Cadle Tabernacle, Indianapolis, IND.
Have you ever heard the Rime of the Ancient Mariner? “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The image of thirsty sailors surrounded by vast bodies of water may come to mind reading Jennie’s short 1949 post.
Postmarked: Indianapolis, IND. AUG 30, 1949 – 2:30 PM
Postmarked: Indianapolis, IND. AUG 30, 1949 – 2:30 PM
Message:
There are 515 churches in Indianapolis Indiana
Can not find many pictures of churches though.
Love, Jennie
Addressed to:
Mrs. Bertha Arnold
13 Dewwy St.
Worcester 2, Mass.
A penny for your thoughts … In fact, according to the Indianapolis City Directory for 1949, Jennie was exactly accurate about the number of churches that existed in Indianapolis during her visit. Today, there are 1,343 Yellow Page listings for churches or places of worship in Indianapolis.
Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke at the Cadle Tabernacle, featured on the postcard above? If you are interested in learning more about the now razed Cadle Tabernacle, read this Sunday Prayer and this Friday Favorite.
You may also want to check out HI’s short guide to kickstart your family tree through church records.
Ashl.ey: Love your postcards and would share a small collection-l00 or so–I have accumulated mostly Indpls but some just winsome or funny…question: there used to be a society (loose) in Indy called deltologists or some similar spelling–collectors of postcards. In 40’s for many years wonderful columnist named Lowell Nussbaum who was most-read first in old Indy Times, then at Star until his sad death–irony is it was he who almost single-handedly over 20 years campaigned, fund=raised and gave birth to our present Indpls.Zoo. In retirement he visited weekly, had a favorite tiger which perhaps he donated, not sure and l day tiger turned on him–his death followed. But one of his avocations was indeed post card collecting and my memory is he donated a wonderful collection to Central Library–may still be there?
Thank you for offering to share your collection! The Indianapolis Library does have a postcard collection – much of which is available online as well. I am not sure where all of the postcards are sourced from, but I would imagine some of them belonged to Mr. Nussbaum. Deltiology is the study and collection of postcards. In fact, there is even a Postcard Club of Indianapolis!
Postcard collecting arose shortly after postcards began appearing in this country. In the period from around 1906 to 1915, tens of thousands of different postcards were produced and many of the purchases were for the sole purpose of collecting rather than actually using the postcards. If you look at enough postcard messages from that era, you’ll also encounter collectors who were clearly exchanging postcards with one another through the mail. Collectors advertised in magazines in order to find people in other parts of the country with whom to exchange postcards. It was a craze and it faded in time. However, that craze resulted in a pictorial record of that era that we would otherwise not have!