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Monday, May 31, 2004
Old air base
buildings fall to old age, city’s progress
They tore down
Building T-110 at Columbus Municipal Airport a couple of weeks back. Seems
that it was showing its age.
“It was just getting too expensive to maintain,” said Airport Manager Rod
Blaisdel. “It was actually cheaper to tear it down than to keep it open.”
Such is the problem with 62-year-old buildings, especially ones built by
the military back in 1942 when the old Atterbury Air Base was being thrown
together in less than six months to prepare it for the training of
thousands of aviators.
The interesting thing about Building T-110 is that the T was short for
Temporary.
I don’t know what temporary meant to military planners of that era but
these days most buildings are outmoded before they even hit 50.
Maintenance shop
Building T-110 was used as a maintenance shop through much of its life.
It was one of dozens of buildings that were hastily erected in those
hectic early days of the war. Dozens more were added in the early 1950s
when the air base was reactivated for the Korean Conflict.
Today, most of them are gone. Right now there are only three World War II
era buildings still standing in their original form. Two of them will be
gone sometime in the near future.
One, a storage shed behind the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum that was used
as a latrine during the war, is scheduled to be demolished to make way for
a new fire station.
The old Round Top hangar used by Rhoades Aviation will also be demolished
at some point, but no definite arrangements have been made.
The only 1940ish building that looks to have a permanent life at the
airport is the Jeanne Lewellen Norbeck chapel, which was restored a couple
of years back by the 95ers, a group of history buffs who have preserved
the history of the old Air Base.
What’s remarkable about the staying power of the buildings at the old air
base is that most of them were made of wood and they were part of a small
city that was created out of nothing and eventually played host to tens of
thousands of young aviators.
Their designs were simplistic but we are still talking about putting
together a giant construction project in six months.
That any of them lasted past the war is an achievement in itself.
Buildings were used
Even after the military left, the buildings on the old base still served a
useful purpose.
The administration building — one of the few brick structures on the base
— was converted into offices and classrooms for IUPUI Columbus. Later it
underwent a significant expansion to the point that there was little of
the original building left.
In the 1970s, the old base theater was taken over by the Columbus Arts
Guild and renamed Gild Hall.
And there were a number of one story barracks buildings that served as
homes for small business operations just getting started in the city.
Most of them are history now, and in a short period only the chapel will
remain as a reminder of what once was.
Still, those buildings served a useful purpose for quite a while. |
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