Posted in: Historic Miscellania Rufus Cantrell, Intruder in the Dust

In 1935, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges weighed in on what mathematicians later called chaos theory: the results of some phenomena are simply impossible to predict, control, or even explain.  Take the freak reasoning of...

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Posted in: Historic Miscellania The Scientific Scrapper Who Played Uncle Tom

If you’re into sports history, you’re probably familiar with the great cyclist “Major” Taylor, who was all but exiled from his hometown of Indianapolis, where he helped spark a craze for bicycles.  Coming up against...

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Posted in: Misc Mondays Misc Monday: Moses in Wonderland

One amazing local business coming to the rescue in the midst of the “food desert” of Indy’s East Washington Street corridor is Tlaolli, an incredible lavender house of tamales in a sea of post-industrial gray. ...

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Posted in: Misc Mondays Misc Monday: African American and Catholic in Early Indianapolis

Two Daughters of Charity with African American children at St. Ann’s School, probably in the 1930’s. (Source: Saint Rita Church, Indianapolis, Indiana: Golden Jubilee, 1919–1969. South Hackensack, NJ: Custombook. 1969.) Did Indiana’s first — and...

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Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then & Now: 500 Block of Indiana Avenue

Indiana Avenue, the diagonal street angling northwest from the heart of the city, has historically been known as Indianapolis’s African-American business and cultural hub. The first black-owned businesses appeared in the 500 block of Indiana...

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Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Passo Pharmacy and Shapiro’s Delicatessen & Cafeteria, 802 and 808 S. Meridian Street

IUPUI University Library, Neighborhood of Saturdays Collection The near southside of Indianapolis was a melting pot of Appalachians, African Americans, several ethnic groups, and a large Jewish population from the early 1900s through the 1960s...

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Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Indianapolis Fire Department Hose Company #9, 1602 Carrollton Avenue

The fire station at 1602 Carrollton Avenue was built to house the city’s segregated African-American firemen, who worked in this station from its construction in 1881 until 1922 when the company moved to Indiana Avenue....

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