Evansville's declining Washington Avenue Historic District has been included on the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana's "Ten Most Endangered" list for 2007, a list of Hoosier landmarks in jeopardy from abandonment, neglect, deterioration and sprawl.
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In its heyday, Washington Avenue was a grand residential corridor that served as a sort of gateway into Downtown Evansville. But since the Washington Avenue Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, there has been a 23 percent loss of homes and buildings from the neighborhood, said Dennis Au, Evansville preservation officer.
"It is a very substantial loss. It is a shocking loss," Au said.
The losses have continued, despite local efforts to call attention to the fading resource. The near-Downtown neighborhood topped the Preservation Alliance of Evansville's "Ten Most Endangered List" from 1999 to 2002, a year when it also was the focus of local Historic Preservation Week events.
Now, for the first time, the threatened district is receiving statewide recognition.
"We need to find a sparkplug to help reinvigorate these neighborhoods. Sometimes, by having an outside organization recognize that here is an important resource that needs some attention, that is one more item in our toolbox to do something with," Au said.
Sites stay on the list until they are either declared safe or no longer in immediate danger. Washington Avenue was one of five additions to this year's list. Since the list was begun in 1991, the foundation claims 42 saves and only 10 losses.
"We feel this area is just too important a gateway to Evansville to not place on our list," said Stewart Sebree, director of Historic Landmarks of Indiana's southwestern field office.
Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel said Monday that city officials encouraged the district's inclusion on the list during work to put together a deal to finance the preservation of a home at 620 Washington Ave.
"(Sebree) had talked about their interest in (adding the neighborhood to the list) because he thought it would help support ongoing efforts through the National Landmarks Foundation to try to save some of these homes. We encouraged it," Weinzapfel said.
A total of $110,000 was committed to a joint project to restore that vintage home in December - $75,000 from the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, $20,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the city and $15,000 from the Efroymson Fund of the Central Indiana Foundation.
The home was donated to the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana by the Evansville Brownfields Corp. Renovation will begin in the spring, starting with restoration of the exterior of the house, which has been vacant for at least 10 years. When it is finished, the foundation will sell the home.
The foundation recently went through a similar process at 410 Washington Ave.
The district originally earned National Register of Historic Places status in 1980 because of its collection of late-Victorian period frame houses in a variety of architectural styles.
There are 525 buildings in the district, including homes, churches, commercial structures and apartments.
Much of the district also is in the city's Front Door Pride program, which was created in 2005 to provide matching grants for exterior renovations to property owners. Au cited that program and the new arts district as two tools that, combined with the encouragement and assistance of the Historic Landmarks Foundation, can help revive Washington Avenue.
"We need to get people to recognize this as part of the core of our city. What happens if the core goes bad? The whole city goes bad," Au said. "
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