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August 17, 2009

Terre Haute's Top 40: Atmosphere far from mundane along iconic National Road

By Mark Bennett

TERRE HAUTE — Every time Jim Grey and his college buddies ventured off the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology campus, their treks began on U.S. 40.

The highway’s history fascinated Grey, a South Bend native. He was curious why a friend from nearby Brazil referred to the portion of U.S. 40 through that town as National Avenue.

Grey graduated from Rose two decades ago and moved to Indianapolis from Terre Haute in 1994. Fifteen years later, he drives and tours U.S. 40 and other iconic Hoosier roadways as a hobby. A software development manager, he posts blogs and photos of his excursions on his Web site, www.JimGrey.net.

The atmosphere along Indiana’s 156-mile stretch of U.S. 40 is far different from mundane interstate vistas.

“There’s still quite a bit of old architecture standing, old buildings and neon signs,” Grey said.

Neon beckons to motorists driving U.S. 40 through Vigo County and Terre Haute, from Kleptz’s Restaurant in Seelyville to The Verve, a popular downtown nightspot, and the Saratoga Restaurant a couple blocks west. It’s a fabled path. That heritage is the reason U.S. 40 wears several special names. Terre Haute calls its segment Wabash Avenue, while West Terre Haute and Brazil label their stretches as National Avenue.

The entire 620-mile highway, originally built from Cumberland, Md., to Vandalia, Ill., was first known as the National Pike, then the National Road, U.S. 40, and now the Historic National Road and “The Road That Built The Nation.” It was America’s first federally funded interstate roadway, spanning Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. President George Washington conceived the idea, and President Thomas Jefferson got it approved by Congress in 1806. The work began in 1811, and the building of Indiana’s section lasted from 1827 to 1834.

Terre Haute considers its downtown intersection with Seventh Street (old U.S. 41) to be the legendary Crossroads of America. The value and beauty of the Historic National Road is greater here, perhaps, than in any other city it bisects.

“What Terre Haute has that others may not have are places like The Verve right downtown,” said Joe Jarzen, executive director of the Indiana National Road Association.

The presence of U.S. 40 here makes a variety of civic projects more possible. Its official designation as an Indiana State Scenic Byway in 1996, a National Scenic Byway in 1998 and an All-American Road in 2002 gave cities along U.S. 40 access to a variety of federal funding and grants. Terre Haute has tapped into National Scenic Byway funds for numerous projects, including the downtown Arts Corridor, Riverscape, National Road Heritage Trail, Fairbanks Park and “brownfield” environmental reclamation efforts.

“All of this came about because of the Historic National Road,” said Pat Martin, chief planner for the City of Terre Haute.

The city has capitalized on its connection to U.S. 40.

“From my own perspective, I can say that Terre Haute has received more National Scenic Byways funding than any of the cities I work with along the route,” Jarzen said, citing efforts by Martin and the city to secure grants.

I-70 changed road’s role

Generations ago, the National Road’s value was more practical than historic. The highway opened westward travel for Americans on the East Coast in the early 1800s. Though it originally was little more than a dirt clearing for horse and wagon travel, the road brought thousands of travelers to western Indiana each year. The Hoosier population ballooned to 695,866 in 1840 from 343,031 in 1830. Eventually, the National Road became the main street in the communities it reached. That’s why it wears so many different names, from National Avenue to Wabash Avenue and Main Street. Each place claims its own portion.

It’s a unique mix — a national road, with local flavor.

“One thing that it will never cease being for all of these communities that it runs through is the heart and soul of the downtown,” Jarzen said.

Interstate 70 supplanted U.S. 40’s role as a primary travel route. Motorists could drive I-70 coast-to-coast without hitting a stoplight. Within minutes of I-70’s opening on Aug. 31, 1967, through Terre Haute, Wabash Avenue fell unusually silent. One-hundred cars and 500 semis per hour shifted from U.S. 40 to the interstate, according to an estimate that day by the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department.

Commercial development boomed around the “new crossroads of America” — I-70 and U.S. 41. Much of that commerce shifted from downtown to the bustling I-70 exit, where an average of 43,769 vehicles roll through every day, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation. By contrast, the busiest local stretch of U.S. 40 — at its intersection with Indiana 46 — encounters an average of 26,608 vehicles daily, according to figures provided by Debbie Calder, INDOT public information director.

New niche: heritage tourism

What remains along the National Road in Terre Haute are signature and specialty businesses and landmarks, mixed in with national or regional establishments such as Kroger, Wendy’s and AutoZone. Some stops are decades old, such as the Saratoga and Sonka Irish Pub. Some are new, such as the Hilton Garden Inn/Terre Haute House, which opened in 2007, two years after the old Terre Haute House was razed. Others are both, such as the Candlewood Suites, which opened last October as a new extended-stay hotel in the refurbished, 1912-vintage Tribune Building.

Among the landmarks is the stately, old Terminal Arcade at 822 Wabash Ave. It opened in 1911 as the station for the interurban rail system, and later as the city’s union bus station from 1949 till 1972. It’s survived plans to condemn or demolish the structure. Today, it’s the Terminal Sports and Spirits restaurant and bar. Legacy and nostalgia bring in many customers, said Carl Tresner, manager for the past 13 years.

“The locality helps a lot,” Tresner said, minutes before the lunchtime rush on a Monday last month. “We’re right here on Wabash, and a lot of people will come here from downtown because this is a historic building. And we have a lot of college kids come in here.”

The food and drinks may bring in the college crowd, but the chance to rekindle memories appeals to older diners. “We have a lot of people come in because they were in here when it was the old bus terminal,” Tresner said.

Aside from the TVs and the beer lights and posters, the weather-worn Beaux Arts-style building of terra cotta and brick “is pretty much the way it was,” Tresner said.

The Terminal joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and is one of several Wabash Avenue sights on that list, from Highland Lawn Cemetery on the east side to the Vigo County Courthouse on the west end. Nine of the unique people, places and things comprising the Tribune-Star list of Terre Haute’s Top 40 can be found on the National Road — Clabber Girl and Hulman & Co., the Crossroads of America site, First Financial Corp., Light House Mission, Memorial Stadium, Heritage Trail, Rose-Hulman, Square Donuts and the courthouse.

Those and other relics such as the Terminal and Highland Lawn can be economic gems, Grey said.

“More heritage tourism could be a boon, especially if it builds,” said Grey, an enthusiast of the National Road’s past and potential.

That hope drives many of the civic projects planned locally along the National Road. “It’s a heavily traveled street for people passing through that part of town, but I think it’s becoming, more and more, a destination,” said Andrew Conner, executive director of Downtown Terre Haute Inc.

Those projects include Riverscape, which would blend trails, private residential and commercial development, and a wetlands recreational area that could someday become a state park, Martin said. At Seventh and Wabash, the Cultural Trail Coalition is raising funds to place a statue next year of Terre Haute poet Max Ehrmann seated on a park bench, honoring his internationally renowned poem “Desiderata.” Across from Memorial Stadium, Edgewood Grove — one of the few residential subdivisions along U.S. 40 — could receive funding for a gateway project, Martin said, as well as National Register of Historic Places status.

The National Road, Martin said, “affects the whole fabric of the community.”



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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