Former Indiana first lady Judy O'Bannon and other leaders in historic preservation will be honored and Ball State University's new Center for Historic Preservation will open its doors during the graduate program in historic preservation's 25th anniversary celebration Oct. 25.

The center, an extension of the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP), will have a ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. at its new headquarters at the Mary Lincoln Cottage, which has been provided by the Minnetrista Cultural Center. Ball State Provost Beverley Pitts and Muncie Mayor Dan Canan will preside over the ceremony, which is free and open to the public.

After the ceremony, a banquet will take place at 6 p.m. at the Muncie Community Civic Center, 520 E. Main St. O'Bannon, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, Wabash philanthropist Richard Ford and Carmel architect H. Roll McLaughlin will receive Awards for Distinguished Achievement in Historic Presentation.

Mid-Career Alumni Preservation Awards will be presented to Glenn Harper, Paul Diebold and William Taft. Tickets for the banquet are $23 per person.

At 8:15 p.m., Carol Shull, the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, will give the keynote lecture, "The National Register: A Future for the Past." Her presentation, part of CAP's guest lecture series, will take place in the Civic Center's Edmund Burke Ball Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

"This anniversary will celebrate the historic preservation program, which was founded to provide professional training for students wanting to work for preservation organizations and agencies and assist grassroots advocates in the emerging preservation movement," said James Glass, director of the Center for Historic Preservation and the graduate program. "Today, our alumni number more than 140 and work for a variety of preservation organizations, government agencies and consulting firms across the United States."

To help groom future historic preservationists, the center will help graduate students gain professional experience through hands-on, community-based projects, Glass said. Such projects include developing historic structures reports in Metamora, Corydon and Vincennes and main street initiatives in Indianapolis, Bloomington, Hartford City and Hammond. The students will also be developing a historical walking tour of Wabash, helping to raise awareness of the "gas boom" in East Central Indiana and presenting a heritage education course for Muncie fourth graders.

Funding for three of the projects will come from Ball State's Building Better Communities initiative.

Other project sponsors include the Historic Preservation Fund of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology and the division of State Museum and Historic Sites, the Indiana Department of Commerce's Main Street Program, the Minnetrista Cultural Center, Wabash Marketplace Inc., Muncie Public Library and the Efroymson Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

For more information on the anniversary and its events, call (765) 285-1920. 

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Glass at (765) 285-1920 or jaglass@bsu.edu.)

Building Better Communities is an initiative designed to spur economic development and quality of life advancement in Indiana by applying Ball State's strengths in applied research and hands-on learning to projects across the state. With financial support from the Indiana Legislature and Lilly Endowment's Business Fellows Program, Building Better Communities works to match the university's expertise and resources to the varied needs of Indiana communities.