Lockefield Gardens was a 1936 Public Works Administration housing project for Indianapolis blacks. This study analyzes the Lockefield Gardens historic preservation debate in the period of 1975 – 1985. The historical and descriptive overview of Lockefield Gardens provides a sense of this unique place. The practical politics of historic preservation and the theory of § 106 review are considered as they impacted the preservation/development controversy. Lastly, the lessons learned from the Lockefield Gardens deliberations are offered to help improve historic preservation efforts in the future. These include consideration of such factors as time, diversity and political leadership. The conclusion offers suggestions for an improved memorialization of Lockefield Gardens, as well as the proud and vibrant African American community that once resided there. / New Deal architecture and historic preservation -- Historical and descriptive overview of Lockefield Gardens -- Preservation/development efforts 1975-1985 -- The theory of [section] 106 review and the practical politics of preservation -- The lessons of Lockefield Gardens.

The proliferation of gaming in America has increasingly brought certain development pressures to bear on historic resources and has been an emerging issue in the field of historic preservation for the last decade. Early experiments to harness gaming as a catalyst for preservation activity in four historic mining communities in South Dakota and Colorado received much attention. More recently, riverboat casinos have affected historic communities throughout the Midwest. From the standpoint of preservation, these examples have had both positive and negative effects for historic resources. This study examines some of the lessons learned and uses them to illuminate the case of Rising Sun, a small rural community in southeastern Indiana with a casino riverboat. The goal is to determine whether gaming development, if properly planned, situated, and regulated, can be a positive force for preservation activity while still maintaining the original character of the host community. / Department of Architecture

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the integration of modern historic preservation laws, ethics, and techniques with the practical management of historic sites. The planned restoration (1999-2001) of the New Harmony, Indiana Labyrinth Temple by its managing entity, Historic New Harmony, provided an opportunity for the investigation of questions relevant to the application, in terms of accepted historic preservation practices, of the correct preservation treatment of state-owned cultural resources. A central question of this thesis was whether early New Harmony preservation efforts deemed by some to be more "historicism" than "history" possessed actual historical value. Of further interest was the relationship between implementation of the correct preservation treatment at the subject historic site and the resultant effects of that treatment upon its historic interpretation to the visiting public.This thesis examines the activity of the first New Harmony Memorial Commission in late-1930s/early 1940s New Harmony, Indiana. To provide context for the New Harmony activity, contemporaneous national and state preservation efforts are also studied.The thesis also examines Historic New Harmony's initial plan to restore the Labyrinth Temple. Failures of that initial plan include omission of basic historic preservation principles, specifically the lack of required regulatory oversight of the planned activity by the Indiana SHPO's office (Section 106 compliance). The "restoration" plan developed by Historic New Harmony advocated the implementation of incorrect treatments of the Temple's structural components, decorative elements, and interpretive signage. In effect, Historic New Harmony's restoration plan was more "historicism" than "historic preservation."This investigation of the Labyrinth Temple finds contextual validity in the preservation activity of the first New Harmony Memorial Commission, as well as relevance of that activity to the history of Indiana's historic preservation movement. These facts, in consideration with other factors, are reflected in the development herein of a procedurally correct project plan based on historic preservation laws, ethics, and techniques, as well as the inclusion of the historic site's entire story. / Department of Architecture