stop where the South 7th Street bus stopped in the old days when the Terre Haute House was a part of a lively downtown. The Grand Theater occupied the building immediately north of the hotel and beyond it and across Cherry Street the Marathon runner logo marks the gas station (we called them service stations then) at the north east corner, and the south side of the old YWCA beyond that.

It was that view that was in my memory as I took the picture after the Sandwich Shop closed and the hotel was cold in the snow.

I wanted to duplicate the angle and came pretty close for an amateur with a handheld pocket camera. Here you see the vacant hotel before and during demolition.

More to come. (next... Progress)

move

2005-11-27T03:37:00.000-08:00

(skip)Even I have trouble remembering the name of the blog I set up when it become obvious that the Terre Haute House was to be razed, rememberhearingthis.blogspot.com . It was a poor name and I didn't see how to change it. I'll leave it there and move all the posts to this new one. It has an address that corresponds to the topic: 700Wabash.blogspot.com

If you know your way around Terre Haute, 700 Wabash addresses the northeast corner of 7th Street and Wabash Avenue. If you know your way around the internet, blogspot.com is a free, easy place to set up the style of web page known as a blog.(next)

Demo Thanksgiving Eve

2005-11-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

(skip) As you can see from the WTHI-TV Tower Camera, the Bement-Rae building and the attached Ft. Harrison Savings and Loan building are gone. This shows the progress of the Terre Haute demo.

The stone eagle above the Ft. Harrison Savings and Loan door maintained a certain elegance even though the building itself had gone to seed. Although it is rumored that the Hulman Family kept the eagle, there has been no public notice. I wonder where the eagle will end up now that its roost has been razed.

(next... from the bus stop)

to date

2005-11-22T07:22:00.000-08:00

(skip) I took some pictures of downtown Terre Haute from the Sycamore Building in October of 2001. This is what the Terre Haute House looked like on that day.

(next... DEMO Thanksgiving Eve)

Used Bricks

2005-11-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

(skip)

Could these be the bricks that will be sold for charity?
(next... From Sycamore Building 10/2001 )

The sunny side of the street

2005-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

(skip) Sunny Saturday downtown. The low building that was the Marine Room is cleared away and some of the exterior walls are removed to expose the east and north side. The sun still puts the south side in a pretty light.

(next... Used Bricks)

Saturday Progress

2005-11-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

(skip)
WTHI-TV Tower Camera, while I perform mundane Saturday morning tasks like locating and delivering grandson's missing basketball shoes in time for the Boy's Club League games, trained a recording eye on the demolition site. The white box is the top of the Link-Belt crane cab and although it looks like it is on the top floor of the Bement-Rae building, it is on the ground swinging the wrecking ball from its giant boom. There's not much left of the smaller building.
(next... Sunny Side of the Street )

Oasis

2005-11-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

(skip to next)

On a cold day like this as I circle the Terre Haute House looking for just the right view of the demolition, wind penetrating my light clothing, I'm reminded of cold weather walks to the Terre Haute House Coffee Shop from ISU for a snack or a coffee. If you are dressed for a 70 or 50 or 30 degree day, even a three block walk at 50, 30 or 10 is something you want to shorten, yet we never ran because we knew better than to break a sweat.

I was off curriculum in the mid 60s learning to program the IBM 1620 that was in the basement of the administration building. It was a room full of computer with a 6 figure price that could not keep up with a calculator you could buy today at Dollar General but we thought it was great and would work at learning its nuances late into the night. A program laboriously encoded on thick paper punch cards was fed into the 1620 for compilation into machine code before we could test our logic then we studied or waited. Sometimes the wait was more than an hour and a trip to the Terre Haute House Coffee Shop would seem to be in order.

There was much to talk about, we were both looking into a computer filled future our fathers could not imagine but for the moment, we were grimly looking ahead to the Terre Haute House sign on the north side of the building and silently imagining the relief from biting cold we would attain within.

When we passed the lanterns and the hall and entered the north side lobby door, we avoided a half block outdoor walk to the Coffee Shop entrance by walking through the lobby. The hotel folks stayed at their stations. We didn't bother them nor they us. Cheery lights warmed the wainscoting and oil portraits of champion standard bred horses graced those walls. Sometimes I was moved to study the furnishings and the ornaments here but I was suddenly on a mission.

I broke the silence: "Order me something, I gotta go pee."

"Whaddayawant?"

"Anything."

My friend smiled and entered the Coffee Shop.

I walked down the stairs past the barber shop and into the tiled mens room and faced the blank wall above the urinal. Was that a smirk or a smile my friend had given me as we walked through the lobby? What did I just say? Did I really tell him to order me anything? I had just opened myself to a good practical joke by a known practical joker with a twisted sense of humor.

