History – Page 4 – Muncie Neighborhoods

February 18, 2017May 9, 2017

Riverside-Normal City: Portrait of a Middletown Neighborhood in a Post Industrial Age

This project conducted an ethnographic study of the Riverside Normal City (RNC) neighborhood, which is the area east of Ball State University in Muncie. Using participant observation, oral history, archival research, photography and semi-structured interviews, students provided an interdisciplinary analysis of how this neighborhood has changed over time. Students attended monthly RNC neighborhood meetings, interviewed neighborhood residents, scanned residents’ photos while collecting stories, reading about the history of Muncie and documenting the neighborhood today. In analyzing this data, students were asked to consider the economic, sociocultural, and political causes that changed this neighborhood overtime and how these changes have impacted local residents. The findings were published in a book.

Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Erickson
Department: Anthropology
Community Partner: Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood Association
Students: Iesha Alspaugh, Simran Bhinder, Abby Clark, Joseph Coachys, Alejandra Diaz-Fernandez, Barbara Dickensheets, Kathleen Harper, Amber Janzen, Savannah Myers, Mia Nickelson, Kathryn Powell, Alexis Smith, Bevin Snyder, Leslie Thomas

January 12, 2016

Beech Grove Cemetery Book & Phone App – Fall 2015

Beech Grove Cemetery holds many wonderful stories about the people who came from Muncie and made contributions as state, national and international citizens. Muncie’s Beech Grove Cemetery Board asked Ball State students to create a book to document these stories and to transfer that content into a walking tour that would allow visitors to access that information via smartphones. Students gained experience in historical research, technical, and public writing. The students were responsible for conducting research, identifying themes, designing interpretation, and selecting stories for the book and app.

Learn more from the project video:

January 12, 2016

City-wide Preservation Plan for Muncie – Fall 2015

Muncie – like many Midwest industrial communities – is recovering from the recent recession and the resulting blight. According to research completed by Ball State’s historic preservation graduate students, the cities that are making the best recoveries are those with strategies that combine historic preservation and city planning to enact redevelopment efforts based on strategic demolitions, rehabilitations, targeted code enforcement and land banking. They have two major strategies in common: data collection and good preservation plans. Through this immersive learning project, Ball State students led by Faculty Mentor Susan Lankford, participated in ScoutMuncie, a data collection and historic resources survey initiated by Muncie’s Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Commission. The students used this data, information gathered through a series of community meetings, and their own research to prepare a preservation plan that will guide the Commission’s efforts to preserve our history and use our historic resources to increase quality of life, strengthen our sense of place, and ensure our Sustainability.

Check out their video to learn more:

October 27, 2015December 21, 2015

Muncie High School Consolidation Oral History Project

During the 2014-15 academic year, the Center for Middletown Studies completed an oral history project that focused on the consolidation of Muncie Central and Muncie Southside High Schools. Center staff completed 25 interviews and developed a supporting archive. The interviews are available online athttp://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/MncHSCnsOHP.

Center staff will present a summary of the project’s findings on Wednesday night, October 28th, at the Muncie Public Library’s Kennedy Branch. The event will take place at 6:30 pm in the library’s meeting room.

The project was supported by the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County and the Muncie Public Library. The presentation is free and open to the public.

May 30, 2015December 21, 2015

May 30, 2015 – Back to the Future – Mid-century Home Tour

Photo by Garry Chilluffo of the Sursa-Kelly House in Muncie – one of the Tour homes.

Presented by Indiana Landmarks and Indiana Modern, this year’s tour featured five Mid-Century homes from the 1940s through the 1970s in Muncie, with a focus on the Westwood and Gatewood neighborhoods.

Tour headquarters was located at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2801 Riverside Avenue. Have questions about Back to the Future – Mid-century home tour? Contact Indiana Landmarks

May 28, 2015January 12, 2016

Muncie Youth & BSU Class Publish Creative Writing Anthology – Spring 2015

A Spring 2015 immersive learning class worked with Muncie youth to write memoir and nonfiction pieces that were recently produced into an anthology. “Stomping Ground” will debut at a book release at Maring-Hunt library on May 28th from 5:00 – 6:00 pm. For more information about this exciting partnership, please read the article published by the Ball State Daily News.