Hoagy attended Indiana University from 1920-1926. His mother and grandmother encouraged him to study law as a more practical and reliable career than music. Hoagy obliged, but as a student at IU he put most of his time and energy into playing at…

The Book Nook played a major role in Hoagy’s social life and musical career.  A  soda and sandwich shop popular among Indiana University students, the Book Nook was frequented by campus musicians who kept strict control over who was allowed to play…

Robert Harris’s Princess Theatre opened on June 23, 1913, with the photoplay Mlle. Coquette accompanied by a six piece orchestra. The program also featured chimes playing Ethelbert Nevin’s “The Rosary.” As the first built-from-the-ground-up-movie…

In his unpublished memoir Jazzbanders, Hoagy said of his hometown, “Bloomington offered everything. Creeks, ponds, rabbits, circuses and wide open spaces. I could cross a dusty street here in my bare feet without the aid of a traffic cop.” The…

The house on Dunn Street is one of several homes where the Carmichael family lived during Hoagy’s childhood. Born in Bloomington on November 22, 1899, Howard Hoagland was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde (“Cyclone”) and Mary Lida Robison…

One of the four original diagonal streets of the 1821 plan for Indianapolis, Indiana Avenue tells an important part of the story of African American life in Indianapolis, much of which was centered here on the near northwest side of the downtown…