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 of the city were behind me. Speeding along with my fellow motorists up the hill, the traffic flow passes by a small triangular landscaped appendage at the west end of the park where a boulder stands affixed with a bronze plaque. What the plaque commemorated was left to the imagination until a couple of years ago when I had time to stop along the busy roadside.
What I discovered was a seven-ton boulder that I later learned had been “lugged to the new Boulder point at the west end of Highland square” from Brookside Park. The bronze plaque imbedded in the boulder was inscribed:
A Greater East New York St.
Built during the Administration of Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan.
Board of Public Works E. Kirk McKinney Pres, Louis C. Brant, Charles O. Britton. Alfred H. Moore City Civil Engineer, Henry B. Steeg City Planning Engineer.
Erected by the citizens of Eastern Indianapolis 1933.
The plaque commemorates the widening and improving of New York Street between the Belt Railroad and Emerson Avenue. The new route eliminated two dangerous jogs around Highland Park and extended New York Street along the north side of the park. The completed thoroughfare was the result of a long campaign by east side civic leaders and its dedication on the evening of October 6, 1933 began with a parade starting at Emerson Avenue consisting of floats and decorated automobiles, civic league members, school children, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the U. S. Naval Reserve Band, the Tech High School Senior Band, and the Sahara Grotto Band that proceeded west along New York St “while residents of the neighborhoods watched and cheered and filed in behind.” At the site of the boulder, a crowd of ten thousand listened to remarks by Mayor Reginald Sullivan and other notables.
A year earlier the greater Sixteenth Street project was remembered with a plaque affixed to a boulder at the intersection of Sixteenth and Illinois Streets with the inscription
Greater 16th Street 1932
Reginald H. Sullivan Mayor
Board of Public Works
E. Kirk McKinney, Pres, Louis C. Brandt, Charles O. Britton, Ernest F. Frick, Sec.
A.H. Moore, Engineer
The widening of Sixteenth Street from Delaware Street to Northwestern Avenue (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Street) was hindered by a hazardous jog at Illinois Street. The project had been on the city’s schedule of improvements for nearly ten years before all the legal obstacles were overcome and the city could cutoff the northwest corner thereby eliminating the jog and creating a “new, wide-sweeping curve.” The area merchants’ association sponsored a celebration on the evening of September 17, 1932 to mark the opening of the improved intersection with a parade, a bathing beauty contest, and performances by the Indianapolis Children’s Civic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Newsboys Band. Speakers including Mayor Reginald Sullivan and representatives of the “Sixteenth and Illinois Streets Community” proceeded street dancing. Today the marker sits in a landscaped triangular plot at the northeast corner of Sixteenth and Illinois Streets.
Sitting in a “traffic island” at 16th and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Streets is a boulder with a bronze plaque imbedded commemorating a significant civic improvement involving the Indianapolis, the state of Indiana, and the federal governments. The inscription on the plaque reads:
N.R.M. Project No, 40
1934
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President U. S. A.
Paul V. McNutt, Governor – Reginald H. Sullivan, Mayor
State Highway Commission
James D. Adams Chairman, Evan B. Stotsenburg, John W. Wheeler
Merton R. Keefe Chief Engineer
Board of Public Works
Walter C. Boetcher Chairman, Louis C. Brandt, Charles O. Britton, Ernest F. Frick, Sec.
A.H. Moore, Engineer
To stimulate employment during the Great Depression, the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 provided funding for National Recovery Municipal (N.R.M.) projects across the United States. The $650,000 (2019: $12,594,157) from this program allowed for the extension of 16th Street from West Street (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Street) to the former Emrichsville Bridge over White River with the construction of bridges over the Canal and Fall Creek. It also facilitated the widening and surfacing of West Street from 16th Street south to Bluff Road and the surfacing of Northwestern Avenue (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Street) from 16th to 38th Streets. When the project was completed, it opened up the northwest area of the city which had been “shut-off by narrow, congested thoroughfares.” It also provided “ample traffic lanes” for the thousands of automobiles to get to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the annual Memorial Day race.
Across Marion County there are other markers along roadsides and in parklands that commemorate or memorialize events and persons. Some of these were placed by city and state agencies; others were placed by civic organizations and citizens. Unfortunately, time and vandalism has taken a toll on some of these markers and a few boulders stand with a vacant space where once a burnished plaque spoke of accomplishments for the betterment of our community.
