Published: May 02, 2008 10:07 am            

Colgate plant, clock make ‘endangered’ list

The former Colgate-Palmolive Co. plant — along with the towering, illuminated clock that stands atop of it — is again on the list of Indiana’s most endangered historical sites. The former Clarksville plant has been on the list since 2006.

Colgate-Palmolive relocated its Clarksville functions to Tennessee and Mexico, shuttering the historic plant this year. The company is selling the site — 942,000 square feet of industrial and office space and 60 acres — for $13.3 million.

Developers could view cleared land on a riverside site as more attractive than a landmark industrial complex, according to a press release from the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, which makes the endangered list.

Although Colgate-Palmolive is leaving the clock, it refused an offer from state officials to nominate the property to the National Register of Historic Places.

The complex began in the 19th century as the Southern Indiana Reformatory. When the state closed the jail in the early 1920s, Colgate-Palmolive bought the site and began making soap, even before all the prisoners were relocated. Other endangered sites include:

• Bush Stadium, Indianapolis

• Old Lowell Grade School, Lowell

• Maple Grove Road Historic District, Bloomington

• Syracuse Depot, Syracuse

• Jennings Building, New Castle

• Indianapolis Public School No. 97, Indianapolis

• Twin Bays, Lawrenceburg

• Washington Avenue Historic District, Evansville

• Wollenmann House, Ferdinand

        

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