I washed and dried my hands and prepared myself to be not surprised and climbed the stairs to slide into a booth opposite my friend and his steaming cup of coffee. I waited for him to speak but he didn't.

On the smooth table was a short glass of water for each of us with those cylindrical shaped ice cubes available only at the Terre Haute House. The water was drawn from their own well somewhere on the property and it was worth a trip just for the cool clear ice water you got there. I didn't miss it until it was gone.

The functional Coffee Shop and its night crew were a contrast to the elegance of the lobby. The waitresses seemed old but efficient. One skinny one had a self administrated tattooed JR with the J reversed fading on her forearm but she was pleasant enough with her curled gray hair and, I think, a utility apron of some kind and a uniform of indeterminate pastel shade. She placed before me, a large saucer with a single banana upon it.

I straightened and looked into her face. "What's this!?"

She checked her order book. "Sir, it's a banana," she stated confidently.

"There must be some mistake, I wanted that fried," said I with an equally confident tone. I had never seen nor tasted fried furit - just heard of it somewhere.

The waitress took the plate and moved toward the kitchen where an overweight cook with very black eyebrows and a prominent nose mole busied herself attending to a revolving wheel half full of green order slips behind a steel and glass partition.

I had never heard the cook speak before I heard her say, "I AIN'T FRYIN' NO GAWDDAMND BANANA!"

We hid our laughter and I ordered more traditional fare.

Friday lunch I could see the big crane alternate between the Terre Haute House and the Bement-Rae building keeping smaller scoopers and truckers at both buildings busy.

Next.... (Saturday Progress from the WTHI-TV tower cam)...

CHANGES AT THE CROSSROADS

2005-11-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

When I moved away from Terre Haute, IN to begin my career, the Terre Haute House was a 40 year old hotel. Two blocks north from my high school and two south of my college, ten stories high and almost a half block square, it was the biggest single building in my environment. Except for the Sandwich Shop, which was one of my haunts, and the lobby, which we walked through in winter to stay out of the weather, the Terre Haute House was for special events. When rich relatives, the kind that didn't crowd into our house for sleeping, came to town, they stayed at the Terre Haute House rather than one of the motels on Highways 40 or 41. One aunt said she liked the security of interior hallways and the convenience to downtown shopping.
Not long after I left, most retailing relocated to the south near the ill planned intersection of US 41 and I 70. The Terre Haute House was closed, most of downtown was closed and some of the places that were still open for business were a little shabby. From a distance and in just the right light, the old Terre Haute House shows beauty.

But the hotel was crumbling. Brick facing, after years of neglect, was falling to the ground.
Not just the Hotel but the rest of the block (save the Indiana State regional office building at the opposite corner) is owned by the Hulman family and the three properties are joined together as one. The above picture shows the front of the former Ft. Harrison Savings and loan building, vacant, and the Bement-Rae Building which housed a corner cocktail lounge and not much else. Bement-Rae seemed a solid building badly in need of restoration and the tiny savings and loan building with its large skylight at rear and high arched window in front was as charming as the Terre Haute House was grand.
Ostensibly to sort out and validate any proposals to restore and rebuild the property, the city government took a fixed term option on the property and gave all proposals a public hearing. There were charts and drawings and columns of figures but in the end, all proposals were deemed insufficiently funded.
Not long after the city's option expired, Gregory Gibson bought the property from the Hulmans and announced that demolition would start soon.

The stone eagle was saved.
They brought a lot of heavy equipment to the site.
The early demolition seemed to focus on salvage. This picture shows a crew trying to remove the engraved stone that marked MCMXXVII TERRE HAVTE HAVSE MCM XXVII. Parts of the stone parapet are also stacked and kept separate from the rubble.
Then they began banging the wrecking ball against the north wing of the hotel.
spare wrecking balls
Big news will be announced at a 10:30 meeting at Hulman's Clabber Girl Museum. It was rumored last night and printed in the morning paper. The press conference gives more details. The mayor, the owner and the builder answer questions.
Here's how the demolition project looks from 4 blocks away and 500 feet up. WTHI-TV shares this view over the internet at www.wthitv.com/towercam.asp
Meanwhile, they swing the ball to knock off the walls and then drop the ball onto the floors systematically removing rows and columns of rooms.
Progress as of the date and time marked at the bottom by WTHI
These rails and balls will probably be recycled and become part of the Hilton Garden Terre Haute House.
Part of the old and future name plate.
Workmen gather, clean and stack facing bricks from the Terre Haute House for sale for ten dollars each. Proceeds will go to Hospice.
This much undone so far. (Current picture from WTHI-TV Tower Cam available here.)

Next.... (remembering the THH as a winter oasis) .....