Indiana Landmarks announced Second Baptist Church in New Albany as the winner of the 2018 Cook Cup for Outstanding Restoration.

Indiana Landmarks, a private nonprofit organization that saves historic places, will present the award at its annual Rescue Party on April 28 in Indianapolis.

“Second Baptist Church matters to people far beyond its small congregation because of the building’s role in the Underground Railroad and the example it represents for us in the present,” said Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. The restoration was a community-wide initiative spearheaded by the Friends of Town Clock Church, the name most people in New Albany use for the building at 300 East Main Street.

Indiana Landmarks has presented the Cook Cup since 2007, when it created the award to honor Bloomington’s Cook family for their restoration of the West Baden Springs Hotel. The Cook Cup recognizes the owner of a significant historic structure that has been transformed through a restoration that meets the highest standards in method, materials and design. The judges also take into consideration the importance of the structure, its condition at the outset, and the project’s community impact.

Five years ago, as Second Baptist prepared to celebrate a milestone anniversary, its 1852 building faced costly challenges—a leaking roof, broken clock, peeling paint, and disintegrating stained-glass windows. The landmark was nearing condemnation, a burden that consumed the small congregation.

“Right about when the situation looked darkest, Jerry Finn and Irv Stumler showed up in my office and offered to help us restore the church,” says Rev. LeRoy Marshall, the pastor. Finn, the executive director of the Horseshoe Foundation, and Stumler, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, joined others in creating the nonprofit Friends of Town Clock Church. Finn was the primary fundraiser and Stumler acted as the volunteer construction manager.

The group initially intended to fix the roof and clock tower and repaint the trim, according to Alice Miles, who chairs the friends group. “There was so much support for this project, in both money and in-kind donations, that we expanded the scope. We repaired the stained-glass windows, re-created the original main doors and exterior lanterns, ” she said.

Success and commitment inspired the Friends’ board to dream even bigger. They raised $175,000 to re-create the steeple, lost to a lightning strike in 1915. “No one thought we could do it,” says Finn. A grant from the city helped make the steeple re-creation possible.

“No one alive had seen that steeple. I never in a thousand years thought I’d see the steeple back, and I’m an optimist,” notes Floyd County Historian and City Council Member David Barksdale. Padgett Construction donated the cranes and the labor to reinforce the tower and roof with steel to meet the building and seismic codes the steeple required.

Contributions ranged from $5 to $96,000, along with in-kind donations of labor and materials. The clock tells the time and the bell chimes the hour for the first time in four decades.

Second Presbyterian Church, an integrated but predominantly white congregation, built the church from 1849 to 1852. The evangelical congregation was moved by Christian benevolence to minister to African Americans who lived in the city as well as those escaping slavery in the south. Helping slaves escape to freedom was a dangerous business. While Indiana was a free state, in New Albany the city’s major industries depended on trade with the south and pro-slavery forces dominated, according to Underground Railroad historian Pam Peters.

“The church’s 150-foot steeple, visible across the Ohio River in Louisville, acted as a beacon to African Americans fleeing bondage, steering them to a place where they could get medical care and assistance in traveling farther north to safety,” notes Peters, a New Albany resident. In 2017, the church’s designation as a national Network to Freedom site confirmed its role in the Underground Railroad.

The Presbyterians sold the building in 1889 to Second Baptist Church, an African American congregation well aware of the building’s history as a haven. Although the lightning strike destroyed the steeple, it left the clock, which led people to call it the Town Clock Church. The name suggests the sense of community ownership and attachment to the site.

People spent all day camped out to watch when the steeple was hoisted in place in 2016, with many teary-eyed at the meaning and scale of the accomplishment. From many vantage points, including coming across the Sherman Minton Bridge from Kentucky—the steeple stands out. “The brass ball at the top glows like the halo on an angel. It shows there is a God,” says Church Treasurer Monica Sutton.

Although exterior restoration was the initial goal, the Friends of Town Clock Church expanded the scope again when they moved inside, repairing plaster, recapturing the original interior paint scheme and stenciling, restoring the original gasoliers, and refurbishing the lower-level fellowship hall where the congregation worships on most Sundays to conserve energy.

