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.