Today it’s simply “THE ROC,” a two-story massive windowless white-painted stone sprawl surrounded by an asphalt parking lot, an array of solar panels, and a low, gray cement block perimeter wall. The Regional Operations Center (ROC) is the home of the Indianapolis Homeland Security Department and its state-of-the-art security equipment — including video monitors that follow more than 100 mounted cameras scattered around downtown Indianapolis. It occupies 76,000 square feet of the former Eastgate Shopping Mall on the northeast corner of East Washington Street and Shadeland Avenue. The ROC opened in January 2012 as a security center for local law enforcement, the FBI, ATF, and other emergency services when Indianapolis hosted Super Bowl XLVI.
Fifty-nine years earlier, the plan for Eastgate Shopping Center was approved by the Marion County Plan Commission on March 19, 1953 and construction began on August 30, 1955. Under the leadership of Indianapolis realtor and developer Albert L. Frankel, the Eastgate Corporation brought together department store executives Louis C. Wolf and Lester H. Theobald of H. P Wasson & Co. and builders C. Wilbur Foster and Charles E. Nourse of Foster Engineering Co. to construct the “first ‘super’ suburban shopping center” in Indianapolis.
The $7,500,000 (2015: $67,062,253) 65 acre shopping center, designed by C. Wilbur Foster & Associates, had 56 stores and parking for 3,000 cars — no meters, no parking tickets. Eastgate was one of three retail commercial centers being developed in Indianapolis at the time — L. S. Ayres & Co. had recently announced that it was building a north side mall to be known as Glendale Shopping Center, and Irvington Plaza, another east side project, was being planned for the 6200 block of East Washington Street. More than 500,000 potential shoppers in the surrounding metropolitan and suburban shopping area could make their purchases at new Eastgate “anchor” stores which included the first branch of department store H. P. Wasson & Co., along with J. C. Penney Co., and Sears Roebuck & Co. Customers could be lured to the mall by the sparkling displays of Rost Jewelry Co. and Goodman Jewelers; the fragrant smell of leather at family shoe store G. R. Kinney Co. and women’s shoe store Baker Shoe Co.; and the almost sickening sweet smell of caramel corn at dime stores G. C. Murphy Co. and F. W. Woolworth Co. Men could find the latest fashions at Hudson’s and Harry Levinson, while women could be outfitted in the latest fashions at Morrisons or find the perfect chapeau at Suzy Hats. Weekly grocery shopping could be done along the well-stocked aisles of Colonial Stop & Shop Food Market and the Standard Grocery Co., while needed medications could be found either over the counter or from the pharmacist at Hook’s Drug Store. For customers running low on cash to make their purchases, First Federal Savings & Loan provided a convenient stop. While Wasson’s and a few other stores opened in March, Eastgate’s “grand opening” began on Thursday, September 19, 1957 and covered three days of celebration during which the Eastgate Merchants Association offered visitors “valuable prizes” that included a grand prize of a new Edsel (won by Carlos Mathias, 905 Ellenberger Parkway, East Drive). The 1,900 foot open-air mall dazzled with a display of the complete line of Ford Motor Company Edsels.
Over the ensuing years, hundreds of thousands of customers and visitors were drawn to Eastgate for “Old Fashioned Bargain Days,” Family Fashion Shows, the “Mile of Art Shows,” and other events presided over by “Miss Eastgate.” The Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus and Fourth of July Fireworks, set up on Eastgate’s south parking lot, were annual entertainment events. Holidays were celebrated with Easter Egg Hunts, Easter Parades, and Santa Claus. With the enclosing of the shopping center in the late fall of 1971, year-round events and exhibits were now possible on the pedestrian space.
For nearly two decades Eastgate was the shopping destination on the east side until Washington Square Mall opened three miles further east. Customers drawn to the glitzy new shopping center soon were followed by Eastgate stores relocating at Washington Square or in the adjacent strip malls; Eastgate’s rapid decline began. In 1981, Mel Simon & Associates bought the old retail facility and transformed it into a discount center — Eastgate Consumer Mall. Opening on August 16, 1982, shoppers were once again drawn to forty-four stores including anchor stores — clothing distributor Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse; furniture store Front Row; drug and sundries chain F & M Distributors — for the off-price bargains being offered; mall-walkers also became a common sight as well as the chess players in the mall’s 14-restaurant fast-food court. Twenty years later, the mall — long neglected — was sold; a year later its death-knell was heard when Burlington moved to Washington Square, and in the summer of 2003 Eastgate closed as a retail center. Dr. Larry Tavel’s Eye Care, one of the original tenants in the 47-year-old mall, remained as a vestigial reminder of happier times.
While various plans were put forward for the derelict retail structure’s future, the former mall was the site of urban warfare and SWAT team exercises. In 2008, Lifeline Data Centers began work on transforming Eastgate into an IT service center. Regardless of its current use, Eastgate holds special memories for those who shopped and worked at Eastgate when it was THE CENTER of community life on the east side for nearly fifty years.
