It's known to some as the Columbus ice house. Others simply refer to it as "the pink building", noting that its red brick has been painted over through the years. To the Bartholomew County History Center employees, it is a building worth saving, if not for its architectural significance then for the memories long-time residents have of the building.
But to the First Christian Church, which owns it, the space is more valuable as a parking lot. The ice factory will soon meet the wrecking ball.
When the church's facilities manager, Rick Herman, walks through the building, he laments that it needs to be torn down, but notes that it's been in disrepair for years.
"I don't know what else could be done," Herman says. "I know a lot of people have said ‘you could do this' and ‘you could do that.' But people that we've had that have come in have talked about cost. Nobody has money for it. The church needs the parking and the community needs the parking."
Demolition, however, will not start until historic preservationists have saved some artifacts from the building and had their say about how the city preserves notable structures.
The history center's special projects manager Ben Schulte says the situation is a good example of why elected leaders need to talk more seriously of how buildings are preserved, especially in a city which relies heavily on its architecture for tourism dollars.
"Perhaps this will foster a discussion in the future to where maybe we can have a review process locally to look at buildings that are going to be demolished and evaluate their historical significance and kind of go through the standard process there that maybe some other cities have," Schultre says.
In the coming weeks, the history center will cart out a number of icemaking machines and other building remnants and put them on display in the museum.
People even hope to hold a party in memory of the building so those who bought ice there can reminisce and so city leaders can see what they are losing.
