Newly constructed Crown Hill West Gate from the 1902 Hyman’s Journal Handbook of Indianapolis.
While the preserved main gate and gatehouse to Crown Hill Cemetery is a well-known landmark along Boulevard Place, and was even the one-time home of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, there once was another, younger, western gatehouse that has now been lost.
This was the west entrance to Crown Hill, located off of Northwestern Avenue (aka Michigan Road/MLK Jr Street) at 32nd Street. Actually, there was an older entrance onto the street farther north, but this one replaced that one in April 1901. Herbert Foltz, architect of many notable homes and buildings around Indianapolis and Indiana, was the designer of this limestone structure.
With the construction of nearby I-65, an on-ramp was located at the Michigan Road and 32nd Street intersection. 32nd Street was closed on both sides of Michigan, which would have cut off the entrance into the cemetery as well. In April 1968, the southwest gate was closed and the gatehouse razed.
According to the Crown Hill Cemetery website, there are now 28 White Pine trees, 2 Blue Spruce trees, and a memorial where this gatehouse once was. They were placed by Mildred Sommer in honor of her twin Mary, and their family memories.
