Just A Hoosier Girl: Three Great Victorian Neighborhoods in Indianapolis

Statue of James Whitcomb Riley in Greenfield, Indiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Fall Creek Place, Indianapolis, Indiana, July 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Houses on the eastern side of the 300 block of N. East Street in , , . This block of East is part of the , a historic district that is listed on the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Front of , located at 416-418 E. Vermont Street in , , . Built in 1914, it is listed on the , and it lies within the boundaries of a Register-listed historic district, the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: James Whitcomb Riley House / Charles L. Holstein House. James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home within the Lockerbie Square Historic District in Indianapolis. Category:Images of Indianapolis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Front and western side of the James Whitcomb Riley House, located at 528 Lockerbie Street in , , . Built in 1872 and since converted into a museum, it was named a in 1962. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Indianapolis is a vibrant changing city, not a cornfield with a racetrack as many presumed. It was too a large degree settled by stoic and prosperous German immigrants in the mid 1800’s. These immigrants left a mark on the city in the really great neighborhoods they established. Many continued to live in these neighborhoods until the mid fifties when suburbs lured young families to the outskirts of the Indianapolis. These neighborhoods were still occupied by many new ethnic groups to the area over the year, sometimes adding flair to an area that it not really have in the past.

Neighborhoods like Woodruff and later Irvington were established to give the prosperous classes from all the immigrant groups a way to experience the park like living of a small town near the commerce of the city. The isolation did not last long as a Victorian era closed new groups like the “lace curtain” Irish were establishing their own unique neighborhoods with modest homes and businesses at their previously isolated edges.

During the 60’s many of these areas made a gallant attempt to keep their unquietcharacter, they in some ways experienced decline but in other ways were defined and enriched with new inhabitants. In the late seventies and early eighties many of these great places were rediscovered for the historic architecture and famous past residents. Today some our wholly restore and other have great urban flavor of wealth, poverty, art, and tradition that draws a new generation of urban families to their blocks.

Lockerbie Square is one of the structurally oldest neighborhoods in Indianapolis. It‘s graceful mid 19^th Century homes survived various periods of urban growth and decline. Lockerbie Square was designated as qualifying for National Register of Historic places in Marion County Indiana in 1973. Like many Midwestern historic neighborhoods it is noted for having a nice variety of Italianate, Federal, and Queen Anne style homes. It was platted my Scottish Immigrant named George Lockerbie in the late 1840’s. It sits on the northeast corner of East and New York streets. The neighborhood is just south of one of Indy’s hottest alternative neighborhoods known as Mass Ave.

Originally, the neighborhood was called Germantown. It was home to the numerous prosperous German Immigrants from about 1849 to 1880. The area is considered one of Indianapolis walk able neighborhoods and soon when Indianapolis began to prosper in the downtown area in the mid 1880’s it became one of the more desirable neighborhoods for Indianapolis growing Victorian middle class. It’s most well known resident of was James Wit comb Riley who lived in the neighborhood for two decades.

There is very little left to indicate the German Heritage of the area here are tierces from the period. A German Methodist church on the corner of New Jersey and Michigan St still exists Trinity Lutheran Church on the northeast corner of Ohio and East Standee of the largest churches built in the area was to serve the German Catholic St. Mary built in 1857. Both churches have been demolished. St. Mary’s relocated to New Jersey St. in 1912. This are was also home to the original St. Vincent Hospital and Home for the Aged Poor run by the Little Sisters of the Poor started in 1875. St. Vincent’s was located on Vermont St.

James Ray-Butcher House was home to the Indiana over nor who served from 1825 to 1831 is located in the neighborhood. It was moved to the neighborhood 1977. It is Indianapolis oldest known house having been built in 1835. It used to occupy the space that the Marion County jail stands now. Most visitors enter the neighborhood. They come to visit the home of James Whitcomb Riley for the last two decade of his life.

