Sunday Ads

Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Polk’s Milk

Photo courtesy of Evan Finch Business: Polk’s Milk Year of this Advertisement: pre-1950 Address: 1100 E. 15th St. Neighborhood: Downtown What they did: Milk production and delivery Years of operation: 1872-1950’s Notable: Legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery once worked at Polk’s Milk...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: The Claypool Shop

Business: The Claypool Shop of L.Strauss & Co. Year of this Advertisement: 1920 Address: 116 W. Washington Street Neighborhood: Downtown What they did: Sold ladies’ hats Years of operation: c. 1917 – 1920 (under the...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Indianapolis Light and Heat Company

Image Courtesy of IMCPL Digital Collections From 1904 – 1926, the company now known as the Indianapolis Power and Light Company was the Indianapolis Light and Heat Company, as indicated in this advertisement from the...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: George William Hoffman Co. (Bar-Keepers’ Friend)

In 1883, George William Hoffman, an Indianapolis chemist and owner of the George William Hoffman Company, used a powder he concocted to clean rhubarb from a metal pan. He later sold the new cleaning powder...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Metropolitan Theater

Earlier this week, Historic Indianapolis featured the Metropolitan Theater in “A Room with a View,” Metropolitan Hall: Indianapolis’ First Theater. The theater’s proprietor, Valentine Butsch, is a forebear of Historic Indianapolis’ own contributor, Sharon Butsch Freeland, and...

Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: L. Strauss & Co.

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Ad. Hereth & Co.

In 1852, John C. Hereth, a German immigrant who came to Indianapolis via Jefferson County, Indiana, opened a shop in downtown Indianapolis which sold anything needed to maintain a horse – at that time the...

Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Hibben, Hollweg & Co.

This 1920 advertisement, showcases a product sold at Hibben, Hollweg, & Co., a dry goods store in Indianapolis, which was located in a prominent building that still stands near the corner of Georgia and Meridian...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: The Freeman Newspaper

In July 1888, Edward Elder Cooper, originally from Florida, founded The Freeman, the first illustrated African-American newspaper in the United States. Cooper was born in 1859, and arrived in Indianapolis at age nineteen. He was...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Real Silk

In 1922, brothers Jack and Lazure Goodman formed the Real Silk Hosiery Company, one of the first companies to sell women’s hosiery door-to-door. At the height of their success in 1929, Real Silk sold over...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Stark, Wetzel, & Co.

It is often the case that individuals who excel as lower-level employees in one business will leave that business and start their own enterprise (unless, of course, there exists a non-compete agreement). Such is the...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: The Pink Poodle

Image courtesy of personal collection of Evan Finch. In the early 1960’s an up and coming star named Aretha Franklin asked for some R-E-S-P-E-C-T from Indianapolis audiences when she performed at the Pink Poodle, a...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Boncilla Cosmetics

In 1896, John M. Price, born in 1872 in Washington County, Indiana, started the Crown Chemical Company, which originally produced household products such as laundry detergent. In 1900, Price moved his growing company, and growing...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Granada Theatre

On April 8, 1928, the Granada Theatre, owned and operated by Universal Pictures, opened in Fountain Square. In 1932, it was the first Indianapolis theater to screen a foreign language film, an Italian picture...

Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: William B. Burford Printing Company

In the 1860’s Miles W. Burford, a banker from Independence, Missouri, moved with his wife to Indianapolis to join his son-in-law, William Braden, in the printing business. Miles and Braden operated the business together until...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: American Box Ball Company

James I. Holcomb (the namesake of the J.I. Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium) and Jacob Frederick “Fred” Hoke met during a Jefferson, Kentucky, Sunday School class in 1894. The two men could not have been more...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Wulschner-Stewart Music Company

Scanned advertisement courtesy of Evan Finch Emil Wulschner, born in 1847 and a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, immigrated to Indianapolis from Germany in 1875 after marrying Flora (Sullivan) Stewart, a livelong Indianapolis resident who...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Richcreek Bank

In 1892, Seth M. Richcreek arrived in Indianapolis. Before surfacing in the Circle City, he had been missing for 25 years. Soon after his arrival, Richcreek opened a law office, but devoted much of his...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: Acme-Evans Company

Some may remember E-Z-Bake flour, as it was a grocery staple in the 1960’s. By that time, part of the company that produced the popular baking product was over one hundred years old. In 1820,...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: (Wheeler) Rescue Mission and Home

While not for a business or a service, this postcard from around the turn of the 20th Century advertises another of Indianapolis’ long-standing organizations. While not bearing its founder’s name yet, this advertisement indicates the...

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