The Plank Brothers Building

Location: 920 W. 8th Street

Year Built: 1935

Current Use: Planned adaptive reuse as Avondale Arts Co-Op

The Plank Family, including brothers Burle and William Plank, emigrated from Russia in the early 20th century.[1] Once established in Muncie, the family was very active in Muncie’s Jewish community.[2] The brothers, looking for a site for their automobile salvage firm, Plank Brothers Inc., purchased this lot from the Davis Auto Parts Company in 1929.[3] In 1935, they built the current building using some of the steel doors and windows from the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair.[4] Nationally known Muncie Power Products Inc. got its start in the building the same year it was built.[5] A few years later, the brothers branched out from the auto business and began selling furniture and appliances out of the Plank Brothers Building.[6] When William Plank passed away in 1953, Burle Plank became president until his own death in 1982.[7] After a period of vacancy, Mike Martin and Cory Gipson purchased the building and established the Plank Brothers Project and The Common Market.[8] They plan to house the Avondale Arts Co-Op in the Plank Brothers Building once renovations are complete.[9]

[1] Burle Plank, interviewed by Warren Vander Hill, February 22, 1979. Interview 2, transcript and recording, Middletown Digital Oral History Collections, Ball State University, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/MidOrHis/id/521.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Plank Brothers, Inc.,1962, MSS-365, Box 179, Folder 106, The Star Press newspaper reference files, Stoeckel Archives, Ball State University, Archives and Special Collections, Muncie, IN.

[4] Datestone, Plank Brothers Building, Muncie, IN; Plank Brothers, Inc.,1962, MSS-365, Box 179, Folder 106, The Star Press newspaper reference files, Stoeckel Archives, Ball State University, Archives and Special Collections, Muncie, IN.

[5] “The Beginning.” Muncie Power Products, 12 Feb 2024, https://www.munciepower.com/company/history.

[6] Plank Brothers, Inc.,1962, MSS-365, Box 179, Folder 106, The Star Press newspaper reference files, Stoeckel Archives, Ball State University, Archives and Special Collections, Muncie, IN.

[7] “William Plank Dies In Home At Muncie,” The Indianapolis Star, June 22, 1953; “Burle Plank, businessman here since 1929, dies at 73,” The Muncie Evening Press, May 5, 1982.

[8] Sumayyah Muhammad, "Daily Lifestyles: Common Market brings fresh produce to southside Muncie." Ball State Daily News, April 5, 2022, https://www.ballstatedailynews.com/article/2022/04/daily-lifestyles-common-market-southside-muncie.

[9] “Home,” Avondale Arts Co-Op, 2024, https://www.avondaleartscoop.org/.