Weekly View » Building Blocks

Sunnyside

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:09:45 +0000

While smallpox was a feared disease, tuberculosis — consumption, wasting disease, white plague, whatever it was called — was once the major killer, particularly of young people. This insidious contagion, spread from person to person through the air by a sneeze, cough, or spit, was no respecter of class. Prevention and treatment of tuberculosis was championed by Dr. Henry Moore, a resident of the Indianapolis suburb of Irvington, and at the time “the underlying principle in the treatment of tuberculosis was rest,” diet, and sunshine. Dr. Moore was an organizer of the Indiana Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and developed plans and supervised the construction of the State Tuberculosis Hospital at Rockville, Indiana, which opened in 1910.
Three years later, the Indiana legislature authorized counties to establish a local tuberculosis hospital. In the five years prior to 1913 tuberculosis was the leading killer with the deaths of 2,715 men, women, and children in Marion County and in the five years prior to 1914 Indianapolis saw 2,448 TB deaths. The Marion County Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and other local organizations petitioned the county commissioners for a hospital and in September 1914 the county council authorized a tax levy of one cent on every $100 of assessed value to build and support a hospital. This together with similar actions taken by the county councils in St. Joseph, Howard, and Madison counties was hailed as a “big day for the anti-tuberculosis organizations in Indiana.”
A thirty-seven-acre site (eventually encompassing 57 acres), mostly timbered with large maple trees, on rolling ground along Indian Creek, adjacent to the Big Four Railroad and the Union Traction Co interurban line, near Oaklandon and one-half mile north of Pendleton Pike, was purchased for $12,000 (2026: $392,142) by the county commissioners from the Springer Estate in June 1915 for the new hospital. Six months later, the county council appropriated $80,000 (2026: $2,588,396) to build it and approved comprehensive plans by Indianapolis architect William E. Russ for a 300-bed facility consisting of a “large administration building with wings on either side [and] at a considerable distance on the right and on the left of this main building…a group of cottages with a large recreation hall at the rear of each group.” William P. Jungclaus Co was awarded the construction contract and Dr. John N. Hurty, state health commissioner, laid the cornerstone on Saturday, July 22, 1916. “Sunnyside” was the name selected for the new Marion County Tuberculosis Hospital. A naming committee headed by Hoosier Poet James Whitcomb Riley selected this submission by Fannie G. Strawson from hundreds offered by the public “because of its recuperative connotations.”
Sunnyside Sanitarium opened in September 1917 with Dr. Harold Hatch, a tuberculosis expert formerly with the Michigan state board of health, being named hospital superintendent and Carrie H. Hudnell appointed superintendent of nurses. Six patients were initially admitted and within days twelve additional patients were transferred to the new facility from the state hospital at Rockville. In the beginning, Sunnyside was one building and could accommodate only seventy patients and there was a long waiting list. While Blacks accounted for twenty-two per cent of Marion County TB deaths, only seven beds at Sunnyside were allocated for Black patients. Infected soldiers returning from World War I created an additional need for bed space at the sanitarium, many in the early stages of the disease who would “readily respond to treatment if treatment were made available.”
To alleviate tedious months or years patients might have to undergo treatment at Sunnyside, a recreational hall was available and a mile of concrete walkways winding through the complex provided convalescents with safe footing for exercise while enjoying the natural beauty of the grounds, fresh air, and sunshine. A school, under the guidance of a teacher, kept children invalids abreast of their studies. By the mid-1920s, Sunnyside had successfully treated 1,150 individuals and the facility had expanded to nine buildings — a children’s unit, two new units for men and women, and a nurses’ home — with bedspace for 170 patients that include forty-nine children, ages 4 to 15 years.
The Sunnyside Guild was formed in 1920 by Claire Gray Syfers “to make patient’s lives cheerier” through recreation and amusements. The Guild gave holiday parties and provided wearing apparel for the patients. It also bought player pianos, motion picture projectors, and had bedside earphones installed for patients to hear radio broadcasts, making Sunnyside the second hospital in the United Sates to have this convenience. The Children’s Sunshine Club of Sunnyside was organized in 1923 by forty-five women. It furnished the children’s recreation room, obtained slides for the playground, and provided books for the children’s library.
After World War II, the treatment of tuberculosis changed radically with the use of drugs, eliminating the need for bed rest in most cases. On November 1, 1967, Sunnyside closed and 100 patients were relocated to Marion County General Hospital’s new pulmonary disease section and to the Flower Mission Building. Four years later, Presbyterian Housing Program, Inc bought the former tuberculosis sanatorium’s buildings and its 57 acres. Following a $3,000,000 (2026: $21,037,661) renovation of the eight buildings, Westminster Village North opened on November 1, 1972, to the retirement community’s first senior residents.

