Group: Tyson Auditorium Still Endangered

Tyson Auditorium in Versailles

Indiana Landmarks

Inside Tyson Auditorium in Versailles.

(Versailles, Ind.) - A longtime high school basketball venue in Versailles has again made the list of the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Indiana.

Indiana Landmarks announced its 2012 list of top historic places in danger of being destroyed.

The list puts Tyson Auditorium in the top ten for the second straight year.

Since South Ripley High School began playing its home games at a new on-campus gym in 2008, Tyson has been largely unused. It was constructed in 1950 along with other buildings funded by Walgreens drug store founder and Versailles native James H. Tyson.

The white tile-clad building was the home court of the Versailles High School – later South Ripley High School – basketball teams. The legendary 1954 state champion Milan Indians played many of their home games there.

Tyson Auditorium was among two other places making Indiana Landmarks’ endangered list remaining on the list from 2011: Sylvan Springs in Rome City and Taggart Memorial in Riverside Park in Indianapolis.

Seven new places appeared on the list. They were the American House in Centerville; Harmony Way Bridge, between New Harmony and White County, Illinois; House of Tomorrow in Beverly Shores; The Pantheon in Vincennes; the T.G. Wilkinson House in Muncie; Masonic Temple in Jeffersonville; and the Old Clarksville site in Clarksville.