New Covington VFW building opens

Sep. 7—COVINGTON, Ind. — Two years after a fire destroyed the historic VFW building in Covington, Ind., a rebuilt building is now open to welcome veterans and the public.

While one person entering the building at 1212 Liberty St. said the building smells new, there are remnants of the past with the new building housing some items saved from the previous building that was destroyed in a fire.

Those items included sinks which were cleaned up, a bible and antique guns. They had stored guns in the building for military funerals.

The accidental fire, with leaves catching fire out back, occurred on Aug. 27, 2021, destroying the VFW's longtime home. People were inside the building when the fire started and grabbed what they could before getting out.

It was believed the fire was out, but about a half-hour later was when the total loss happened because the fire came out of the roof, said Veterans of Foreign War Post 2395 Commander Jeremy Claypool.

A lot of history went up in smoke that day.

Claypool said they had to purchase new flag poles and flags for ceremonies.

Quartermaster Bob Cates said the best he can find is that the post started in 1946.

"Little by little it took them a while, but it just kept getting bigger and they added an annex to it which was two double-wide trailers," Cates said.

The two-story brick house previously was the home of dentist Dr. E.J. (Edward Jones) Martin.

Claypool joined the post two weeks before the fire and became commander about six months later.

That's also when rebuilding plans started, to find contractors, and a decision was made to rebuild on the site for the former building.

"I was just wanting to see a building built on the original site. I grew up in Danville and I always remember driving through Covington and having memories of seeing the plane. Then when I moved to town it took me awhile to come out here and actually join. But I came down here for the fish fries and casino nights they had," Claypool said.

He and his wife came Halloween night one time as eggs and bacon and won a costume contest.

The post has 86 members including life members, yearly memberships and a large auxiliary.

"People are slowly coming back," Claypool said.

Claypool said the longstanding post members, such as Cates and Assistant Quartermaster Greg Stark, are why he wanted to see something built back.

"That way they can have their post back, because they deserve it," Claypool said, adding that the younger veterans deserve it too because now it's their turn to take it over and keep it going.

Construction on the new building started in November 2022.

The 50-by-60-foot building has a front carport for easy accessibility for wheelchairs and if it's raining, a back porch with grills to be outside, a bar and open meeting and gathering space with tables. The building has a kitchen and stove, and walk-in freezer.

Construction isn't entirely finished.

"We're really not done yet," Stark said. "We just barely opened and everything worked out great."

They were still waiting on bathroom stalls, hard liquor and other items.

A bar top that had been ordered hadn't come in yet, but they needed one for their soft opening on Aug. 26.

Their auxiliary hired a couple guys to make a bar top. The bottom of the bar already was barn wood, and the bar top was then made out of old barn wood, siding, too.

"Everybody liked it so well," Stark said, about everybody wanting to keep the unique bar top. Now it's a story to tell about how it came about.

Stark, Cates and Claypool said they had several mountains to overcome in getting the new building constructed, from increased costs, getting materials, licenses, permits and being pushed to get a lot done in a short amount of time.

They probably had 25 dump truck loads of fill and 15 loads of rock hauled in.

"We couldn't have built at a worse time," Stark said. "I mean everything's gone up and doubled and sometimes tripled."

Claypool said, "I was trying to get the main goal, with everybody else, I wanted to be open before the two-year mark (of the fire) to bring everybody home and give veterans a place to come back to."

Cates said the suicide rate for veterans right now is 24 a day.

"So, if we can give them a place to come back, and talk, because that's all you can do is talk to other veterans; and that's another thing we want to do is get them coming back so they will get that type of stuff off their mind," he said.

A soft opening occurred Aug. 26 with about 60 people in attendance, including local and district VFW officials.

An official grand opening for the building will be at 5 p.m. Sept. 23. The festivities are open to the public.

"We're pretty excited about it. We will be done with everything by that time," Claypool said.

"It's really I think turned out fairly well," Stark said.

Insurance covered almost all of the rebuilding costs and the Covington Community Foundation also helped with the project.

Cates said donations also have come from the community, including through a July 4th raffle and poppy sales.

Cates, Claypool and Stark are proud of the building and optimistic about what the future holds for it.

In addition to being used by the VFW Post, the community is again invited to use the new building, as it used the annex building in the past, for weddings, receptions, parties, meetings and other events.

"We've always as a post, we've always done a lot of service for the community, and we've even continued to do that on a limited basis even without this (a building) so just to keep everything fresh in the community's mind," Cates said.

The building already is rented out for a couple community functions.

They want people to come there for wedding receptions, church functions, graduations, club meetings, etc.

The building also will house monthly VFW meetings, the first Wednesday of every month, and auxiliary meetings.

They had their first meeting on Sept. 6 in the new building, on the site, since the fire two years ago.

A first district meeting will be there soon too.

They plan on having fish fries and spaghetti dinners going again too.

"Everybody likes those and they're well attended," Cates said.