Weekly View » 100 Years Ago

100 Years Ago: May 22-June 4

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 21 May 2026 05:08:44 +0000

One Hundred Years Ago — From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, May 25, 1926: The Indianapolis Park Board has taken the first steps toward converting Brown’s Triangle, northwest corner of Emerson Ave. and Washington St., into a beauty spot and memorial garden. Trees have been trimmed, underbrush cleared away, an outdated transit shelter has been removed, and the grass has been cut. A memorial stone, a granite boulder that once stood at the entrance to the Butler University athletic field, Butler and University avenues, and was known to a generation of students as a meeting spot, has been placed on this site with a bronze plaque imbedded in its surface commemorating the life and death of Lieutenant Hilton U. Brown, Jr. The memorial stone inscription will be unveiled in ceremonies Sunday afternoon under the auspices of the Hilton U. Brown, Jr and Irvington American Legion Posts.

One Hundred Years Ago — From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, May 29, 1926: The Indianapolis city council, in special session today, passed a daylight-saving time ordinance by a vote of 6 to 1 and transmitted it to Mayor John Duvall who has ten days to consider it. Should the mayor sign the ordinance, it would become effective on the first Sunday in June and continue until the last Sunday in October. Thereafter, daylight-saving time would become effective on the first Sunday in May. Republican councilor Otis Bartholomew proposed the ordinance, and Republican councilor Claude Negley cast the only “nay” vote. Petitions with several thousand names supporting the daylight-saving plan were presented to the council and several employers told the council their employees favored it. Dr. William H. Foreman, a former city health board member, said daylight-saving time was “vicious to the health of the community.”

100 Years Ago: May 15-21

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 14 May 2026 05:08:00 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Friday, May 21, 1926: All Butler University classes were dismissed today so students could attend the annual May Day exercises, which were held this year at Fairview Park, the future site of Butler. Many alumni, former students, and friends thronged to the park to witness the morning athletic events and then joined in to enjoy the noon luncheon. The afternoon program saw young men and women students pulling a plow, the handles held by Hilton U. Brown, chair of the board of directors, breaking ground within lines drawn for the first proposed new campus building. The day’s activities at the park concluded with a flag raising, community sing, a pageant consisting of 350 students, and the crowning of Mary Miles Coate, the May Queen. Festivities closed with an evening dance in the Claypool Hotel’s Riley Room.

100 Years Ago: May 8-14

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:08:40 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, May 8, 1926: “Ethiopia at the Bar of Justice,” a pageant depicting the achievement of Negroes, will be presented at Caleb Mills Hall on Thursday. A large audience is expected to see 150 performers portray a cross section of Negro life in America with emphasis on the difficulties in the struggle to reach citizenship. The principal characters are Ethiopia, Opposition, Justice, Miss Indianapolis, Prophecy, Love, History, and Mercy. One of the most interesting features will be impersonations of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. The colored Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the Indianapolis N.A.A.C.P. chapter, the National Federation of Club Women, and the National Musicians Association will be part of the production. The performance benefits the Elizabeth Carter Council of Federated Clubs which is raising funds for the Frederick Douglass Home, a colored women of America shrine.

100 Years Ago: May 1-7

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 05:08:27 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Saturday, May 1, 1926: The Indianapolis school board, in special session yesterday afternoon, voted 3 to 2 to build the new Shortridge High School at 34th and Meridian streets. While a board majority had favored a 46th St. and Washington Blvd. site, board president Theodore Vonnegut said it was useless to continue to oppose the 34th St. location and he was surrendering to public opinion. “The people want the school at 34th Street,” Vonnegut said. “I think it’s a mistake, but the whole town is tired of this subject and so am I. Public opinion unquestionably favors the 34th Street location, and it is not for me to say how I think the people will feel later. This site has many disadvantages which have been outlined before and in voting for it I surrender an ideal.”

