One Small City – Seven National Historic Landmarks!

Seven buildings in Columbus, Indiana, have been recognized by the National Historic Landmarks program, an extraordinary number for a city of over 50,000, and one of the reasons the unexpected Columbus collection of architecture is ranked alongside much larger cities like Boston and San Francisco.

What makes a landmark? The National Park Service explains, “National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places…because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States”

McDowell Adult Education

John Carl Warnecke 1960 McDowell Elementary used a “cluster plan” of four small classroom groups connected by trellised walkways around a taller central commons. Warnecke, a Harvard-trained architect influenced by Walter Gropius…

The Republic / J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program

Myron Goldsmith 1971 The Republic building used glass and steel to embody transparency and community connection, with street-facing printing presses once visible to the public. Goldsmith, a protégé of Mies van der…

Cummins Inc. Irwin Conference Center

Eero Saarinen (architect) with Dan Kiley (landscape architect) 1954 (with additions by Kevin Roche, 1973) Cummins Inc. Irwin Conference Center (formerly Irwin Union Bank and Trust) Designed by Eero Saarinen with landscape…

Miller House and Garden

Eero Saarinen Alexander Girard Dan Kiley 1957 Designed by architect Eero Saarinen, with interiors by Alexander Girard, and landscape by Dan Kiley, the house exemplifies the international Modernist style with its open…

First Christian Church

Eliel Saarinen 1942 First Christian Church was Columbus’s first contemporary building and among the earliest examples of modern church architecture in the United States. Built of buff brick and limestone, the design…

First Baptist Church

Harry Weese 1965 First Baptist Church crowns a gentle hill with two steeply pitched slate A-frame roofs, one pierced by a circular bell opening. Entry is across a bridge over a sunken…

The LEX (formerly North Christian Church)

Eero Saarinen 1964 Completed after his untimely death in 1961, North Christian Church was one of Saarinen’s final designs. The project was completed by Roche Dinkeloo & Associates in 1964. The hexagonal…

The National Historic Landmark, Miller House and Garden, is in a private neighborhood and is only accessible by Visit Columbus tours.