If you think “history repeats itself,” is just a hackneyed phrase, think again.
Indy’s ‘star’ is on the rise when it comes to the bicycling community, and why not? Over 100 years ago, we may well have been called the epicenter of the nation’s bicycling world–being home to the “largest and best equipped factory in the world.” By the time this advert was published in April 1896, The Indiana Bicycle Company had been in business 10 years and was a booming Indianapolis enterprise.
If you’ve never heard of a Waverly, you aren’t spending much time in publications of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Seems it’s harder NOT to find one of their adverts between 1895-1905, give or take. And while today, we are mobbed with sexy models or movie stars in car adverts, in an old Indianapolis publication of the late 1890’s, announcements were made about what brand bicycle was being ridden by some shining community member. One announcement announced that Mrs. Charles Warren Fairbanks was now riding a Waverly.
100 years from now, I hope there will be a feature like this looking back on the vision of the Monon, the Cultural Trail and other yet-to-be-determined amenities for citizen and visiting bikers of the Circle City.