100 Years Ago: April 24-30

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 05:08:10 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Monday, April 26, 1926: The first broadcast of the opening Indians baseball game from Washington Park will be made Thursday through special arrangements by The Indianapolis Star and radio station WFBM. Fitting festivities will welcome Ownie Bush and his Indians back in town to play their first game of the season before the home folks. It will be a return series with the Kansas City Blues with whom the Tribe was victorious when the American Association opened there on April 13. W. Blaine Patton, The Star sports editor, will be at the microphone for the broadcast and will give an entertaining and realistic play-by-play account of the game. Every Indiana baseball fan who is unable to see this game from the stands can hear a graphic description of every detail by tuning into The Star’s program.

100 Years Ago: April 17-23

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:08:56 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, April 20, 1926: Articles of incorporation for the Indianapolis Airport Corporation were filed today with the secretary of state by the Chamber of Commerce airport board. The nonprofit organization was offered free use of the northeast quarter of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a commercial airport which will be controlled and managed by the 113th observation squadron of the Indiana National Guard. Hangars in Kokomo currently used by the squadron will be removed and set up at the speedway for the airport The speedway makes an ideal landing field for commercial aviation, experts say. Under the supervision of the national guard, the cost of operation will not exceed revenues, and the property will be well protected. The immediate establishment of the airport is to place Indianapolis on the new commercial air map of North America.

100 Years Ago: April 10-16

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:08:26 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, April 11, 1926: The cornerstone of Little Flower Church will be laid this afternoon with the blessing of Bishop Joseph Chartrand, assisted by the church pastor Rev. Charles Duffy and several priests from various Indianapolis churches. The new building, which is half completed, will be used as a combination church and school. Six classrooms and a 700-seat church auditorium will occupy the first floor, and the second floor will be the living quarters for the nuns. The basement will contain club rooms for men and women. A copper box will be placed in the cornerstone, containing a roster of present members of the new parish, the names of the men employed in the building’s construction, the program of the ceremonies, a history of the foundation and beginning of the parish, and copies of local newspapers.

100 Years Ago: April 3-9

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:08:27 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Tuesday, April 6, 1926: The censor’s iron hand reached into the halls of classic Butler University yesterday and snatched a poster with a sketch of a young lady attired in a smile and abbreviated dancing costume, who was advertising the upcoming junior prom. In its place, the censor substituted a poster with an illustration of a prim and demure puritanical maiden, coyly asking the “boys and girls come to the prom, please.” The junior class prom publicity committee hung the first poster designed by Julia Bretzman in the administration building and within an hour it was replaced by one, according to university president Dr. Robert Aley, that was more in keeping with the tenets of the school. “It was just a little internal matter which needs no publicity. There was no disturbance or trouble,” Aley said.

100 Years Ago: March 27-April 2

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:08:47 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, March 27, 1926: “Crispus Attucks” will be the name of the new colored high school on recommendation of the instruction committee of the Indianapolis school board instead of “Thomas Jefferson,” as it was named by the former school board. Soon after the new school commissioners took office in January, a large number of requests were received from colored patrons with the suggestion that the new high school be named after a colored man of fame. The name of Crispus Attucks, who was killed by British soldiers in the March 5, 1770, Boston Massacre, was suggested along with that of Ohio poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, the colored James Whitcomb Riley. The selection was left to the Colored Parent-Teacher Association to decide, and they recommended “Crispus Attucks” was the most favored by the colored people of Indianapolis.

100 Years Ago: March 20-26

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 05:08:48 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Saturday, March 20, 1926: Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle has been named athletic director of Butler University succeeding Pat Page, according to an announcement by Arthur Brown, chair of the athletic committee of the board of trustees. Present plans have Hinkle coaching football, baseball, and basketball and until a track coach is appointed, he will also devote a good part of his time to the Blue and White thinly-clads. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Hinkle came to Butler in 1920 as Page’s assistant and as the baseball coach. He also coached freshman football and basketball while assisting with varsity football and basketball, too. The Butler board of trustees has received numerous petitions from alumni and students advocating for the retention of Hinkle as athletic director, and the student body was highly pleased with the decision.