Westside Park, Muncie

Photographs of Westside Park, a municipal park in Muncie, Indiana, from Cuno Kibele's personal scrapbook, ca. 1910s, not long after the park was created. According to the city's website, the park's "historical roots go back to the development of a terminus for the trolley line during the early 1900's. Situated along the banks of the White River, the terrain slopes toward the river and is covered with many mature trees."

The suspension bridge and water park, featured prominently in the photos, are not extant.

Images: Cuno Kibele scrapbook, ca. 1910. Kibele and Garrard Architectiral Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Green Roof Mortarboards

Ball State University is known for its innovative green designs, such as the nation's largest closed geothermal system. Here, in an undated photo circa 1990, are College of Architecture and Planning students wearing green roof mortarboards at graduation.

To all of this year's CAP graduates, congratulations!

Image: Graduation photograph, ca. 1990. College of Architecture and Planning Collection, Drawing + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

World Leisure Environments Symposium, 1975

In April 1975, the College of Architecture and Planning hosted the World Leisure Environments Symposium. Among the many discussions and lectures held over two days were The Environmental Psychology of Urban Leisure by Dr. David Canter, The Hotel as Part of the Landscape by Knud Friis, and Club Méditerranée's Philosophy and Organization as it Relates to its Physical Facilities by Linda Kundell.

The Archive is currently digitizing audio cassettes from the symposium, as well as other guest lectures from the 1960s-1990s. We just recently received these images of the event, the one above depicts the building's entrance decorated with cars, hang glider, and a banner, and the second picture, below, was taken around the corner and shows two horses with their riders near the building.

Images: World Leisure Environments Symposium, 1975. College of Architecture and Planning Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Summer Hours

The Archive is open during the summer by appointment. Call 765-285-8441 or email the Archive to schedule an appointment.

Image: National Concrete Masonry Association's Pictorial, 1962. Trade Catalog Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

"Disappearing Muncie" appears in the paper

Check out today's article in the Muncie Star Press on our exhibit Disappearing Muncie: Our Lost Heritage. The exhibit is a collaborative project between Archives & Special Collections and Drawings and Document Archives, and includes architectural drawings, photographs and ephemera from both collections.

Visit the online article: http://bit.ly/lZmlBF

Downtown Muncie and the Courthouse Square, 1967

Prof. David Hermansen, founder of the Historic Preservation program at Ball State University, took these downtown Muncie photographs in the summer of 1967. Earlier in the year, the city tore down its courthouse that had been built in the 1880s. Other historic buildings had already been destroyed or would be soon.

The photos above are taken from the crater left by the courthouse. You can see the railing that surrounded the perimeter of the courthouse square. The building in the top right photograph is the Wysor Building, which was later torn down.

Built in 1904 by architect Cuno Kibele, the Wysor Building was razed in 1986 after a fire damaged the structure. The archive has drawings, photographs and building specifications in its Kibele and Garrard Architectural Records Collection. Note the interurban tracks in the street between the Wysor Building and the courthouse in the photograph below.

Images: Downtown Muncie photographs, 1967, (DOC 86.005) Documentation Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.
Wysor Building, ca. 1904, (7-04.001) Kibele & Garrard Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.