Article Archives: Building Blocks

Building Blocks is a monthly feature by historian Steve Barnett about historic properties on the east side of Indianapolis.

Orator for Social Justice

February 25, 2021 | by Steven R. Barnett

Through time stories have been told of the famous and the infamous. Most of these tales have been told to American children from a Eurocentric point of view of the great and not so great men with a sprinkling of women thrown in along with the rare non-European. Growing up … Read More

WhEE-E-E-E-E-E!

January 28, 2021 | by Steven R. Barnett

I grew up in Irvington, on the east side of Indianapolis. Every winter I looked forward to sledding down snow-covered Brown’s Hill at the southwest corner of Emerson Avenue and East Washington Street with my neighborhood friends. I lived a few blocks from Brown’s Hill, and I would trudge along … Read More

To Help the Sick

December 24, 2020 | by Steven R. Barnett

In a few days we will happily welcome in the New Year of 2021. The old year, the Pandemic Year, gave all of us unprecedented challenges as we struggled with technology working and learning from home. Zoom allowed many of us to still see our colleagues, friends, and family as … Read More

Achieving the Impossible Dream

November 26, 2020 | by Steven R. Barnett

I attended Howe High School on the Indianapolis east side, and like most large city high schools the spacious corridors would rapidly fill up with a wall-to-wall flood of students and teachers when the passing bell rang. Often during this time I would see a black face — not of … Read More

Indy Rocks

October 29, 2020 | by Steven R. Barnett

For many years I was one of the tens of thousands of motorists heading out east New York St. from the downtown area at the end of day. Crossing the Belt Railroad and seeing the green heights of Hillside Park provided me with a psychological boost — the narrow confines … Read More