Article Archives: Building Blocks

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

“. . . Put Up a Parking Lot”

February 20, 2020 | by Steven R. Barnett

Fifty years ago singer-song writer Joni Mitchell composed “Big Yellow Taxi.” The folk-rock song, while written in reaction to modern intrusions into the natural environment, later had Bob Dylan singing a “big yellow bulldozer took away the house and land,” lyrics that echoed all that was bad with urban renewal; … Read More

A Noble Experiment

January 23, 2020 | by Steven R. Barnett

John Barleycorn died at midnight, January 16, 1920. Hours earlier, a group of about seventy-five Indianapolis “Drys” had gathered at Central Christian Church in celebration of the anticipated event. Yes, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution had gone into effect, and prohibition, the great “noble experiment,” embraced the … Read More

Holiday Panes

December 19, 2019 | by Steven R. Barnett

In the years before suburban malls, holiday shopping was a bustling expedition to downtown Indianapolis department stores. From H. P. Wasson Co, at the northwest corner of Meridian and Washington Streets, the festive buyer, often a mother with children in tow, would dash across the street to L. S. Ayres … Read More

Remembrances

November 21, 2019 | by Steven R. Barnett

How do we remember heroes? Are they memorialized as armed sentinels of bronze and stone standing vigilant on court house squares and in village parks where once or twice a year a wreath is placed amid words of thanks and praise? Are names emblazoned on plaques of those who served … Read More

God’s Acre

October 24, 2019 | by Steven R. Barnett

Dead, but not buried; for thirty years the sealed coffin had been stored in the back of the receiving vault at Greenlawn Cemetery. Discovered on a November day in 1886 by undertaker Charles Kregelo while clearing the vault, the coffin bore the inscription “Mary D. Milliss” and revealed the “remarkably … Read More