An Old Landmark

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:09:50 +0000

An old Irvington landmark is gone. On the cold snowy evening of Sunday, January 18, 2026, a fire, probably started by squatters, swept through the vacant commercial building at 5235-39 E. Washington St. By the time firefighters from Station House 25 arrived on the scene, dense smoke and flames were erupting through the roof and the masonry walls were beginning to collapse. The persistent blaze, fed by flammable materials stored inside the structure, took hours to suppress, and when dawn broke over the site all that remained was glistening ice coated rubble.
This building has been many things over the years. Charles T. Whitsett, Irvington funeral director and Butler University benefactor, bought vacant Lot 46, Walker’s Sunnyside Addition, in 1910 and two years later had a single-story building with a shed roof erected on the site at a cost of $4,500 (2025: $152,671) in the fall of 1912 with three store fronts and a large open space in the rear with an entrance off an alley that became the Irvington Garage This new addition to the suburb’s business community was heralded by The Indianapolis Star as unique in “that it has combined the garage and the repair, vulcanizing and cleaning shop under one roof.” In addition to this “big convenience to Irvington automobile owners,” the garage also bought and sold new and “second-hand” cars. Initially, one of the storefronts housed an independent grocery that later became a branch of Kroger
In 1918, Whitsett transferred the property to Butler University and the Irvington Garage continued to be successful into the 1920s under the ownership of Bill Senges and Ed Carter who offered specialized sales and service for Overland and Willys-Knight automobiles. Pure Oil Co. installed curbside gasoline pumps in front of the building and Joseph J. Nysewander opened a Paige-Jewett automobile dealership in a storefront. Besides the building’s business interests, the commercial space at 5237 E. Washington St served as a voting site in the 1925, 1926, and 1933 elections.
The building was remodeled by Irvington businessman Silas J. Carr shortly after he purchased the property in 1929, but the years of the Great Depression took its toll on this commercial site. The Irvington Garage closed in 1932, reopening three years later as the Butler Garage, and on the eve of the Second Word War E. H. Shutts Grocery, John T. Moore Bakery, and Monarch Beauty Salon were tenants in the storefronts. Gasoline rationing and other wartime restrictions on automobile usage probably led to the closing of the Butler Garage. The Nik-O-Life Battery Corp. located its offices and manufacturing plant in this space in 1943. The storefronts also became vacant, later being occupied for a short time by the Claman Café.
After a decade of doing business at this Irvington location, Nik-O-Life Battery moved, leaving 5235-39 E. Washington St. vacant, with its interior probably contaminated with dust from the lead, nickel, and other toxic substances used in battery manufacturing. A listing for a new lessee was placed in the spring of 1954 offering “5,040 sq ft open space, ground floor, nice built-in office. Ideal any type of business or light manufacturing, $350 mo (2025: $4,269).” That fall, newly incorporated Jiffee Chemical Corp, manufacturer of Jiff-ee Liquid Drain Opener (aka Liquid-Plumr), an odorless, heavier than water drain cleaner, established its offices and production facility in the building. Over the next several years, an acrid aura hovered around the site and the evidence of the caustic materials used in making the drain opener could be seen in the wooden crates containing large empty glass bottles with crusted lips stacked in the open at the rear of the building. For a brief time, accountant Paul O. Smalley and Roach’s Bending Machine were also tenants in the storefronts.
From 1959 to 1969 alongside the chemical company, Modern Beauty Shop, under the ownership of Irvingtonian Ida Elich, occupied the space at 5239 E. Washington St. The beauty shop remained open for about a year after Jiffee vacated its portion of the premises. For a couple of years, leasing options were few. Kundalini Yoga was a brief tenant at 5239 E. Washington St. until the Butler Beauty Shop opened in 1973. The storefront at 5235 E. Washington St. was leased for a short time from 1976 until the early 1980s to the talent agency Hip Hugger Promotions, florists Enchanted Forest, commercial post card printer Indy Images, motorcycle parts and storage E. T. Engineering, and Capitol Motor auto sales, with the brief tenancy of Golden Finance in the mid-‘80s. With the Butler Beauty Shop being the only consistent building tenant, Carvel Costin, longtime owner of the former adjacent Standard Filing Station, sought and received a variance in 1982 to use its rear portion for an auto body shop.
The once inviting store façade with large storeroom windows had been replaced long ago with a pent roof across the front and windows filled in with ribbed metal, and in recent decades the building’s dreary appearance with no visible signage announcing what was within, presented a mystery to the passerby. A rear entrance provided access to Mink Automotive Service in the late ‘90s and early 2000s and in recent years to R & J’s Auto Repair. In the fall of 2019, a roof fire caused debris to drop and damage cars inside the garage.
Unlike most aging industrial buildings, the closing years for 5235-39 E. Washington St found its use coming full circle to once again housing a garage for a brief time. Sadly, the building’s walls became cold and vacant in search of a new tenant when a spectacular conflagration erased this historic Irvington structure from the Classic Suburb’s skyline.

The Classic Suburb…And Note

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 06:09:45 +0000

Every day the sound of music rings out across Irvington as the chimes of the Methodist Church proclaims the hour and on Saturday summer evenings at Irving Circle Park the sweet sounds of Audio Diner and other local musicians waft across a crowd of gentle listeners. Every October, Irvingtonians look forward to the Spooky Organ Concert at Our Lady of Lourdes Church and in years past the singing of Handel’s Messiah by a community chorus at the Methodist Church was a Holiday tradition. Music has long been a part of Irvington’s heritage performed by its talented residents.
Formal musical training began in Irvington with the classes of Clarence Forsyth at Butler University. A composer of vocal and instrumental music, Forsyth was known for his children’s music and setting old songs like “The Last Rose of Summer” and “Annie Laurie” to new music. In time, Butler’s music program helped to hone the talents of Black musicians Noble Sissle, a jazz composer and lyricist who wrote “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” and baritone opera singer Todd Duncan, the first Porgy of Porgy and Bess. This tradition of musical training expanded when coloratura soprano Adelaide Conte opened the Irvington School of Music during the First World War at her home, 269 S. Audubon Rd. Offering instruction in voice, piano, and violin, she was joined by her sister Gertrude Conte, a lyric soprano, Frieda Dyer pianist, Vittorio Montani, harpist, Rex Hopper, cornetist, and piano teacher Clarence Weesner.
By the end of the 1920s, Irvington was the home to various musicians, and the Irvington Music Club was formed so residents had an opportunity to share and appreciate these talents. One noted musician at this time was vocalist and band leader Dick Powell who briefly made the Classic Suburb his home while performing with the Dick Powell Orchestra at the Indiana Roof before beginning his Hollywood film career. Irvingtonian William “Bill” Shirley, a popular boy soloist, performed with the Irvington Playhouse before going to Tinseltown where he became known as the “boy with the golden voice.” He played the lead as Stephen Foster in I Dream of Jeanie, lending his tenor voice to the Southern composer’s famous tunes. National radio audiences at the time were also entertained with the voice of mezzo-soprano singer Eloise Ellis.
In the early 1930s, musically gifted Irvingtonians came together to provide entertainment for their fellow residents of the Classic Suburb. The Irvington Community Chorus of fifty voices, under the direction of J. Russell Paxton, head of the music department at Tech high School, and the Irvington Concert Orchestra were organized with pianist Edith Garrison, Harvey McGuire playing the English horn and Mary Moore Roland playing the coronet. Also, the Irvington Union of Clubs recruited choirs from Irvington churches to sing Handel’s Messiah during the holiday season under the direction of J. Russell Paxton. This community tradition continued under Charles R. Hamilton, director of music, Irvington Methodist Church, and later with William Moon, head of the music department at Tech high School, who directed the 100 voices.
Over the years, most Irvington children received their introduction to music at Indianapolis Public School No. 57 under the direction of Ruby Winders and Joann Fisher from singing to the playing of tonettes and developing an appreciative ear to classical music in preparing for the Music Memory Contest. Some boys and girls also honed their piano playing skills in the homes of talented teachers like Mildred Allen, Edith Garrison, Elizabeth Brock, Jesse Case, and Paula Rominger Lewis, while Bromley Music Store, 11 Johnson Ave., was a center for children and adults alike to learn the fine art of playing the violin, piano, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, banjo, guitar, cello, and drums under the careful instruction of Charles Bromley and his wife Faye Bromley. In the 1990s, Guitar Town, 5614 E. Washington St., offered an acoustic blues guitar clinic.
The halls of academia benefited from the vocal talents of Irvington bass-baritone George A. Newton, Jr, professor of voice at Ball State University, and award-winning soprano Hazel Dell Nordsieck, a voice teacher at Earlham College. Locally, violin teacher and composer Beldon Leonard was Indianapolis Thomas Carr Howe High School’s music director who also wrote the Howe Loyalty song. The greater Hoosier Capital community was entertained by accomplished Irvingtonians Max S. Woodbury, a professional trumpeter, and his wife Norma Olson Woodbury, a cellist, who performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra along with harpist Pasquale L. Montani. The rich mellow baritone voice of Joe Leamon contributed to performances of the Indianapolis Opera and Symphonic Choir.
Residents and visitors to the Classic Suburb have enjoyed listening to the Jazz Band of Marty Hodapp and its Dixieland tunes at the Irvington Historical Society’s Ice Cream Social and the songs by guitarist Donn Smith at the Irving Circle Concerts. For decades, Audio Diner with Kevin Friedly, Dave Newman, Paul Hogan, Pat Hogan, and Annie Surina playing blues, rock, folk and country have provided entertainments at community venues from Irving Circle to Ellenberger Park and the Irving Theater.
Irvington’s long-time nickname “The Classic Suburb” acknowledges its rich heritage in the visual, literary, and musical arts and the recent Indianapolis Cultural District accolade is a further tribute to Irvington’s past and present.

