Moving and Opening the Archives

Moving and Opening the Archives

By Meaghan Jarnecke

After years of prep work and even more years of advocacy, the Indiana State Archives has officially moved from the east side to downtown Indianapolis! We celebrated the grand opening on Thursday, September 24^th. Indiana Archives and Records Administration Executive Director Chandler Lighty, Governor Mike Braun, Bill Browne of RATIO, and Jon Ferguson of the Department of Administration gave speeches before the ribbon cutting. Attendees were then invited to explore the public areas of the building, including exhibit spaces, the reading room, and the rooftop terrace.

^{Image: Indiana Archives and Records Administration Executive Director Chandler Lighty speaking at the Grand Opening.}

The move started June 22^nd and the final box was placed July 29^th. During the six weeks of the move, our staff and moving company worked twelve hour days, six days a week to move over 85,000 containers. Specialty items like equipment, glass plate negatives, and our safe were moved with additional care and detail.

Large wooden carts were used to transport our collection across the city. Carts were filled at our old building and then traveled downtown where the records were placed on shelves in our new building. Empty carts were returned to 30^th St., where the cycle continued until all records were in the new building.

^{Image: Moving carts full of archival materials staged at the new archives building}

Our new building contains four floors of stacks with hand crank high-density shelving and specialized storage for volumes and oversized items. Each floor of the stacks is painted a different color to help orient staff.

Following the conclusion of the move, Indiana Archives and Records Administration staff slowly began moving into the new building. Archives staff began checking records into their new locations, unpacking supplies, and familiarizing themselves with the new building.

You can visit the new Indiana State Archives building at 350 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202.

The building is open Monday-Saturday 9a-4p and the reading room is open for research Tuesday-Saturday, 9a-4p. There is plenty of parking available in the Senate Ave parking garage located next to the Archives building. Visitors can have their parking validated. It is recommended to schedule an appointment, so all records can be pulled prior to your visit.

^{Image: (Left) Exterior photo of the new Archives Building. (Right) The first floor exhibit space.}