Crawfordsville.

• Author: Fricks, Holly
• Position: Economic survey of Crawfordsville, Indiana

Three years ago, Crawfordsville was named one of the 100 best mall towns in America. The ranking must have drawn new residents because Crawfordsville didn't make the latest list. It's no longer considered a "small" town.

Just 45 minutes northwest of downtown Indianapolis, Crawfordsville has many amenities of a larger city, making it appealing to several major national and regional corporations. More than 16,000 people call the county seat of Montgomery County home, as do several large companies.

Much of Crawfordsville's personality can be traced to the presence of Wabash College. The all-male liberal-arts school with about 800 students has been a Crawfordsville institution since 1832. It ranked 16th out of 1,500 colleges in the nation for college graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. and is the nation's 20th most richly endowed academic institution.

Adding to Crawfordsville's charm are the many stately, well-preserved older homes. Nearly every type of 19th century residential architecture is represented in the Elston Grove Historic District, named after Major Isaac Elston, the man who brought the first railroad service to Crawfordsville.

Among the historic structures is Lane Place, home of Henry Lane, one of the founders of the Republican Party, Indiana's first Republican governor and a friend of Abraham Lincoln. Lew Wallace, best known for authoring Ben Hur, also lived in Elston Grove.

A number of recognizable names are cornerstones in the city's business community. For example, Golden Books Publishing, the leading publisher of children's books, recently announced it would be adding to its 265-person staff as Golden closes its other distribution center in Coffeyville, Kan. "The Crawfordsville area is an attractive area for us to do distribution because we're able to get a good skilled labor force," says Mitch Grossman, senior vice president of distribution for Golden Books. When the consolidation is complete, more than 200 million Golden Books will go through Crawfordsville each year.

Another publishing giant, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, has been a major Crawfordsville employer since 1928. The Chicago-based printer's Crawfordsville plant is the area's largest employer with about 2,000 employees. It prints and binds trade and reference books, textbooks, professional books, children's books, religious books and book club/mail-order books.

Nucor Corp. operates...