The Classic Suburb in Word

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 06:09:09 +0000

Visual arts are often the most prominent examples of culture, frequently overshadowing the written word. However, like its rich heritage in paint, Irvington has a significant literary tradition that has deep roots in journalism. Grace Julian Clarke, the daughter of former U. S. Congressman George W. Julian, came to Irvington as a girl when her father built their family home at 115 S. Audubon Rd. She wrote a weekly column for The Indianapolis Star often about Irvington’s past and authored a biography of her father. Another long-time Irvington columnist for The Star was art critic Lucille Morehouse. From the era of World War I through the post-World War II years, her authoritative weekly column, “In the World of Art,” was a review of the Indianapolis art scene.
Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard, long associated with The Indianapolis News, created the cracker barrel philosopher, Abe Martin and his humorous Brown County neighbors. The single-panel Abe Martin appeared on the back page of The News for a quarter of a century, and his sayings were published annually in Abe Martin’s Almanack. Hubbard also, as Abe Martin, wrote “Short Furrows,” a humorous weekly column that appeared in the Saturday edition of The News. Another long-time columnist with The News was Wayne Guthrie who wrote “Ringside in Hoosierland” for 30 years featuring stories of small towns and pioneer lore.
From the mid-1930s through the early years of World War II, Jane Hall Gable published The Irvington Review, a newspaper detailing life in The Classic Suburb and today Paula Nicewanger continues the Irvingtonian tradition of print journalism as one of the owners and Creative Director of the Weekly View, reporting the news and community events on the Indianapolis east side.
Irvingtonians have also been active in television journalism. Howard C. Caldwell, Jr was the long-time news anchor for WRTV (Channel 6) and author of Tony Hinkle: Coach for All Seasons and The Golden Age of Indianapolis Theaters. Debbie Knox also was active in broadcast journalism for 33 years as news anchor for WISH-TV (Channel 8).
One of the leading writers of non-fiction was Irvingtonian George Cottman, often called the “father of local history,” and founder of The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History (now The Indiana Magazine of History). A contemporary of Cottman was Amos Butler, a noted ornithologist and author of Birds of Indiana. Today the local Audubon Society bears his name.
The adage “publish or perish” is well known in the world of academia and many Butler University professors did publish, but Katharine Merrill Graydon, professor of English Literature, devoted her writing in a tribute to Butler alumni who answered the call to the colors in the volume, Butler College in the World War, which also included “a briefer record of those who served in the Civil War and the War with Spain.”
Popular contemporary writers include Rev. Phillip Gulley, former pastor of Irvington Friends Church and author of Front Porch Tales: A Treasury of Stories Filled with Wit and Wisdom. In addition to this book, he has written over twenty other books about small town American life. Another, former Irvington resident, James Alexander Thom who began his literary career with The Indianapolis Star, is best known as author of Western genre and colonial American history.
An account of a dark chapter in Irvington’s past was written by M. William “Bill” Lutholtz who authored the definitive book Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. A fictional read of the Ku Klux Klan era can be found in the pages of Murder in Irvington by Robert “Bob” Fangmeier, a journalist who also contributed articles to The Christian Century. Completing the Irvington authors’ trilogy of this period in Indiana history is Madge: The life and times of Madge Oberholtzer, the young Irvington woman who brought down D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan by Charlotte “Char” Halsema Ottinger.
Irvington authors have also written children’s books. One of the most prolific was Wallace C. Wadsworth who wrote adaptations of Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox; The Real Story Book, and Choo-Choo, the Little Switch Engine among others. When Indianapolis based Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Co. was searching for authors for its Childhoods of Famous Americans Series, Irvingtonian Augusta Stevenson wrote thirty books for this series that included Abe Lincoln: Frontier Boy. Other Irvington authors contributing to the series were Jean Brown Wagoner, daughter of Hilton U. Brown, who wrote eight books, including Abigail Adams, Girl of Colonial Days, and Gertrude Hecker Winders who wrote seven books that included Harriet Tubman, Freedom Girl.
Margaret Weymouth Jackson, “Author in an Apron,” wrote 200 short stories from 1925 to 1950 for periodicals American Magazine, American Mercury, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, and Woman’s Home Companion. She also wrote six novels that included Elizabeth’s Tower, Beggars Can Choose, and Jennie Fowler. Her works were widely used in English composition classes as examples of excellent short story writing. Another Irvington author whose texts are used in classrooms was William Roy Krickenberger, a math teacher at Indianapolis Arsenal Technical “Tech” High School, who co-authored more than a dozen math textbooks used throughout the United States that included Algebra Book One.
Irvington’s literary tradition isn’t the last note in the cultural heritage of The Classic Suburb. It continues with a new score next month.

