GREENFIELD — The L.C. Thayer Building housed businesses in downtown Greenfield for decades after the structure went up in the heart of downtown Greenfield in the late 1800s.
But for about the past 50 years, its second floor has been vacant. The space fell into disrepair. The roof leaked. Birds were its only occupants, according to the current owners.
Now, not only is that second story housing businesses once more, but it’s doing so with many of the original adornments it started out with about 130 years ago.
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Linda Congdon and her son, Christopher, have finished leading the renovations to the second floor at 18 E. Main St., now known as the Thayer Business Center.
Levi “Lee” C. Thayer was born in Massachusetts in 1845, according to an article by historian Greg Roland on the city of Greenfield’s website. Thayer moved to Indiana to work as a railroad engineer and later served in the Civil War. He built the Lee C. Thayer block in downtown Greenfield in 1890 and opened a dry goods store a year later in what is now 18 E. Main St., which bears his name to this day.
The building went on to house a variety of businesses, including a grocery store, drug store, barber shop and five-and-dime along with office space for attorneys, insurance salesmen, a homeopathist and county trustee.
Linda and Christopher Congdon estimate the second floor of the property hadn’t been occupied since the 1960s. The family renovated the main floor of the property housing Greenfield Fitness in 2015.
When they set out on the second floor, there was no power, heat or working plumbing, Linda said. Now the office space has energy-efficient lighting and climate control along with new bathrooms, insulation and exterior windows. The Congdons put in an elevator, replaced the old fireplaces with electric ones and had the building re-roofed as well.
While that modernization was necessary to preserve the property, Linda and Christopher wanted to maintain as much of its original atmosphere as they could. That meant stripping the paint off the American chestnut trim and Florentine glass in the interior windows and transoms. The Congdons believe the second floor’s hardwood floor and doors with their Victorian-style cast-iron hinges are original to the building as well.
Linda calls it “turn-of-the-century meets modern.”
Restoring the second floor took about a year-and-a-half, she said. It’s far from the first historical property the family has improved in central Indiana.
“These are a labor of love,” Linda said.
Christopher recalled cataloging the space’s trim after it was removed with plans to list it for sale online. When a carpenter identified the wood as American chestnut, he urged Christopher to read up on the subject.
According to the American Chestnut Foundation, nearly 4 billion American chestnut trees grew in the eastern United States more than a century ago. They were some of the largest and fastest-growing trees with wood that was rot-resistant and suitable for building.
Then, at the beginning of the 20th century, a fungus accidentally imported from Asia spread rapidly throughout American chestnut forests. By 1950, the fungus had eliminated the American chestnut as a mature forest tree.
Christopher realized the trim was made from a prized wood that was virtually no longer available. It never went up for sale online. Instead, the trim was carefully stripped of the paint that had covered it for years before getting stained and put back on the walls in the L.C. Thayer Building.
A door whose window reads “Elmore Accounting Service” makes up the entrance to the business center’s break room. Linda said it’s the only door with fully intact lettering from the floor’s former era of housing businesses. A sticker on the door proudly declares the office was air-conditioned. Linda assigned the door to the communal break room to ensure no future tenants would replace the piece of history.
The Congdons wanted to renovate the building’s third floor as well, but determined the sprinklers that would have been required were too costly to take on. They take pride in renowned Greenfield-based artist Will Vawter’s name written in black paint with the date 1891 on one of the third floor’s brick walls. Vawter is believed to have had a studio there.
The Thayer Business Center is made up of 17 office rooms and a conference room. Six rooms have been rented so far, several of them by Origins Family Counseling.
Kristina Graber, owner of Origins Family Counseling, said the practice moved into the L.C. Thayer Building in January. As the counseling center was expanding and in need of more space, she knew the Congdons were working on their space in downtown Greenfield.
“The timing was just right,” she said.
Origins Family Counseling loves its new home, Graber continued, adding staff members receive positive feedback on the historical aspects of the practice’s latest office.
“We’re happy to be in this space, where we feel like we’re part of history,” Graber said.
