Brackets
This commercial building on Virginia Avenue in Fletcher Place displays paired brackets beneath its eave. These brackets are both decorative and functional, helping to support the weight of the cornice.
Brackets such as these, in pairs or in singles, are found on both commercial and residential buildings in the Italianate style. Andrew Jackson Downing popularized this style of architecture with pattern books published in the 1840s and 1850s. Although Italianate-style commercial buildings once lined the streets of downtowns across Indiana, and Italianate-style houses graced our residential neighborhoods, the number of these buildings still dressed up with their brackets, is now dwindling.