Irvington The Classic Suburb

Steven R. Barnett — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 06:09:24 +0000

Irvington was recently designated one of the cultural districts of Indianapolis, an official recognition that Irvingtonians have known for decades for the name “Irvington” proclaims culture. For 150 years Irvington, once the site of Butler University, has been known as the Classic Suburb, the home of artists, authors, and musicians.
Named by Jacob Julian, one of the suburb’s founders, for American author Washington Irving because a Julian ancestor was mentioned in Irving’s biography of George Washington, Irvington has embraced its namesake especially with the annual Halloween Festival which evokes Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Hilton U. Brown, one of Irvington’s most distinguished residents whose home was at the southwest corner of Washington St. and Emerson Ave, was a career newspaperman with The Indianapolis News and president of Butler University’s board of trustees. In his book, A Book of Memories, Brown wrote about some of the early artists and writers who found Irvington as a place of inspiration.
Mellie Ingels Julian, an early artist, was one of the illustrators of Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book, compiled by her sister Carrie V. Shuman for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and Rachel May Blount painted one of the earliest known works of an Irvington scene, N. Arlington Ave. Bridge Over Pleasant Run. In 1900, Butler College began offering a course in art under the direction of Myrtle Lewellyn Taylor, an artist noted for her floral images and known as “The Hoosier Flower Artist.”
In 1906 Hoosier Group artist William Forsyth came to Irvington because of its proximity to Pleasant Run, one of his favorite landscape subjects where he often painted along the creek in the meadows bordering its banks. Other artists joined Forsyth in making Irvington their home and they began showing their works at an annual art show, becoming known as the Irvington Group, the only recognized art movement in Indianapolis. In addition to Forsyth, dean of the Irvington Group, other members were landscape painter Dorothy Morlan known for her December in Irvington, sculptor Helene Hibben, creator of the James Whitcomb Riley bronze bas relief, Forsyth’s daughter Constance Forsyth, his son-in-law Robert Selby, Clifton Wheeler and his wife Hilah Drake Wheeler. Clifton Wheeler painted murals, landscapes, and portraits while Hilah Wheeler was a water colorist noted for her floral and interior paintings.
The Irvington Group continued to grow with the addition of Frederick Polley, an illustrator, printmaker, and oil painter who was also a member of the Irvington Group along with portrait artist Simon Baus who amazed those in attendance at one of the Irvington Group shows when he gave a demonstration known as a “lightning painting,” completing a portrait of Hilton U. Brown in less than an hour. William Kaeser, Charles Yeager, and Carolyn Bradley.also joined the group,
Printmaker Herbert Brackmier and watercolorist E. Roger Frey continued in the tradition of the Irvington Group contributing to the rich heritage of Irvington art.
While Dorisjeane Spiess “Doe” Crapo was probably one of the most noted Irvington women artists of the last half of the 20th century, she maintained her home and “Artists Corner Studio” in Warren Park. She painted the contemporary world along with her companion women artists: Indianapolis public school teacher Gertrude Pagett, Thelma Crook an accomplished organist at Irvington United Methodist Church, Elizabeth “Betty” Burden, and Kathleen Biale.
Through community efforts, Irvington public art has also become prominent in recent years. Wayne Kimmell, known throughout Irvington for his poster designs of historic Irvington landmarks, added to Irvington’s public art with two murals, Celebration of the Heart and Circle of Lights, on the north side of the Audubon Court Apartments and Laura Hildreth’s A Glimpse of Irvington beautified Irvington’s busy intersection at Ritter Ave. and Washington St. with a painted design on the traffic signal box. Recently, an award-winning wall mural on the east wall of an optical store commemorating Madge Oberholtzer, the heroic victim of the Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, was completed by Andrea Light joining Irvington Seasons, an earlier mural painted by Doug Stanley on the back wall of the Irvington Flea Market and visible from the Pennsy Trail. Irvington sculptor Cheryl Lorance installed ten carved limestone benches along the Riley Arts Trail in Greenfield last month. Other members of this contemporary group of Irvington artists include Rita Spalding and her incomparable still lifes of roses, Justin Vining, who paints not only Irvington but the Indianapolis scene and maintains a gallery at 2620 E. 10th St, and Will Lawson, often seen standing before an easel on some Irvington byway wielding a brush, capturing on canvas a colorful moment in time.
The rich history of Irvington’s visual arts is complemented equally by the Classic Suburb’s tradition of the wordsmith and of the musician. One carefully crafting particles of language into prose and rhyme and the other crafting gentle notes together conveying thoughts of joy and sadness, truth and inspiration. More about these artists next.

