Frank Basile's If These Walls Could Tell: Ben Hur Building featuring Jos Holman

Storyteller Jos Homan shapes the history of the Ben-Hur Building in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Crawfordsville's Ben-Hur Building dates back to the early 1900s, when the fraternal benefit organization Tribe of Ben-Hur, founded in Crawfordsville and inspired by General Lew Wallace’s bestselling novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ," commissioned a new headquarters to reflect its national prominence. Designed by Herbert L. Bass & Co. of Indianapolis, the building opened in 1911 at Main and Water streets. Over the decades, it served as a hub of civic and commercial activity, housing offices, meeting rooms, retail space, and the organization’s headquarters. A 1940 renovation replaced the original white tile façade with black marble panels. By 2006, the building had fallen vacant, and multiple redevelopment efforts failed to move forward.

By 2021, nearly two decades of vacancy had left the building in severe disrepair, with extensive water damage from a failing roof and deterioration…