“Amazingly enough, the story of Ben Hur was written by Indiana resident Lew Wallace. As we were walking through Terre Haute, we discovered items that showed what people there and around the world were interested in.”
“It’s those things, not big discoveries, but fascinating things about what people did in their everyday lives and what they were interested in that links Terre Haute to the larger movements in the country.”
Another featured building is Memorial Stadium, constructed in 1925 to
hold 16,000 people. “It was a major stadium then,” Roznowski
explained. “It speaks to the belief that many people had that Terre
Haute would be a much larger city. Terre Haute had minor league baseball
in the 1920s and this was a grand stadium. Its history through the 20th
century speaks to Terre Haute’s history of decline and the challenge
the city faces to maintain it’s historic structures.
The final structure explored in the program, Union Station, is no longer standing, but was once one of two railroad stations in a major rail city. Built in the later part of the 19th century, the building “was a glorious structure architecturally and visually,” Rosnowski said. “It was demolished in 1960 like a lot of wonderful buildings there. This was a time before people really acknowledged the significance of these buildings.”