INDIANAPOLIS — A building that was once the hub of a northeast Indianapolis neighborhood in its heyday is still getting attention, but for all the wrong reasons.
“Kids coming and going. It was full of kids, and it was like a center for the community,” said Glenn Powe about what he used to see at a building that still stands in his Forest Manor neighborhood at the corner of East 36th and North Gale streets.
That was decades ago now.
“When I drive by now, it’s actually an eyesore,” said Powe of the building that used to be IPS School 1.
For years now, the former school has been covered in graffiti, with boarded up windows, many of them broken. Part of the roof has even caved in at the top.
“Do you worry it devalues your property?” asked 13News Reporter Emily Longnecker.
“I know it does,” Powe said.
“If we can do one thing for the site of old IPS 1, what would it be?” asked the CEO of the Northeast Community Development Corporation.
That's the question Gurvitz and other community developers on the city’s northeast side are asking themselves right now.
Friday, several of them, Gurvitz included, held virtual listening sessions to hear what residents like Powe would like to see happen with the old school.
“After decades of neglect, it’s literally left us to wonder why a beautiful old building is in so much despair,” Gurvitz said.
Property records show the school is owned by John Sturm.
According to Gurvitz, neighbors have tried to work with Sturm, asking him to either do something with the building to benefit the neighborhood or sell it and let them try.
“He’s talked about, ‘Oh, let’s be a partner,’ and then failed to deliver,” Gurvitz said.
13News left messages for Sturm at two numbers listed for him. We wanted to ask him what, if any plans he has for the school building. We did not hear back.
Powe hopes neighbors and community developers do.
They’ve got questions for Sturm and they want answers about how they can turn the former school back into a symbol of a thriving neighborhood where good things are happening.