Historic Indianapolis is a free online media channel connecting readers to places, people and other pieces of the city’s past. Our stories tend to focus geographically within the 465 loop, and with time stamps of at least 50 years ago. We are an independently run business offering registered users free access to our content library, which contains over 2000 articles. We endeavor to inspire you and to help you fall in love with the city you thought you knew, or one you never knew.
Ardmore Block, 1936. Image courtesy: Bass Photo Co. Collection, Indiana Historical Society Preservation month may be over, but on this website, its a point of passionate advocacy at all times. Another one of Indy's long-forgotten corner buildings-- that seems like it...
Newspapers in February 1874 announced that Hervey Bates, Jr. would soon commence building a new block where "Sharpe's Cigar store now stands." The first brick wasn't placed until June, and yet Bates still expected the place to be open by December. By September, a...
Magnolia Building. Image: Bass Photo Collection, Indiana Historical Society It was May 1875 when John B. Cleaveland filed for a building permit for a new five-story brick structure at the intersection of Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee (now Capitol), estimating the...
Original architectural rendering of Pembroke Arcade, Washington Street by Vonnegut & Bohn What would it be like if Indianapolis created such superior architectural design, it made us a destination for tourists and seekers of manmade beauty? Actually, that used to...
Anyone who has ever gotten anywhere in life has had help. Whether family, friends, teachers, community members-- no one is completely self-made. What a noble endeavor to provide a leg up to those whose circumstances are more challenged. Providing community, shelter...
In 1935, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges weighed in on what mathematicians later called chaos theory: the results of some phenomena are simply impossible to predict, control, or even explain. Take the freak reasoning of Bartolomé de las Casas, the Dominican...
from 1929 IU yearbook Ask someone if they know about Indy's football history and the response is usually along the lines of: "Before the Colts, we didn't have any." Au contraire, mon frere! For those not obsessed with all things football, history may be the one...
Celluloid pin promoting the 1898 League of American Wheelmen National Meet. There'll be plenty of credit to go around when Indianapolis hosts the Super Bowl next month. The entrepreneurs who put a racetrack in a cornfield, the political leaders who built a stadium...
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