News from around Johnson County as reported on Sept. 5 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 2016, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about the city of Greenwood working to get Old Town on the National Register of Historic Places.
Armed with a camera, map and notebook, two men toured Old Town Greenwood neighborhoods. They documented the houses that stood the test of time, with the documentation being included in Greenwood’s application to have the area listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Buildings with shops and restaurants on Main Street and Madison Avenue received the same designation about three decades earlier. If other areas were to be included, property owners could get grants or tax breaks if they wanted to make improvements to their homes, city officials said.
The documentation of about 300 homes and churches north of Main Street, such as on Euclid Avenue, Broadway, Pearl, Wiley and Brewer streets, was a vital part of that effort and was being used to make a case for the historical significance of Old Town. In June 2016, the city was awarded two state grants worth $9,500 to fund the project.
For their first trip through Greenwood, Kurt Garner and Dylan Colburn from K.W. Garner Consulting & Design were focused on getting a photograph of each building, an estimated year of construction and what the property was used for.
Estimating how old a building is just from its outside appearance may seem a daunting task, but Garner pointed out several key details that help. Building materials, the style of the house and the type of foundation it is built on are key factors in estimating when it was built, he said.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2014
Court hearings to determine if the man convicted of raping and murdering a Franklin College student was mentally fit to be executed would set a legal standard in Indiana.
2005
Two Johnson County men were helping to restore power to spots of Mississippi hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina
1995
The quiet resort area of Cordry-Sweetwater on the Brown County-Johnson County line was becoming a thriving community.