The old southside

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:09:30 +0000

The Old South Side in the 1950s ran from South to Raymond Streets, White River to East Street and was a community of German immigrant heritage — Protestants, Catholics, and Jewish. My wife grew up on Talbott St. in a family of German ethnicity that had moved to the south side from a farm in Johnson County. She attended Nebraska Cropsey Public School No. 22, 1231 S. Illinois St. and Frieden’s United Church of Christ (Deutches Evangelische Friedens Kirche) at the northwest corner of Alabama St. and Parkway Ave. There was a sandlot a few doors south of her home where she played baseball with the neighborhood boys and often did grocery errands at Palmer Market, 117 E. Palmer and later at Miller’s Regal Store, Madison and Terrace avenues. On Sundays, she often went to Ratz Bakery, 1239 S. Meridian, for cake donuts.
A neighborhood of modest homes, hardworking people, and family-owned small businesses, the Old South Side also had valued institutions. Below South St. stood Emmerich Manual (Harry E. Wood) High School on the triangular piece of land between Meridian St. and Madison Ave., and beyond was Shaare Tefila Synagogue, the “Polish Shul,” 607 S. Meridian, United Hebrew Congregation, 601 Union, Ezras Achim Synagogue, “the Peddlers Shul,” 708 S. Meridian, and Austin H. Brown Public School No.6, 702 Union. Beginning at McCarty and Meridian streets with Passo’s Drug Store, 802 S. Meridian, and Peter Pan Market and Sidney’s Liquor Store (The Archivist) across the street, a vibrant retail and commercial strip extended south on Meridian to Morris St. that included Shapiro Delicatessen, 808 S Meridian, Regen Baking Co, 826 S Meridian, Kraft’s South Side Baking Co, 901 S Meridian, Alinikoff’s Kosher Meat Market (Greek Islands Restaurant), 906 S. Meridian, Efroymson’s Department Store, 918 S Meridian, Safrin’s Department Store, 928 S Meridian, and Fletcher Trust Co, south side banking branch (Sacred Heart Parish Center), 1125 S. Meridian. Apartments, taverns, barber shops, and grocery stores added to the strip’s diversity. Today, beside Shapiro’s and the Greek Islands, the last remaining connected business block once housed South Side Furniture Co, 932 S. Meridian, Standard Grocery, 942 S. Meridian, Vogel’s Meat Market, 944 S. Meridian, Simon Shoe Repair, 946 S. Meridian, and South Side Liquor Store, 950 S. Meridian.
The section between South and Morris Streets was a mix of light industry, railroad freight facilities, and residential neighborhoods. The eastern portion was dominated by the Eli Lilly & Co complex of buildings which abutted an area containing the Indianapolis Farmers Market and a community of homes served by Catherine Merrill Public School No. 25, 332 E. Merrill, South New Jersey Street Tabernacle, 617 S. New Jersey, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 727 S. New Jersey to the north and east. Among the industries in the western area were Stark Wetzel & Co, 602 W. Ray, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp, 545 W. McCarty, and Emrich Furniture Co, 324 W Morris. Nearby a small thriving African American neighborhood was served educational by Robert Dale Owen Public School No. 12, 733 S. West St, and spiritually by McCarty Street Pilgrim Holiness Church, 359 W. McCarty, Bethesda Baptist Church, 234 W. Ray, and the Interracial Church of God, 802 S. Capitol. Mayer Chapel Presbyterian Church, 448 W. Norwood, and St. George Episcopal Church, 230 W. Morris, also saw to the religious needs of the larger community.
Morris St. was the threshold to a larger residential community. Sacred Heart Catholic Church and School, 1530 Union, and Sacred Heart (John F. Kennedy) Catholic High School, 1501 S. Meridian, were the focal point of religious and educational life for many and the Concord Center, 17 W. Morris, was the recreational and social venue for the neighborhood children. While most of the industrial activity was to the west of the district along White River, there were pockets on Madison Ave. that included pharmaceutical laboratory Pittman-Moore Co, 1200 Madison Ave., and Indianapolis Drop Forging Co, 1300 Madison Ave. To the southeast, Stokley Foods packing plant, 2002 S. East, sent the sweet aroma of cooking tomatoes wafting across the area during harvest season, and the nearby Ernie Pyle VFW Post, 1840 S. East, provided a social gathering place for the many veterans working at the plant. The Bates-Hendricks House, 1526 S. New Jersey, an historic towered home of Italianate design, was a field trip destination for neighborhood school children while G H Herrmann Funeral Home, 1505 S. East, and Lauck Funeral Home, 1458 S, Meridian, provided dignified settings for southsiders to say “goodbye” to loved ones.
In the mid-1950s, the six-lane Madison Avenue Expressway split the Old South Side. Designed to eliminate the street level crossings of the Belt and Pennsylvania Railroads to facilitate commercial and real estate development on the far south side, over one hundred homes and business were either razed or moved to allow for the construction of this below grade level road. Delayed by an investigation into corrupt land sales by the State Highway Commission chair and others, the project was completed and open to traffic in the fall of 1958.
The elevated portion of Interstate 70 cut a swath across the northern portion of the Old South Side in the early 1970s obliterating businesses, homes, and landmarks like the former Knesess Israel Synagogue (King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church), 1023 S. Meridian, the Oriental Theater, 1105 S. Meridian, a Saturday afternoon gathering place for local young people, and the Madison Avenue Branch Public Library, 1034 S. Alabama. The route barely spared Germania Hall (South Side Turner Hall), 437 Prospect, with its unique classical sculpture on the west facade, and Immanuel Evangelical Church, 412 Prospect. The highway’s earthen embankment limited access from north to south isolating the small African American community. Years later, the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium erased what remained of this neighborhood.
Over time while many Old Southside landmarks, especially along Meridian St, faded and disappeared either leaving vacant spaces or being replaced, a resilient people continued to adjust and welcome newcomers.

The First U Indy

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:09:58 +0000

In the dark woods, a plot of marshy ground was set aside in the original plat of Indianapolis as University Square. It was to be the site of the state university, but as the years passed another location was selected in Bloomington, Indiana and the square in the Hoosier capital became a park. For much of the early 1890s there was discussion about moving the state university from Bloomington to Indianapolis. Former Indiana University president David Starr Jordan wrote, “The great universities of the future must…be located either in the large cities or in the suburbs of the large cities. The University of Indiana has done a noble work…but it cannot rise to the position it ought to occupy until its students and professors are given advantages such as the city of Indianapolis can offer.” However, in February 1896 another solution was proposed — the University of Indianapolis — an affiliation of Butler University, the Medical College of Indiana, the Indiana Dental College, and the Indiana Law School, each school maintaining its own autonomy. The announcement of plans to form the University of Indianapolis was well received, especially by the students at the associated schools. After Scot Butler, president of Butler, “expressed himself heartily in favor of the projected plans,” the junior class began cheering, “Rah rah rah! Zip boom bah! Ip zoo razoo. Jimmy blow your bazoo. Ip-zidi-i-ki U of I! Indianapolis!
Butler University (originally Northwestern Christian University), a private liberal arts institution of higher learning, was established by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1855. Located just north of Indianapolis at what is today the area of Thirteenth St. and College Ave., the school later moved to the suburb of Irvington. Other schools providing specialized education would come after the Civil War.
The Indianapolis Academy of Medicine established the Indiana Medical College in 1869 to provide formal training for those going into medicine. About a decade later, it consolidated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, changing the name to the Medical College of Indiana. After being in several downtown locations, some of which burned, the college erected a “commodious and admirably arranged” building across from the statehouse on the northwest corner of West Market St and North Senate Ave. A school of dentistry, the Indiana Dental College, was organized by the Indiana State Dental Association in 1878 with rooms on East Market St. and later on North Pennsylvania St. In 1894 the Dental College constructed a building on the northeast corner of Ohio and Delaware Streets, which still stands.
Professional training for men going into law began when the Indiana Law School, a proprietary institution, was established in 1894. Located at 71 W. Market St, the school was in proximity to the local and federal courts and the state supreme and appellate courts giving “students an unusual opportunity for witnessing court procedure in all of its various forms.”
Forty-eight Indianapolis business and civic leaders signed the articles of incorporation for the University of Indianapolis. After the paperwork was filed on April 8, 1896, a fifteen-member board of trustees was named that included Mayor Tom Taggart, former President Benjamin Harrison, Allen M. Fletcher, Dr. Patrick H. Jameson, Col. Eli Lilly, Addison C. Harris, Edward H. Dean, Herman Lieber, Sterling R. Holt, and Mason J. Osgood, together with Dr. Joseph W. Marsee (Medical College of Indiana), William P. Fishback (Indiana Law School), George E. Hunt (Indiana Dental College), Scot Butler and Hilton U. Brown (Butler College). A temporary seal with the words “University of Indianapolis” was adopted.
The four associated colleges became departments of the university with a combined enrollment of 692 students. Graduates of the law school on May 28, 1896, were the first to be presented with University of Indianapolis diplomas. In October, U of I fielded its first football squad made up of experienced Butler players and “strengthened by…students of the other departments as are eligible and will add to its worth.” In preparation for its opening contest with Franklin College, University of Indianapolis students held an “enthusiastic athletic mass meeting,” adopted royal purple as the university’s color, and paraded through the streets “‘whooping things up’” with the cheer – “Whoop-ee ki rippi ki rap! The sacred tribes of Indianap! Medico, Dentico, Butler, Law! U. of I., U. of I., rah! rah! rah!” At Saturday’s gridiron match-up at the East Ohio Street ball grounds, U. of I. prevailed, 24 to 6.
Since Washington’s Birthday was the day students first demonstrated support of the concept of the University of Indianapolis, it was designated “university day” for annual celebration. Specific organizations, from athletic teams to debating societies, eventually included a mix of students from the four associated schools. There was a Glee and Mandolin Club, and the Butler Collegian had a representative staff and became a monthly publication of all the U. of I. schools. In an unusual development, “Prof.” Richard B. Rudy, a city musician, received permission to organize the University of Indianapolis Band composed of members selected from the local Musicians’ Union. The band, clad in olive green uniforms, trimmed in maroon braid, performed at university functions and in parades. It gave concerts at Military Park, Garfield Park, and elsewhere around the city.
Rev. Burris A. Jenkins, Ph.D., pastor of Third Christian Church and Butler College professor, was the first president of the University of Indianapolis. He was selected by the board of trustees three years after the formation of the university. While there was talk about developing various sites for a campus, and Pres. Jenkins suggested the creation of a $500,000 (2024: $19,150,043) university endowment, the “movers and shakers” who were so enthusiastic in the beginning were suddenly silent and nothing ever came of the proposals; the U. of I. soon became nothing more than a paper university. Butler College continued to use the name “University of Indianapolis” until 1925 when it reverted to “Butler University” and the Indiana Law School used the name until 1936.

