Explore Seven National Historic Landmarks in Columbus, Indiana |

Seven buildings in Columbus, Indiana, have been designated as National Historic Landmarks, an extraordinary number for a city with a population under 50,000, and one of the reasons Columbus is recognized as one of the most important cities for architecture in the U.S.

What makes a landmark? The National Park Service explains, “National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places…because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States”

First Christian Church, Eliel Saarinen (1942)

First Christian Church, designed by father-son duo Eliel and Eero Saarinen, and completed in 1942, is one of the great works of American architecture from the first half of the 20th century.

It is widely considered the first Modernist church in America and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000. The building illustrates the Saarinens’ genius in building composition and urban design.

The relationship of the building to its tower and the site’s open space, as well as how the total work relates to the surrounding urban fabric, are among the structure’s strongest points.

Irwin Union Bank, Eero Saarinen (1954) and Office Building Expansion, Kevin Roche (1972)

Cummins Inc. Irwin Conference Center, formerly Irwin Union Bank and Trust, was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1954, with landscape design by Dan Kiley.

The low, glass-walled building was a radical design at a time when banks were made of imposing limestone and granite. The interior of the bank is a large open concept with distinctive domed lighting and an amazing stair well. The building is linked to the 1910 office building and three-story building by a three-story glass arcade, which was designed by Kevin Roche and added in 1973. The striped glass of the arcade is made to help moderate the extremes of temperature a glass building can experience.

Miller House and Garden, Eero Saarinen (1957)

Miller House is one of the most important mid-century modern residences in the country, often mentioned alongside Fallingwater, The Glass House, and The Farnsworth House as America’s best examples of residential modernism. This hallmark of modern design showcases the talents of architect Eero Saarinen, designer Alexander Girard, and landscape architect Dan Kiley, three masters of design collaborating at the height of their careers.

Commissioned by industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia Simons Miller in 1953, Miller House was designed with an open and flowing layout, flat roof and stone and glass walls. The rooms, configured beneath a grid pattern of skylights supported by cruciform steel columns, are filled with textiles that feature strong colors and playful patterns.

Miller House and Garden tours often fill to capacity. Be sure to book your ticket in advance of your visit to Columbus!

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Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center (1960)

John Carl Warnecke designed Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center in 1960 as an elementary school. The complex is a cluster of four buildings, each containing three classrooms. The buildings are connected by open-air walkways. The school now serves students and adults in need of academic skill building, career training, English language classes, and alternative educational programming. What better place to inspire lifelong learners than a National Historic Landmark!

McDowell school is considered an important early work of architect John Carl Warnecke. Warnecke was a prolific architect, known especially for his designs for Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., and the Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. At one time, his firm, John Carl Warnecke and Associates, was the largest in the United States.

North Christian Church, Eero Saarinen (1964)

North Christian Church, completed in 1964 is the last building designed by Eero Saarinen before his untimely death on September 1, 1961.The sloping roof of this six-sided building blends with the landscaped earth-mound which surrounds it. This low line accentuates the slender 192-foot spire, topped with a gold-leaf cross, which gives its distinctive design. Dan Kiley designed the landscape of the multi-acre site, and Alexander Girard designed the interior.

Just before his death Saarinen wrote, “We have finally to solve this church so that it can become a great building… I want to solve it so that as an architect when I face St. Peter I am able to say that out of the buildings I did during my lifetime, one of the best was this little church.”

The church’s congregation declined over the last decade, and it officially closed its steel doors in July 2022. Today, the building has a rebirth on the horizon so stay tuned! Let us hope the building’s interior will soon be open to the public once again!

First Baptist Church, Harry Weese (1965)

First Baptist Church is positioned on a small hill making a prominent neighborhood focal point befitting a National Historic Landmark. The silhouette of the two-story building is created by two steeply pitched A-frame slate roofs, one smaller than the other.

The interior of the sanctuary is windowless except for the vertical skylights at the front, which highlight a “pierced” brick wall that screens the choir, organ, and baptistry.

Chicago architect Harry Weese designed more buildings in Bartholomew County than any other architect in the 1950s and 1960s, including schools, homes, banks, apartments, a retirement home, and others.

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The Republic Newspaper Building, Myron Goldsmith/SOM (1971)

Now occupied by the Indiana University J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program

Completed in 1971, The Republic Newspaper Building was designed by architect Myron Goldsmith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The large glass and aluminum curtain wall provided a unique view into the interior of the building, exposing the complex and fascinating printing process of newspaper production. The printing press once spanned half of the length of the building!

The Indiana University J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program moved into the building in 2018. Now on view are graduate students hard at work becoming the next generation of civic-minded, innovative, and imaginative architects. Visitors can pop into the public gallery to see exhibitions of work by students, faculty and visiting artists.

Photos by Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation

Explore Seven National Historic Landmarks in Columbus, Indiana