Since many are undoubtedly still recovering from reveling in the Irish holiday, it seemed appropriate to highlight an early Indianapolis Irish business. You’ve likely already read a brief intro on Taggart’s Bakery in a past “Indianapolis Collected,” feature, and this advert is from the 1904 City Directory.
As Interim Executive Director of City Market, Stevi Stoesz, pointed out in one part of our recent tour of the Catacombs, the awnings of the Taggart Bread Company (that would eventually be consumed by another company and go on to produce “Wonder Bread”) could be seen in the distance, on New Jersey Street, from City Market and Tomlinson Hall. It also appears from this advert that Taggart Bread had a branch inside City Market, with the factory and office were a mere block away. (Starbucks didn’t invent that concept after all!).
Bear in mind, that the address numbers again changed in 1911, but for the most part, remained in the same ‘hundred’ block, so if you ever find yourself with a spontaneous craving for bread whilst in one of these blocks, perhaps we may be haunted by more than just people.
As a side note: for years I’ve thought that a little French bakery (to serve the neighborhood and theater-goers to Footlite Musicals and the Hedback Theatre) would be ideal at 1848 North Alabama (its prior address being 1946). And though the ‘Green Book’ (Historic Area Conservation Plan of Herron-Morton Place) indicates that 1848 North Alabama was built circa 1935, the 1915 Sanborn map shows a building of a similar footprint where there had been none on the same lot for 1898. Hmm.
