WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Imagine your childhood home is about to be demolished. If you’re John Butler, you buy it…and convince the city to deem it a one-house historic district. Butler is the new owner of 115 East 12th Street. This modest bungalow is not architecturally significant, but in December the Bloomington city council voted 6-3 to give it historic protection, for one reason only – stone carver Ivan Adams once lived there. Locally Adams did the courthouse WWII memorial and the Indiana University seal at Foster Quad, and is perhaps most famous for the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. It’s a huge victory for Butler in his crusade for historic preservation of the Cottage Grove neighborhood. Even though it’s just one house, there are other houses nearby for sale or marked for demolition. Butler doesn’t want houses replaced with larger multi-unit apartment complexes, and hopes his property designation paves the way for a Cottage Grove conservation district, which could eventually become a historic district. The city website already calls it that, but officially it is not. But do his neighbors even care? According to Butler only 11% of Cottage Grove homes are owner-occupied – 89% are rentals.
CREDIT:
Today’s feature story on John Butler’s crusade for historic preservation of the Cottage Grove neighborhood was produced by Marjorie Lewis in partnership with The Media School at Indiana University.
