All Stories: 449
Stories
The Damien Center: AIDS In Indianapolis, 1981-?
The two-story brick building, located at 26 North Arsenal Avenue, is the current location of the Damien Center, which has provided HIV/AIDS health and counseling services to Hoosiers, gay and straight, since 1987. Here in this century-old building,…
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Indianapolis)
Tucked away at the intersection of West Vermont Street and Toledo Street, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Indianapolis is a beautiful brick structure overlooking the canal. The building was home to a congregation that has been…
Bush Stadium
Early History
Bush Stadium was constructed in 1931 by the Osborn Engineering Company, the firm responsible for several famous ballparks including Cleveland’s League Park, Boston’s Fenway Park, and New York’s Yankee Stadium. Local architects added…
Lucas Oil Stadium and the Colts
It was on the snowy night of March 28, 1984, when the Baltimore Colts became the Indianapolis Colts. After loading everything they could remove from their Maryland training complex into twelve moving vans, the Colts made the long journey to…
The Athenaeum
Following the failed revolutions of 1848, many Germans emigrated to the United States to escape turmoil. They incorporated aspects of German culture into their lives in the United States. By 1860, 20% of Indianapolis residents came from a…
The Crispus Attucks High School Tigers
On March 19, 1955, the Tigers of Crispus Attucks High School defeated the Roosevelt Panthers of Gary, Indiana, earning the capital city its first state high school boys basketball championship. On a national level, the victory marked the first time…
Market Square Arena
Perched like a giant flying saucer resting on two parking garages, Market Square Arena was perhaps an aptly styled venue for Elvis Presley’s final public performance (June 26, 1977). Built in 1974 and host to a wide variety of sporting and…
Pride Parade
You’re standing at the corner of Vermont Street and Pennsylvania Street, where the Circle City Pride Parade has marched by every summer since 2002. The parade is a celebration of the Indianapolis LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)…
Crown Hill Cemetery
Crown Hill Cemetery has served the Indianapolis area for more than 150 years as both a place of interment and a peaceful green space within the city. The burial ground sees more than 25,000 visitors annually; beyond those attending services, many…
L.S. Ayres Department Store
L.S. Ayres Department Store was located at the intersection of Washington and Meridian Streets from 1905 to 1992. L.S. Ayres was not just a department store, but an experience that transformed the way women participated in urban society. While…
Hinkle Fieldhouse
Hinkle Fieldhouse, formerly known as Butler Fieldhouse, is one of the oldest and best known basketball arenas in the world and has remained in continuous use since it opened in 1928. Few places represent the Hoosier obsession with the sport of…
Etz Chaim Sephardic Congregation
You're standing in front of Etz Chaim Sephardic Congregation's current synagogue. The members of this congregation have fostered and maintained Sephardic laws, customs, and traditions in Indianapolis for over a century.
Sephardic Jews…
St. Mary's Catholic Church
Rising 168 feet above you, St. Mary’s Catholic Church opened in 1912, though the German Catholic parishioners of Saint Mary’s built their first church in Indianapolis 1858. For more than 150 years St. Mary’s parish has been dedicated to serving…
Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument
You are standing in front of the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument within Monument Circle. Although the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument primarily honors Indiana’s Civil War veterans, it also honors veterans from all American wars up until the…
Indiana War Memorial
As you stand in the Indiana War Memorial Plaza, look north and south and take a moment to consider the vast scope of this area of remembrance. Although the plaza is now dedicated to all of Indiana’s veterans, it was initially designed specifically…
Indiana Medical History Museum
Early History: 1840’s-1900’s
Two and a half miles west of downtown sits the site of Central State Hospital, Indiana’s first hospital for the mentally ill. The term “hospital” rather than “asylum” signaled the institution’s intent to cure patients…
Indiana School for the Blind
Establishment: 1847-1850
Founded in 1847 by an act of the Indiana General Assembly, the earliest School for the Blind originated in the blocks bounded by Meridian, Pennsylvania, North, and St. Clair streets. Interestingly, the call for…
White River Pollution
Early History: 1820’s-1860’s
In 1820, Indiana pioneer John McCormick and his brother James McCormick constructed a cabin along the White River in Delaware Native American territory. The White River’s west fork spans the entire width of the state,…
Indianapolis Flower Mission
A women’s charity organization, the Indianapolis Flower Mission served the sick poor of the Circle City for over one hundred years. Part of a national movement, the charity began in 1876 when Alice Wright, the daughter of a prominent railroad…
Eli Lilly and Company
One of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Company sits on McCarty Street, where it has resided and grown for more than one hundred years. In 1876, after serving during the Civil War and failing at a series of other business…
Flanner House
Flanner House provides services and resources to sustain and empower individuals in order to build a self-sufficient community. Established in 1898, Flanner Guild, as it was then called, began as a settlement house for African Americans in…
St. Vincent's Infirmary
This state historic marker near the northwest corner of East Vermont Street and North Park Avenue commemorates the first location of St. Vincent's Infirmary. From 1881-1889, the first location was here and, from 1889-1913, the second location…
Hook's Drug Store
Hook's Drug Stores were Indiana fixtures throughout most of the 20th century. Founder John A. Hook opened his first Indianapolis store in 1900 in a now-demolished building at 1101 S. East Street in what is now the Fountain Square neighborhood.…
Office of Helene Knabe, M.D.
The "Delaware Flats," the building farthest to the right (south) at the corner of North Delaware and East Michigan Streets, was the location of the combination office-apartment home of Helene Knabe, M.D. She was a bacteriologist whose…
A Building in a Building: Oscar C McCulloch School No. 5
The Oscar C. McCulloch School No. 5 was once located at the intersection of Washington and Blackford Streets on what is now the grounds of the White River State Park. Named for the Christian social activist, Oscar Carlton McCulloch, the school was…
Canal Fever: Indianapolis Central Canal
You now stand on White River Trail at the southern point of the canal. In 1836 the canal was meant to be a pathway that would feed goods into and out of Indianapolis, much like today’s major railroads or interstates. Today the canal is a popular…
Pan Am Games at the IU Natatorium
The 1987 Pan American Games represented one of Indianapolis’ biggest steps “in its quest to be known as the world’s amateur sports capitol.” During the Pan Am Games, nearly 4500 amateur athletes from 38 member nations of the Pan American Sports…
Early Baseball in Indianapolis
In 2010, a team of professors and students from Ball State University used digital mapping technologies to identify the exact location of Washington Ball Park. Decades of development and change, including the construction of the Indianapolis Zoo,…
Racing in the Velodrome
The open air cycling track, or velodrome, before you is named for Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor. In 1899, Taylor, a renowned cyclist and world record holder from Indianapolis, became the second African American world champion athlete. Celebrated…