The Central Indiana Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians began in 1983 in Indianapolis with meetings over a table at the Old Spaghetti Factory, a pioneer restaurant in what is today the Wholesale District in downtown Indianapolis. Present were people from the state office of historic preservation, (then) Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, Historic Indianapolis, Inc., architect
s, preservation activists. Later, members of the public history program at IUPUI were an active segment of the group. SAH originally met monthly at different locations; meetings nearly always included a program or tour of the venue. More social events included an annual Halloween classic film (with architectural elements, ideally!) and the annual Christmas party and architectural ornament auction. Frequent contributors to architectural education efforts such as the "Create-a-Landmark" competition for grade school children, in 1992 the group began an annual award named for early architectural historian Wilbur Peat to a person promoting the "Understanding and Appreciation of Indiana's Architectural Heritage." After 15 years or so, active membership began to dwindle, despite periodic and briefly successful attempts to revive it. It is a different world. We still officially exist and we fight the good fight. At present, we meet annually between Halloween and Christmas, combining what were once our two most popular events.
