A bit of Winona Lake, Ind. history fell this morning as the building known as the Administration Center at the Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church was torn down.
The building, located at the corner of 13th and College, was built as a gymnasium in 1906 for the Winona College, a normal school that existed in Winona Lake until 1917. In 1921, The Daguerre Club of Indiana donated the building to the Professional Photographers of America for the purpose of establishing a photography school. The Winona School of Professional Photography held classes each summer until 1984, when the school relocated to to Mount Prospect, Ill. That year, the church bought the facility and it was used for administrative offices and classrooms. The building was abandanoned in the mid-1990s due to safety issues.
Also on the property is an auditorum at the corner of Publisher and College that is used by WLGBC as the Youth Center. It will remain.