This column first appeared in October of 2010.
It’s Halloween in Irvington and everyone’s thoughts turn to costumed trick-or-treaters, intricately decorated houses, painted windows lining merchant buildings on Washington Street, and ghosts. For eight years now, the very first stop on the Irvington Ghost tours has been the Bona Thompson Memorial Library. Home to the Irvington Historical Society, the Bona is the sole remaining building from old Butler College’s days in Irvington (1875-1928).
Although the old library may look “haunted” to the casual observer, it is the story of the building itself that supersedes any “ghosts” that may reside in it. Bona (variously pronounced as “Baw-nah” or “Bone-ah” depending on who you ask) Thompson was a Butler College student who graduated in 1897 from what was then the finest finishing school for young women in the Midwest. Bona was the child of Edward and Mary Thompson and she lived with her parents in a massive sprawling mansion once located just yards from the entrance to the Bona on the southeast corner of University and Downey Avenues.
Upon graduation, the Thompsons sent their daughter on a year-long holiday in Europe. Although the trip was a pleasant one, her return home proved to be tragic as Bona contracted typhoid fever aboard ship and died in October of 1899. The Thompson family was distraught, and to honor their beloved daughter’s memory, they donated a sizable tract of land and $10,000 to build what the original deed called “a permanent fire-proof building suitable for a library and kindred uses.” (Ten thousand dollars in 1899 would be worth $365,000 today, and the original $10,000 was later increased to $40,000 after the Thompson’s gave their daughter’s alma mater land they owned in southern Indiana to “lease and/or sell at its discretion for the necessary financing of (the) Memorial.”
To plan the building, architect Henry H. DuPont and his 28-year-old partner Jesse T. Johnson (who would later gain fame as one of the men who designed the modern day Arlington Cemetery), were hired. They began work on the project in 1902 , and the William P. Jungclaus Company was hired to supervise construction. Readers may recognize similarities between the Bona and the firm’s other notable Circle City building, the Indiana Repertory Theatre.
According to Irvingtonian Paul Diebold’s book, “Greater Irvington Architecture, People and Places on the Indianapolis Eastside” (1997 Irvington Historical Society), “The exterior of the walls of the library were of finely jointed (or butter joint) tan face brick with details of Indiana limestone. A classical balustrade, or railing, masked the low pitched roof from view, and the tall, round arched windows had metal diagonal window panes, a detail from ancient Greek fretwork or molding patterns. The interior of the library had a central foyer and two flanking reading rooms across the front; there were offices and multi-leveled (book) stacks to the rear. Entering the library from the front door, visitors entered a barrel vaulted space that soared a full two stories high. The flanking reading rooms were two stories high as well, with flat coffered ceilings.”
When the impressive building opened as the college library in December 1903, it housed over 12,000 books and several special collections. The Bona served as the school library for a quarter century until the school moved to North Meridian Street in 1928. Former students recall that the building also housed a few classrooms that were located in the back rooms on the first floor. .
In 1940, after 12 years of neglect caused by the departure of Butler, the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) purchased the building for use as their international headquarters which was housed next door in the 1909 Missionary Training School. The church made many drastic interior changes including the addition of a connector joining the Bona to the old training school, and stayed there until 1995. In 1999, the Irvington Historical Society helped turn the training school wing into thriving seniors-only housing and then raised funds and restored the Bona into a community arts center for the citizens of Irvington and Central Indiana. Thanks to those efforts, guests are now able to walk where Butler students did a century ago, continuing the Bona’s tradition of learning through permanent and visiting art collections.
My favorite feature of the building is the beautiful portrait that hangs just inside the front door of the Bona. The painting, created by famed Indiana artist T.C. Steele, depicts Bona posed in a Victorian dress with her chin resting on her hand, eternally watching her namesake building’s guests walk in and out. When the school moved to the “Fairview Campus” on the north side of the city, the number of books and volumes had doubled in size and the special collections were now bursting at the seams. Sadly, the school took the original T.C. Steele painting of Bona with them. What you see resting there today is a print. Ironically, nowadays, the center houses a permanent collection of artwork by the Irvington Group of artists, which included Hoosier greats such as William Forsyth, Clifton Wheeler, Dorothy Morlan and Helen Hibben; all of whom were contemporaries of T.C. Steele. The center also features rotating exhibits of modern day works by central Indiana artists, timely historical displays and pleasant guided tours of Irvington.
Irvingtonian Steve Barnett, executive director of the Bona Thompson Center, is the man in charge of coordinating these events and diagramming the complimentary tour maps. When asked about the Bona today, Steve says, “It is both a venue for contemporary artists to exhibit and an archive of the history of Irvington. We have been lucky to have the support of community members who have worked to bring the building back to life.” Steve works from his second floor office on furniture once owned by legendary Hoosier eccentric, grocery store heiress Marjorie Jackson, a resident of another legendary Indianapolis haunted house. But that’s a story for another column.
Kent Hankins, President of the Irvington Historical Society, is working hard to keep the Bona on the cutting edge of local history. “This is a neighborhood that has three of the four circles in Indianapolis,” says Hankins “It was the first planned suburb in the United States, with roots going back to 1870. It’s a community we want to preserve. People have referred to Irvington as a state of mind. There’s a lot of unique architecture here, a lot of beautiful Victorian homes. Irvington was a community designed for artists and writers and people in the arts. We want to protect that architectural heritage.”
Is the Bona haunted? Well it’s on the route of the Irvington tours so I guess you’ll have to join us for an autumn walk this weekend to find out. But here’s a tidbit for all of you ghost tour fans out there that may have escaped your scrutiny earlier. The building’s Neo-Classical Greek Revival design was popular during the last decade of the 19th century (1890-1900) in part due to the popularity of the architectural style used at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago — the stomping grounds of America’s First Serial Killer, H.H. Holmes who murdered a 10-year-old boy in Irvington in October of 1893. Coincidence? Sure, but it’s also indicative of the spooky happenstance that is Irvington at Halloween.
Editor’s Note: The Bona Thompson Memorial Center is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-4 p.m. and is located at 5350 University Ave. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged. This weekend, the Bona will host their annual Holiday Fair on Friday, Nov. 22 from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 23 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The Web site is www.irvingtonhistory.org
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
