Buildings Preservation

      The  American Circus Corporation built their winter quarters in 1922 on the former Ben Wallace Circus property, three miles east of Peru, Indiana on Route 124E.
      Owners, Ed Ballard, Bert Bowers and Jerry Mugivan built a massive complex with buildings used as horse stables, training facilities, wagon building and repairing shops, shops to work on the electric generators and tractors, buildings to get a shave, a hospital, a commissary and a general store. There were bunkhouses, a restaurant that served meals twice a day, places to rebuild and store equipment, lofts in the barns to store and work on the massive circus tents and an firefighting pump and a hydrant system throughout the property.
      After the winter quarters were sold in 1944, these buildings were used for various farming operations and torn down, damaged by storms or caught fire, reducing the standing buildings to just five still left today.
       The preservation of one of Indiana's greatest historical treasures is being looked at through a Building and Structural assessment. All work will be done in order of structural need and will include shoring up of foundations, repair and replacement of windows, roofing replacement, replacement of wooden siding in places, painting of buildings and doors.
       The American Circus Corporation buildings in Peru, Indiana  are a designated National Historic Landmark.