Excluded and Unwelcome

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 05:09:07 +0000

Two hundred years ago, Indianapolis was a village where English, German, French, and native Lenape was spoken in the log cabins and among the trees of the dark forest. Eighty years later, a daily worker “Parade of All Nations” — Serbs and Syrians, Hungarians and Romanians, Irish and Germans, Lithuanians and Greeks — marched through the gates of the iron works in Haughville and Kingan’s meat packing house “chattering in a tongue different from that of his neighbor beside him.” Today, Indianapolis is a cosmopolitan city where more than 85 languages are spoken by its residents. Many of the immigrants speaking these languages, until recent years, are among nationalities who, at times, were previously excluded and unwelcome from experiencing American liberty.
Asian immigration to Indianapolis began with the first recorded Chinese resident Wah Lee, a single man, who came to the Hoosier capital in 1873 and established a laundry at 113 S. Illinois St. He was soon joined by a few of his countrymen who also opened laundries along Washington St, Massachusetts Ave, and Kentucky Ave, the 1880 United States census recording ten Chinese in the city. While the Chinese residents of Indianapolis were few in number and their laundries were not “troublesome competitors” to the steam laundries, Chinese labor in other parts of the United States, especially in California, was often viewed with hostility. This prejudice resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, prohibiting the immigration of any Chinese person for ten years and barring the naturalization of Chinese already in the United States. Visitors were excepted.
Anti-Chinese bias persisted and a decade later the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892 not only continued the ban on immigration, but compelled those already in the United States, including the twenty-one residents of Indianapolis, to carry a permit, with a photo, at all times. Failure to have the ID could result in immediate deportation. This law became permanent in 1902, only to be repealed in 1943 when the Republic of China was an ally of the United States during World War II. After 61 years, Chinese immigration resumed although limited under the 1924 Immigration Act to 105 annual visas. Resident Chinese could also apply for naturalization.
With the ban on immigration, a small number of Chinese made their way to Indianapolis over the years from other American cities. Moy Kee, an interpreter and successful entrepreneur, came to the city in the mid-1890s from Chicago. He was the only naturalized Chinese resident, and his wife was the only Chinese woman in Indianapolis. Moy Kee opened a Chinese Tea Store, 139 Massachusetts Ave., and later a Chinese Restaurant, 506 E. Washington St. He was the host when Prince Pu Lun visited Indianapolis in 1904, and the prince conferred the Fifth Rank of nobility on Moy Kee in recognition of his status as “Mayor of the Chinese.
Unlike the Chinese, there were initially no limitations on Japanese immigration. Ikko Matsumoto was an early Japanese resident of Indianapolis, coming to the city in 1892. He partnered with George Dyer in jewelry manufacturing before establishing his own jewelry shop at 17½ S. Meridian St. About a dozen years later, Ikuta Takito opened a Japanese fine art goods store at 411 Massachusetts Ave. However, few Japanese came to the city after the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 when Japan agreed not to allow immigration of laborers to America in exchange for the United States not imposing restrictions on Japanese immigrants already in the country. By the time of the 1910 federal census, only ten Japanese were residing in Indianapolis.
The 1890s also found the arrival of the first Syrian Arabs in Indianapolis. They were Christians and settled in an area known as the Syrian Quarter along Willard St., a densely inhabited neighborhood where Lucas Oil Stadium now stands. Among the early immigrants were Solomon David, a peddler, and David Freije, also a peddler who later operated a grocery at 348 N. Pine St. The Syrian community grew in numbers, and the 1910 federal census recorded more than 1,000 individuals residing in the city.
A few Asian immigrants came to Indianapolis, if only temporarily, to attend Butler College, an affiliated institution of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) located in Irvington. American missionaries in China and Japan told potential students of Butler and of those who came for post graduate studies were Alexander Ying Lee, T. K. Dju, Li Ru Hung, and Dr. Simaro Rubota. The Indiana Dental College also accepted Dr. Seimaro Kubota as a student.
After years of newspapers and magazines warning of the “yellow peril,” hostility towards Asians from American nativists continued even though immigration from China and Japan had virtually ceased. This extreme racism brought about the passage of the Immigration Act of 1917, which prohibited all Asian immigration to the United States — from the Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and Polynesia (except the Philippines, a territory of the United States at the time). It also barred all Asian immigrants in United States from citizenship and stripped citizenship from those already naturalized. The law also required all adult immigrants to pass a literacy test and imposed an $8 (2024: $200) per person head tax on all immigrants to deter immigration and cover to the cost of those “who might become a public burden.” Further limitations came with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 which created the National Origins Formula, favoring western and northern Europeans by restricting the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States to two percent of the total number of people of each ethnic group in the country based on the 1890 census.
A tragic result of these restrictive immigration policies was the fate of German Jews seeking refuge from Nazi persecution only to be turned away from American shores because of the quota scheme. Despite restrictive immigration, people “yearning to breathe free” made their way to America. Mexicans fleeing revolution, Hungarians escaping crushing Soviet oppression, and Cubans breaking free from a despotic tyranny received sanctuary.
The Immigration & Naturalization Act of 1965 abolished the National Origins Formula, replacing it with preference categories. Family relationships and skill-based preferences provided those from non-European countries with greater opportunities to come to the United States. Others sought humanitarian relief as refugees and asylum seekers. In recent years, 35 million people have applications pending to legally enter the United States, but with caps on valid entry slightly over one million people are admitted annually. Over the past five decades, Indianapolis has benefited from its diverse ethnic population, celebrated annually at the International Festival with cultural displays and demonstrations featuring dress, art, music, dance, and vibrant sounds of languages from Spanish, Portuguese, and French to French Creole and Tagalog to Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, to Swahili and Yoruba to Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali, to German, Russian and Ukrainian to Arabic and Farsi.

