“Don’t forget the batteries,” was probably among the parting remarks from Mrs. Claus to Santa before he made his recent magical yearly trip. For five decades many of the batteries that powered mechanical toy wonders beneath the Christmas tree and ran the cameras that captured memorable holiday moments came from P. R. Mallory & Co with headquarters at 3029 E. Washington Street. A pioneer in the field of miniaturized electronic devices, Mallory invented the mercury-powered battery during World War II and the AAA battery for Kodak flash cameras in the 1950s. An alkaline manganese battery manufactured under the name Duracell was patented in the 1960s.
Believing that “If you buy it, someone will build on it,” Indianapolis cigar manufacturer Andrew Steffen purchased a seven acre tract east of Rural Street along the south side of East Washington St. in the mid-1890s in anticipation that it would make a good site for a baseball park. The East Side Field of Dreams came to fruition in the fall of 1899, when William H. Watkins, owner of the Indianapolis baseball club, leased the grounds and began construction of the East Washington Street Baseball Park in November. The Indianapolis club opened its 1900 season at the new baseball park on April 20 with Cleveland winning by a score of 7-6. Play continued through 1902 when the Indianapolis Baseball Club brought home the pennant of the American Association, but by the end of 1904 plans were in place to re-locate the baseball park to a lot on West Washington Street. In addition to the Indianapolis baseball team playing at the park, charity games were played for the benefit of the Indianapolis News Fresh Air Fund and Butler College played on the field. It was also the site for football games.
In November 1905 plans were announced for transforming the “old baseball park” into an amusement park to be named Wonderland. When visitors passed through the entrance to Wonderland Amusement Park on its opening night in May 1906, they were dazzled with 50,000 electric lights illuminating the grounds from the entrance to the 146 foot electric tower. Park-goers visited pavilions of the “Johnstown Flood” and the “Illusion Palace”; they rode the “Scenic Railway” or enjoyed the “Carousel.” A large dancing pavilion and restaurant provided more leisurely entertainment. Young and old from all over Indiana enjoyed Wonderland until a fire destroyed the amusement park on the night of August 27, 1911. In the weeks following the fire, the Indianapolis newspapers reported on various plans for the site, but in the end the debris was cleared away and the remains of Wonderland dismantled. The land remained vacant under the control of the Wonderland Realty Co. for the following decade.
In the fall of 1920, General Electric Company began construction of a three story brick building designed in the Early 20th Century Commercial style by GE architect George H. Johnson on the site. Fronting on Washington Street and running south along Gray Street, the plant encompassed 110,000 square feet and cost $2,000,000 (2014: $26,174,196.78). It was to house the National Lamp Works, a GE subsidiary, which would manufacture 160,000,000 miniature incandescent lamps (light bulbs) annually for automobile lighting equipment and decorative home lighting such as Christmas lights for distribution by GE. However, after the building was completed, the lamp works did not begin operation, and the plant remained vacant until the end of the 1920s when P. R. Mallory & Co. moved its headquarters and manufacturing facilities to the site. This was accomplished through the efforts of the Industrial Commission of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. In the ensuing years, P. R. Mallory & Co. grew into an international manufacturing concern that developed electronic and metallurgical products that found their way into a variety of products from electrical contacts used for household appliances to highly sophisticated electrical parts for automobiles, aircraft, and industrial machines. After Dart Industries bought Mallory in the fall of 1978, 3029 E. Washington Street was sold to Emhart Industries and through the 80s it was the home of Mallory Components Group. Eventually the property was abandoned and became a desolate urban industrial landscape.
Today, the three-story brick building and adjacent land at Gray and East Washington Streets — the East Side Field of Dreams — awaits redevelopment as a component of the East Washington Street Vision Partnership, a loose collaboration of the Englewood Community Development Corporation (ECDC), Indy-East Asset Development Corporation (I-AD), and Southeast Neighborhood Development (SEND).
