The diversity of Indianapolis is represented in its neighborhoods. Some neighborhood names date back more than a century and a half, while others are relatively new and utilitarian.
In the early years of Indianapolis, divisions in the city were simply practical North Side and South Side, designating the areas on either side of Washington Street. The coming of the National Road through the city and a bridge across White River, stimulated development along the road west of the river. One early platted area was called Indianola, but because houses were “strung out on both sides” of the National Road, the neighborhood was given the nickname Stringtown. Despite the efforts of residents to have their community recognized by its platted name, the nickname stuck and Stringtown remains the name of the near west side Indianapolis neighborhood.
As Indianapolis grew, neighborhoods were given nicknames, many times by the police, for easy identification. In the vicinity of West 20th St. and the canal, there once was a cotton mill and the area was dubbed Cottontown, a moniker that described this part of Indianapolis well into the 20th century. The Cottontown bridge across the canal at W. 16th St. marked the entrance to the community. Today much of the canal in what was once Cottontown is underground, and this section of the city is part of the United Northwest Neighborhood Association (UNWA).
One neighborhood that has “a more stick-to-it-ive nickname” is Irish Hill. The three-block wide area is located east of the Indianapolis downtown, between College Ave. and State St., Southeastern Ave. and Bates St., and in its early years it had “an international hue to things . . . and law and order were consequently strained most of the time.” Irish Hill is a residential community, and as one might infer from the name, its resilience has enabled it to survive the inroads of light industry and see a renaissance in the renewal of old houses and the construction of new homes and apartments with spectacular views of downtown.
Not far from Irish Hill was once a neighborhood known as the Vinegar Hill neighborhood. Lying along what today is the 500 block of Virginia Ave. in the Fletcher Place Historic District, Vinegar Hill received its “acidulous sobriquet” from the disposition of the ladies in the area to “advertise one another’s shortcomings.” It was said at the time, that this propensity was so strong “that they even promoted the church militant by praying offensively, each for her sisters, at the prayer meetings.”
Mass Avenue today is a vibrant cultural district of Indianapolis. In the 1890s the community around the intersection of Massachusetts Ave. and Michigan St. became known as Confederate Crossroads, a name given “merely in jest” because Edmund W. Tompkins, a native of Virginia, owned a drug store at 511 Massachusetts Ave. Farther up Massachusetts Ave. near its intersection with Bellefontaine St. (today’s Bottleworks District) was “Brown’s Switch,” a spur off of the former Indianapolis, Pittsburg & Cleveland Railroad, which gave the nickname to the surrounding neighborhood. Philip Brown had established his home, a lumber yard, and mill at this location prior to the Civil War. It was the childhood home of Hilton U. Brown who was associated with the Indianapolis News for many years and served as president of the board of directors of Butler University for over fifty years.
Within the downtown business district was an area known as the Levee. This nickname was applied to Louisiana St. by Union Station and later to Illinois St. between Washington and Market Streets. The “Levee” label was “based on the fact that the hackmen had their stands” on these streets, and “when anybody wanted a ‘boat’ (hackney carriage) all they had to do was to go to the ‘Levee’ and get it.” A few blocks east of the downtown district was “Morphine Alley.” The name was given to a narrow alley between East Washington and Market streets near Cruse St. frequented by those addicted to the opiate. Authorities were often called to “Morphine Alley” to treat the plight of those addicted with the curse. Sadly, today there are multiple “Morphine Alleys” throughout the city where emergency services are called upon to care for those who have overdosed.
Southwest of Indianapolis, across White River, West Indianapolis, or simply “WI,” developed as an independent town in 1882. Before levees were built, flood waters from Eagle Creek and White River often covered “WI” neighborhoods called the “Valley” and the “Holler” leaving the high ground — an island — between these two localities “contemptuously called the ‘Hill’” because the early settlers of the “Hill,” known as Belmont, “shook their heads whenever asked to buy lots or build homes in the ‘Valley.’” Also, within the precincts of “WI,” the area around the stockyards was called “Dogtown” from the large number of dogs that “were kept there as a guard against” the number of transient men inhabiting the place.
What is today the Riverside neighborhood was once the site of the Ceraline Mills which manufactured a toasted breakfast flake. The community that grew around the mills became known as Ceralinetown, a name residents deemed objectionable, preferring the name Riverside Place. Despite efforts to identify the neighborhood with a more desirable name, the nickname persisted and over the years those from the area took pride in being from “Ceralinetown.”
A large part of the near east side, outside of the Indianapolis city limits at the time, from Woodruff Place east to Emerson Ave. and between 10th St. and Washington St. was known in the years after the Civil War as Brickville because of the numerous brickyards in the area. The brickmakers living in this colony were a hard bunch “who were a law unto themselves.” One possible beneficiary of the product produced in Brickville was the new suburb of Irvington, founded in 1870. The large brick Second Empire-style homes constructed in the town and the presence of Butler University with its massive Main Building gave Irvington its nickname “The Classic Suburb.”