Hey, Where ‘Ya From?: Part 2

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 05:09:21 +0000

Four hundred years ago, my ninth great grandfather Thomas Blossom came to America with his family seeking religious liberty. One hundred years ago, my maternal grandfather Harold Dickinson came to America with his family seeking economic opportunities. Others had ancestors coming to America seeking security from persecution and other forms of violence. America continues to be the hope for those wanting a better life. While the Statue of Liberty stands in New York harbor, the promise of the “New Colossus” beckons to those “without a home, but not without a star” coming to America by boat on the sandy beaches of Florida, by foot across the scorching deserts of the southwest, and by sea to the shores of California. All of us share immigrant stories.
In the late 19th century, industrialization in Indianapolis created a need for laborers. Like earlier times with the building of the National Road and canals, European workers were recruited most notably by National Malleable Castings Co. located in Haughville. Slovenian-born George Lambert, an agent for the company, enlisted Slovenes from the Austro-Hungarian empire, and paid their passage to the United States in exchange for a set term of employment. Other Slovenian arrivals found work at meatpacker Kingan & Co. and at chain conveyor manufacturer Link-Belt Co. and later operating retail businesses serving their community. Holy Trinity Catholic Church was formed as a Slovenian national parish in 1906 and the Slovenian National Home, a social center, was established in 1918.
One of the first Italians in Indianapolis was Angelo Rosasco from the Genoa area who came to the city in 1874 and established a fruit business. Other Italians followed, including Sicilian Frank Mascari, who earned a living as fruit peddlers, and by 1910 33 of the city’s 54 fruit and vegetable dealers were Italian. Italians numbered 300 men, women, and children in Indianapolis in 1892, contributing to the city as stonemasons, musicians, and artists. Their numbers would soon increase as poverty and limited opportunities in rural areas of their homeland compelled other Italians to emigrate to America in the hope of improving their economic condition. Most intended to return to their villages once their fortunes were made, and many did so only later to make the crossing once again. To meet the religious needs of the city’s Italian community, Holy Rosary Catholic Church was founded in 1909.
Economic deprivation in the Peloponnesus region of Greece prompted Greeks to come to America in the 1890s. Peter Floros of Sparta arrived in Indianapolis in 1893 and established a candy shop at 46 W. Washington St.; a year later, Athenian Pantelis Cafouros arrived in the city, worked as a waiter and eventually opened The Devil’s Café, 108 W. Maryland St. Other Greeks operated shoe-shine stands, theaters, taverns, and groceries; in 1910 the community incorporated Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. From 1900 to 2020, the census shows the Greek population in Indianapolis growing from 82 persons to over 2,500 persons.
After centuries of suffering under the oppressive yoke of the Ottoman Turks, by 1900 the Slavic people of the Balkans gradually were gaining their freedom and establishing independent states of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. John Peterson (Jan Perich) arrived in Indianapolis from Serbia in May 1906 to find work and retired after 40 years at Kingan & Co. He was later joined by Marko Milatovich who operated the Belmont Grill, 1406 S. Belmont Ave. Although the Serbs had gained their independence, large swaths of Macedonia remained under the despotic sway of the Ottomans who savagely suppressed a nationalist insurrection in 1903 prompting numbers of single men to emigrate to America. In Indianapolis, the Macedonian immigrants settled on the near west side of the city and found work at Kingan & Co, in the railyards, and at National Malleable Castings. Some brought wives with them and opened restaurants, bakeries, and markets along West Washington St. In 1915 approximately 1,000 Macedonians were living in the city and St. Stephen Bulgarian Orthodox Church was organized to minister to the community. Roman Romanoff arrived in 1906 and later operated a Coffee House at 546 W. Washington St that was a popular gathering place. In 1927 the Macedonian Tribune, a newspaper serving all Macedonian immigrants in America, was founded at 20 S. West St with Boris Zografov as its first editor.
While an independent nation of Poland ceased to exist at the end of the eighteenth century following its partition between Prussia, Austria, and Russia, Polish speaking individuals had immigrated from German Pomerania to Indianapolis by 1875 and were active in organizing Sacred Heart Catholic Church. One of the Poles to come to Indianapolis in the early twentieth century was Alex Joseph Tuschinsky who came to the city in 1909. Born in the village of Gollaschutz (Golańcz) in East Prussia, Tuschinsky was a trained gardener and in 1917 established Hillsdale Landscape & Nursery Co. in northeast Marion County south of Castleton that became noted for its annual Rose Festival.
In some cases, the housing available to immigrant men was crowded and unsanitary. Often, they were exploited by their own countrymen who contracted their labor out to local factories and collected the wages. The Indianapolis board of health policed these circumstances with the view of improving the health conditions. In 1911, the Immigrants Aid Association established the Foreigners’ House at 617 W. Pearl St. The house was designed to meet immigrants’ needs with reading rooms, shower and tub baths, toilet facilities, and other conveniences. Evening classes in English were also offered.
The number of foreign-born living in Indianapolis in the 1920s was only about five per cent of the city’s population. Those from southern and eastern Europe mostly lived along West Washington St. and in Haughville. They were hardworking, colorful people, rearing families, and worshiping as their hearts dictated, but the times were not tranquil. As in the pre-Civil War era, strong nativist, anti-foreign movements were sweeping the land. The Ku Klux Klan, hiding behind masks, marched the city streets spewing anti-foreign, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jewish epithets. While there was a violent cross burning in 1923 at Miley Ave. and Vermont St. in Stringtown, most of the hatred was in the form of intimidation. By the end of the decade, most overt forms of bigotry had ended, but until the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Equal Opportunity Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, religion and national origin was used to marginalize some Indianapolis citizens.

