Sturges-Young Civic Center and Auditorium (Sturges-Young Civic Auditorium and Community Center)

Built in the post–World War II period of a growing economy and swelling American pride and patriotism, this modern civic center was intended as a “facility to advance the American way of life.” Gifts from the estates of two families in the names of Stella M. Sturges Taylor, Clara M. Sturges, and Emma D. Young funded the project. Strauss of Fort Wayne, Indiana, designed the building in what he called “conservative contemporary.” It has three main interior areas: a nearly 1,000-seat main auditorium/theater; a conference room and main dining room that seats 300; and a youth center and a smaller meeting area with a stage, a main floor, and a mezzanine. Red birch and cypress line the walls of the main lobby; slate covers the floor. A large relief sculpture in concrete on the exterior of the auditorium by Ivan Adams of Bloomington, Indiana, depicts symbols of classical and modern entertainment—a lyre, a lute, Greek comic and tragic masks, and a microphone encircled with a segment of motion picture film.