Westfield moves historic “Green Building,” making room for State Road 32 project

By REYNA REVELLE
WISH-TV | wishtv.com

“The Green Building” in Westfield is on the move … very … slowly.

The historic structure at 102 S. Union St. isn’t going far. It’s going right next door.

Linda Naas, a board member of Westfield Preservation Alliance, said Wednesday, “The last thing it was a dance studio. There’s always been a business going on in there … While all the buildings around it were burnt down at some point in history, this building, never. It stood all the time.”

From a drugstore to a popular eatery, the building has a legacy spanning from the mid-1800s to the early 1990s. “The Green Building” played a significant role in Westfield’s community life and was a focal point of commerce.

“If you go upstairs, upstairs was the living quarters, and the pharmacist lived up there,” Naas said. “But, you can see the original wallpaper from the 1800s. Different floral patterns; so, that’s quite neat.”

The current plan for the building is to undergo restoration to the time period in which it originated.

Naas said, “It was updated over time. Like this green siding, it’s not going to look like that. That was put on probably in the late 1990s, but it will be restored per the Secretary of the Interior’s guidelines. It will be restored to what it was … We hope that the public can see it, can touch it, and can say, ‘Oh, that’s how they used to build.’ There’s no nails or screws or things in the building. It’s all wood construction, made out of trees that grew over 400 years ago.”

Beams were slid under the structure to secure the journey to its new location. The plan is to move the building across the street. That will come later down the road.

The move will make way for the reconstruction of State Road 32.

Johnathon Nail, director of Westfield Public Works, said Wednesday, “The State Road 32 reconstruction project is going to widen 32 through downtown, which impacted our historic district. We worked through a mitigation plan, which included moving this building out of conflict with the project.”

Jennifer Beck, a project manager for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said, “We’ll have to take the signal out and move all that equipment out of the way to move the building. That will only be a day that’s impacted for the move.”

Leaders say the move and the road reconstruction will highlight Westfield’s commitment to honoring heritage while undergoing urban planning and infrastructure improvements.

This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/historic-building-relocation-begins-in-westfield.