Garages

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 22 May 2025 05:09:29 +0000

It is said, “Necessity is the mother of invention” and in recent times as soon as the personal computer appeared, the laptop bag was created. Similarly, no sooner after the appearance of the smartphone, the selfie stick was developed. These are only simple contemporary examples of this truism. Much earlier, at the end of the nineteenth century, with the invention of the automobile, the need for space to store and repair these new machines became apparent. While barns and stables were adequate for this purpose, few such private structures were available in cities. Small outbuildings began to appear on the lots of homeowners who had acquired one of these motor vehicles. These buildings were initially called “motorbarns,” “motorsheds,” “motordens,” and “motables” before the French word “garage,” meaning “keeping under cover, protection, shelter,” became popular.
One of the first public automobile storage and garage facilities in Indianapolis was built in 1902. Automobile Storage and Repair Co., 25 E. Ohio St., offered to store automobiles “for persons who ride downtown to their businesses” and either recharge electric cars or refuel gasoline cars. A year later, Carl Fisher opened Fisher Automobile Co., 330 N. Illinois St., with a salesroom and garage. The Indiana Automobile Co., 220-224 E. New York St., in addition to its sales department, had “the only garage in town where the largest of automobiles can be safely handled…[and employing] the most competent mechanics…” Another public garage, the Delaware Garage Co., 215 N. Delaware St., opened in 1909, and was “the newest and cleanest place to leave your car downtown.” It had the city’s first electric automatic air pump. Away from the business district, the Morton Place Garage, 1840 N. New Jersey St. and Meridian Place Garage, 22nd and Illinois streets, were built to better serve residential automobile owners.
In the fall of 1905, a building permit was issued to Charles L. Henry, president of The Indianapolis Journal and president and general manager of the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Co., for the construction of one of the city’s first private garages at his home, 1408 N. Meridian St. The brick structure cost $2,000 (2024: $70,958), which was more than the average cost of a house, while most people were paying $200 (2024: $7,096) or less to have a wood frame garage built. Most private garages simply provided automobiles with shelter from the elements and for owners with electric cars a charging station, the current emitting intermittent crackling sounds and sparking flashes of light. A few garages were stocked with tools and doubled as workshops where ardent auto enthusiasts could work on their machines. For those racing daredevils who sought the thrill of speed, a garage provided space to build a speedster and tinker with its engine, maximizing its speed potential.
What would become known as the most famous set of garages began in 1909 with the building of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Inside Turn 1 of the racing oval, fourteen scattered wood frame garages were erected to house racing teams and their speedsters: two large garages accommodating twelve cars each and twelve small garages sheltering three cars each. As the racing teams prepared to send their “thundering machines and daring human life” in the first speed battles around the new motor speedway on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, August 19, 20, and 21, 1909, every garage was stocked with “mechanical parts, oil, tires and accessories of every class” so that following “each test spurt of speed around the course…the trembling monsters of power and swiftness” could be taken back to their garage and completely studied, every weakness carefully noted and nursed and treated so that every ounce of power could be achieved. While the small sheds accommodated most racing teams, a large garage that could stable fifty cars in separate compartments, arranged with a workshop and repair department, was built to hold the bigger racing teams such as the Buick and National.
The long building containing individual garage compartments proved to be the best design to meet the needs of the racing teams, so by 1916 two wooden garage buildings, painted white with green trim and separated by a narrow roadway, had been erected. In addition to windows in the double doors, a row of windows was installed above the doors to let in more natural light. The street between the garages soon became known as “Gasoline Alley,” a nickname coined because the fuel depot was located at one corner of the strip.
The most dramatic change to the speedway garages occurred on Race Day, 1941. Shortly before 7:00 a.m. in the garage housing the Miller Special (No. 35) as gasoline was being drained from the tank of the car, welding sparks from an adjacent garage caused the fuel fumes to explode, igniting a blaze. Flames and dense black smoke soon engulfed the south garage complex with four successive explosions spreading the conflagration. Despite the heroic efforts of firefighters, 24 of the 30 garages were destroyed along with three racecars including the Miller Special which qualified for the race. Seven people were slightly injured and considerable racing supplies, including specially blended fuel that was to be used by four competing cars, were destroyed. “All drivers took their losses with cheerful shrugs. They traded supplies back and forth in order that every man might have and equal opportunity.” The garage complex was rebuilt later in the year, but without a row of windows above the double doors. However, the 500 Mile Race was suspended during World War II, and the garages were not used until racing resumed in 1946. Nearly forty years later the two old east-to-west wooden garage complexes were razed, and the entire garage area was redesigned with three long plain, gray concrete garage buildings erected on a north-to-south axis abutting Gasoline Alley. To the rear of the garages, a fuel building with additional garage space was built. This new garage compound was ready for the 1985 racing season.
While racing enthusiasts anticipated the dropping of the green flag and the roar of the world’s best finely tuned speedsters on Race Day, the days and weeks preceding witnessed long hours in the garages with mechanics and drivers perfecting their machines for maximum speed. The sportsmanship exhibited among racing teams following the 1941 garage fire continued into later years, but in the early days of the Indianapolis 500 there were some dark events.
Days before the 1912 race, driver Teddy Tetzlaff discovered that “an unknown intruder… [allegedly]…opened the gear case on [his] Fiat racer…and dropped in a steel punch with the evident intention of disabling the car….” After this incident, guards were posted nightly in Tetzlaff’s garage and the garages of Ralph DePalma and Bob Burman “to keep prowlers away.” Two years later, as the cars were being run out onto the track to take their positions for the start of the race, it was discovered that Barney Oldfield’s Stutz No. 3 had been tampered “with during the night while locked in the garage.” A quick inspection found that oil had been poured into the engine. Acting swiftly, mechanics tore down and cleaned the contaminated engine part, replaced the spark plugs, and when the green flag dropped Stutz No. 3 sped across the start-finish line with the other racers.
For over 120 years, Americans have come to rely on the garage as an automobile shelter, a workshop, and a storage space proving the versatility of a simple idea.