The congregation opens the sanctuary for community events, tours, and special seasonal services. Every third grader in Floyd County schools comes to tour the church and hear about the Underground Railroad. “Churches can get insular, and the restoration has opened Second Baptist up and made us more inclusive and community-minded,” says Rev. Marshall. “Our own congregation has given more, and taken more ownership. The restoration infused us—the church and the community—with enthusiasm. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

“You can do more ministry when you’re not worried sick about how to patch the roof. Through Indiana Landmarks’ Sacred Places program, Second Baptist is in touch with other churches who share similar ambitions, and we’re getting invaluable training in fundraising and community engagement. We’re formulating a five-year plan—spiritual, financial, programmatic—and it includes construction of a terraced Underground Railroad Garden in our back yard with a gazebo fashioned from the roof of the old clock tower. It’s another place we can engage the community,” Rev. Marshall adds.

Five years ago, there was so much work to do, and complete restoration seemed out of the question. But the Friends of Town Clock Church raised $725,000 to date for the restoration, as well as the  creation of a maintenance endowment housed at the community foundation.

People contributed because the place provides a daily visual reminder of the right way to behave when confronted by injustice and pain, even when helping might be dangerous. “Looking to the future when we may need to take a stand, the Town Clock Church is a living lesson for our community,” says Finn.

The Indiana Trails group will conduct an open meeting Wednesday, March 21 at 4p in the City Hall council chambers. 

Richard Vonnegut, CEO of Indiana Trails, said the meeting will take place to discuss the acquisition of the former Monon Railroad Right-of- Way (RROW) “Monon South” to continue the use of this 62 mile corridor as a bike, hike transportation route.

The eventual trail would be open to the public. 

CSX railroad has abandoned the rail line, which originally was the Monon line through southern Indiana. 

Indiana Trails is looking at the north end in Lawrence County, from Yockey Road, over 62 miles through Orange, Washington, Clark, and Floyd Counties to Mt Tabor Road,
in New Albany.

There will be two meetings each month. A meeting has already been held in Bedford and the will continue in alternating fashion in each county. 

Vonnegut said he hopes to explain the process of how the corridor can be used for bike, hike, and future rail use, AND to explain about “trail towns”, and to shift three national
routes, each for hiking and bicycling, onto this corridor, to get hikers and bicyclists
off of busy streets and roads, to make the hikers and cyclists safer than on-road.

Earlier this afternoon at approximately 3:00, Master Trooper Lytton observed a purple 1999, Plymouth, traveling 110 mph in a 55 mph zone on State Road 66 near County Road 550 East.

The driver was identified as Edward Moore, 41, Grandview, IN.

Moore failed field sobriety and tested .141% BAC at the Spencer County Jail.

Moore was arrested on the following charges:

• Operating While Intoxicated with Endangerment, 1 Count, IC 9-30-5-2, Class A Misdemeanor
• Operating While Intoxicated .08-.14% BAC, 1 Count, IC 9-30-5-1, Class C Misdemeanor
• Reckless Driving, 1 Count, IC 9-21-8-52, Class C Misdemeanor
• Driving While Suspended Prior, 1 Count, IC 9-24-19-2, Class A Misdemeanor

On Saturday, March 17, 2018, at approximately 7:20 pm, the Indiana State Police responded to a single vehicle crash on I-74 eastbound near the 168 mile marker which resulted in the driver being flown from the scene with life threatening injuries.

The initial investigation by Troopers Matt Holley and Chad Snyder indicated that a maroon 2005 Cadillac Deville being driven by Michael W. Plaskowicki, age 39, Burlington, KY was traveling eastbound on I-74 near the 168 mile marker.  For an unknown reason, Plaskowicki lost control of the vehicle which left the south side of the roadway.  The vehicle drove into a wooded area, striking numerous trees, before coming to a stop.

Plaskowicki suffered life threatening injuries in the collision.  He had to be extricated from the vehicle before being flown from the scene to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment of his injuries.

The evidence indicated that Plaskowicki may have been traveling in excess of the speed limit and was not wearing his seatbelt when the crash occurred.  It is unknown if drugs or alcohol played a role in the collision.

The investigation is ongoing.