Weekly View » 100 Years Ago

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.

100 Years Ago: March 13-19

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:08:35 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Tuesday, March 16, 1926: By a vote of 5 to 1, the Indianapolis City Council passed an ordinance last night prohibiting establishment of homes by Negroes or white persons in districts inhabited principally by persons of opposite color except with consent of a majority of property owners in the communities concerned. Councilor Austin Todd sponsored the resolution on behalf of the White People’s Protective League. Nearly one thousand spectators packed the council chamber and enthusiastically shouted and cheered at the passage of the ordinance. After casting the “no” vote, Democrat Councilor Edward Raub said, “I don’t think this Council has the power under the law to put such an ordinance into effect. The Council is limited under the law, let alone the constitutionality of the question.” Later, Mayor John Duvall signed the segregation ordinance into law.

100 Years Ago: March 6-12

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:08:14 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, March 12, 1926: Construction has started on a mammoth grain elevator with a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels on the Big Four Railroad west of Sloan Av, near Beech Grove. The grain terminal will be one of the largest in the Midwest with eighteen giant concrete tanks and an elevator workhouse. It will be leased to Early & Daniel Co, a large Cincinnati, Ohio grain dealer, which has a contract for storage, processing, and handling grain with the Indiana Wheat Growers Association, a cooperative marketing subsidiary of the Indiana Farm Bureau Federation. Designed by local architects Bacon & Tislow and underwritten by Indianapolis financiers, the $300,000 (2025: $5,571,945) project is being built by R. C. Stone Engineering and Construction Co, a St. Louis firm, and will be completed in time to receive this summer’s wheat crop.

100 Years Ago: Feb. 27-March 5

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:08:47 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Wednesday, March 3, 1926: The rise of steel-reinforced concrete abutments and pillars at East Tenth St and the Belt Railroad as part of the city’s railroad elevation program will soon open East Tenth St. into Sherman Dr. and on east without the hazard of a grade level crossing by providing a safe passageway beneath the tracks. This project is one of several intervals through the ten-foot elevation that has led to a record pace of progress in industrial expansion and further development of the adjoining residential district. About 250 new homes have been built in the last year in the Shannon Park addition between Sherman Dr. and Grant Ave. Farther east, other residential additions also are being rapidly developed. Capitol Lumber Co, Marietta Glass Co, and Insley Manufacturing Co are among the industrial concerns expanding operations.

100 Years Ago: Feb. 20-26

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 06:08:15 +0000

From The Indianapolis Times, Thursday, February 25, 1926: The inaugural game at the new sport emporium at the State Fairground Exposition Building tomorrow night will feature a basketball clash between the Butler Bulldogs and the Wabash Little Giants. Built for the local high school sectional tournament and state high school championship game, the facility is one of the largest basketball arenas in the world. The standing room platform has been removed and with 14,500 seats surrounding the entire court, fans need not worry about getting a seat for the big game. The playing hardwood floor is raised thirty inches to afford a clearer view to the spectators, and the press bench is a “hanging” affair on the iron beams above the bleachers on one side. Both of these changes are new ideas and are great improvements over the past arenas.

100 Years Ago: Feb. 13-19

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 06:08:03 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, February 19, 1926: At a dinner held last night under the auspices of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, 500 businessmen and women enthusiastically endorsed ad man Homer McKee’s plan for a Million Population Club, an all-embracing effort of citizens to push the city forward. In a speech that was frequently interrupted with applause, McKee emphasized the need for a concrete selling plan that will interest outside manufacturers to locate in the city through an intensive national advertising campaign to acquaint the country with the opportunities and advantages existing here. He stressed that Indianapolis is an unsold town and the source of all municipal success is industry and that money, science, art and welfare follow industry. Population follows industry and this plan will make for better schools, churches, and a more judicious use of taxpayer money.