A majority of preservation groups have one or two offices in their state's biggest metropolitan areas.

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The Indianapolis-based Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana has 10 locations.

Indeed, the organization is found in all corners of the Hoosier state. In addition to Indianapolis, the HLFI has locations in the north (Gary), south (Evansville), east (Cambridge City) and west (Terre Haute).

The organization's dedication to historic preservation is so meticulous that it is nearing the completion of a survey, the Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, of all significant buildings in each of the state's 92 counties. The survey, which is
expected to identify 180,000 structures when complete, is done for 82 counties.

"Our philosophy in Indiana is to lead from the grassroots up, to form local organizations and form local neighborhood groups that are preservation minded," said J. Reid Williamson Jr., the recently retired president.

In September Williamson was named to receive the prestigious Louise du Pont Crowninshield award from the Washington, D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation due in part to his four decades of preservation work. He has forged the group into one of the top preservation organizations in the nation.

Patricia Wachtel recently resigned her position as vice president of Indianapolis-based Irwin Mortgage Corp. to act as the HLFI's interim president while someone is sought to take over Williamson's duties.

Acting Locally

Williamson helped develop the approach of making HLFI's local offices and other nonprofit organizations front-line preservation troops.

Duties of the regional offices include fielding calls from residents who are concerned about a significant neighborhood building, advising local governments that might want to save an old downtown hotel or consulting with residents concerned about the proper way to install additions on noteworthy houses.

"Our regional staff takes these calls and respond with developing a preservation strategy, especially in the case of an endangered building," added Tina Connor, executive vice president of the HLFI.

The regional orientation and local alliance have honed the HLFI into a quick-response organization when it comes to saving a landmark.

In late November, for instance, a demolition request was filed for a 100-year-old building at St. Clair and Meridian streets in Indianapolis, the former Indiana Business College that was originally built as a Methodist Episcopal church. The HLFI swung into action and sought to delay the demolition.

A reprieve was granted a few days later, and it will allow the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission, which is a city agency, and groups such as the building owner and residents to discuss the property's fate.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, rates quick-response ability as a key preservation skill.

"When a demolition is approved, the property owner or the developer often wants to move quickly," he said. "If there is a legal avenue to be pursued, you got to move quickly. They (the HLFI) do that well."

The group also wins supporters for the quality of its historical research of the structures it wishes to save, said Bill Browne Jr., president of Indianapolis-based Ratio Architects Inc., a design firm.

One example of the group's research can be found in the Askren House, a structure the organization put on its list of endangered buildings of historical significance in 2004. The house was found to be the second oldest building in Indianapolis.

The building is named for Thomas Askren, a veteran of the War of 1812, who arrived in the dusty town in 1825 and built his house and farm on 16th Street in 1828, when Abraham Lincoln was still a young Hoosier. Incredibly, Askren's descendants lived in the house until 1989.

(In 1992, the current owner bought the house with the intension of restoring it, according to the HLFI. Vacant and suffering from vandalism, the house was going to be razed, but the HLFI sought and won emergency local landmark designation from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission. An owner who is willing to restore it is being sought.)

"The HLFI recognizes that every building cannot be saved but also recognizes the importance of key structures in urban environments, as well as rural ones," Browne added.

Yale to Indiana

Williamson, 70, forged his grassroots strategy over 41 years in the preservation trade.

The inspiration to fight for historical buildings sparked when he was an undergraduate in American Studies at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

After graduating, Williamson went to Savannah, Ga., in 1964 where he worked in community development as a volunteer for the Historic Savannah Foundation.

Eventually, he was offered the position of executive director, the group's first, and worked there until 1974 when Indiana beckoned.

"The challenge was to see if those strategies that were successful on the community basis in Savannah could be applied on a statewide basis," Williamson said.

Another lure was the HLFI's substantial funding, a rarity in preservation. In the early 1960s, the organization had formed in part because Eli Lilly himself - not the pharmaceutical concern in Indianapolis that bears his name - made a $3 million gift to create an endowment fund, an amount practically unheard of in that era.

On his death in 1977, Lilly bequeathed the organization another $7 million, the HLFI's Connor said. Larger gifts have since been made, but Lilly is credited with helping establish the HLFI with his generosity and raising its profile among corporate and individual philanthropies.

"Eli Lilly and other leaders felt there was needless destruction of Indiana's heritage as exemplified by its architecture," Williamson said.

A broad-based constituency of patrons emerged to protect historic structures. Over the years, they have donated money to fund a specific preservation project, offset the organization's operating expenses or increase the endowment.

Because of Williamson's regional focus, funds trickle down to local nonprofit organizations in the form of grants or loans. These groups might use a grant to fund a feasibility study before getting involved in a preservation project, buy a building or raise funds.

In addition, loans up to $60,000 are made to nonprofit preservation groups outside Marion County to buy and/or restore historic properties, but protective covenants are placed on the deed before the property is sold to ensure it is never demolished or significantly altered.

In Indianapolis, HLFI itself buys endangered properties through its Fund for Landmark Indianapolis Properties, or FLIP, program. Like the loan program, protective covenants are placed on the deed, and a buyer is sought who must agree to restore the property.

The HFLI's average annual budget is about $3 million, Williamson said. (When he arrived in the mid-1970s, it was about $180,000.) The group has 56 employees, of whom 42 work full-time.

The group's work has borne the fruit of widespread acceptance among Indiana's political and business elite.

"There is general acceptance of historic preservation as good public policy and an endorsement of revitalization and renewal, instead of demolition," Williamson said.

"Back in the early 1960s, to be progressive, you assumed new was better and old was not."

A Midwest Signature

The HLFI has a program particularly fitting for a Midwest preservation organization.

In the 1970s, it sponsored a Main Street initiative in the Indiana Legislature to save the state's historic courthouses, signature structures in the Midwest. The state adopted the idea, and the program was briefly "the largest in the country," Williamson said.

The Bloomington courthouse, which is well known to generations of Indiana University students and others because of the movie "Breaking Away," and the buildings surrounding it were saved because of Main Street.

Other programs include the 10 most endangered list and tours.

"I think we are ahead of the curve in Indiana when it comes to preservation," Williamson said.

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