John H, Nicked was a very successful cracker make built a very stylish home in the neighborhood in 1873. It was an Italianate home at 528 Lockerbie Street. His son in-law Major Charles Holstein was friends with James Whitcomb Riley. A frequent visitor and then boarder he spent well over twenty years in the house. Known for being an exocentric bohemian the Hoosier Poet was said to walk the neighborhood spinning yarns for neighborhood children and giving out candy

One of the most continuously occupied Indianapolis historic neighborhoods is Fountain Square the arid was farm land before 1835 when it was purchased by Calvin Fletcher and Nicholas McCarty. This area too had growth fueled by many of Indiana’s German immigrant families. The Virginal Ave area became commercial in the 1860’s

The area was known as the,”tended “when the Citizens Street Railway Company laid tracks there in the mid 1860’s. A turnabout was created at the intersections of Virginia Ave, Shelby, and Prospect Streets. The list of businesses in this area that are iconic to the whole city is endless. This is a small sampling.

Fountain Square State Bank (1909),

Fountain Square Post Office (1927),

Have camp and Dirk's Grocery (1905),

Cohering & Son Warehouse (1900),

), the Frank E. Reese Company (1904),

Wiese-Wenzel Pharmacy (1905)

, the Sommer-Roempke Bakery (1909), the

Fountain Square Hardware Company (1912),

Horuff & Son Shoe Store (1911),

The Fountain Block Commercial Building (1902

The neighborhood was also noted for it’s unique contribution to Indianapolis Theater. It boosted the most theaters in the Indianapolis area from 1910 to 1950. These included movie theaters, vaudeville theaters, and amateur dramatic theaters. The area declined with the suburban growth of the 1950’s and became improvised and forgotten. The historic fountain in Fountain Square was removed to Garfield Park in 1954.

The area has experienced a comeback, but it still reflects of many decades of urban decline and grit. It is becoming once again Indy entertainment micas. It has a number of great kinky restaurants. The art flourish in the area with many galleries and unique shops. It is home to Wheeler Arts Community and Murphy Art Center. It is quite a bit more of an authentically urban bohemian neighborhood then Broad ripple or the highly polished Mass Ave.

The area has experienced a unique rise of the rival of swing dancing, very similar to the kind going on in the lively clubs there in the 1940’s.However even then the area would not have had the flair of more urban area because the Hoosier temperament tends to be a little on the bland German farmer side .

James O. Woodruff was from Auburn New York and came to Indy as a civil engineer to work on the water works. He was taken by the beauty of the wooded area joist east of the city. It however, with no real tradable roads could take a hour by wagon to reach this lovely area on the outskirts of growing Indianapolis,

In 1871 he purchased this area and opted to create a park like setting of stately Victorian homes that would give Indianapolis growing elite upper class a way escape the grime and grit of the increasingly industrial Indianapolis. In 187 3 he completed his home in Woodruff Place. He laid out very large palettes on three streets with esplanades, Italian fountains and statuary. The focus was the cast iron multi tiered fustians Very large and extremely ornate Victorian homes featuring the Italianate,

English Tudors, Queen Anne’s, and many more dominate the neighborhood. These homes were some of the largest built at the time. The homes in the neighborhood date from the 1880’s to the early 1900’s. During the twenties when some of the larger home burned, ornate and exclusive apartment buildings were built. Many of the servants of and tradesman whoa worked on the homes built modest cottages with ornate craftsman’s shift to reflect some of the work done on the big homes in a small suburban area that grew outside of Woodruff Place called Cottage Home.

Woodruff was determined to keep the growing city out and incorporated as it’s own town. Children who attended the public schools on the outskirts of the neighborhood paid tuition. It was the homes and families of the neighborhood who inspired Booth Tarkington to write the <” The magnificent Amber sons”. During the Depression many Woodruff families lost their fortunes and were forced to take in borders or break up their very large homes into apartments. The housing shortage of the 1940’s caused many long time families to sell their large homes to rental groups who father canalized the magnificent homes. Fortunately some families stayed and maintained their homes against the odes. A very active and aggressive neighborhood association has worked for over 4 decade to preserve the unique character of Indianapolis’s park like first suburb.

The neighborhood is full of young families spending their lives restoring these old homes to their previous glory and continuing the tradition of children playing in the fountains and neighbors talking on porches. I raised my kids in this neighborhood as a renter. The neighbor hood welcomes a mixture of urban singles, older couples restoring homes in their retirement and young families looking for large homes in a great neighborhood. Still somewhat a victim of urban decline the neighborhood is still one of the best places to raise a family in urban Indy. There is a great diversity in the neighborhood, but a genuine small town feel.

C. Bedford Crenshaw James Whitcomb riley house t he Chronicle of Your State in Picturesnuttmegger woodruff place.