Posted in: General, Historic Miscellania Preservation Denied: Bates/ When Building

In February 1874, newspapers announced that Hervey Bates, Jr. would soon commence building a new block where “Sharpe’s Cigar store now stands.” The first brick wasn’t placed until June, and yet Bates still expected the...

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Posted in: General When Saks came to Indy

If you like a spot of shopping or just window wishing at a high end retailer, this one’s for you. Saks Fifth Avenue is home to some of the most extravagant items available in Indiana’s...

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Posted in: Then & Now Then & Now: Schrader Building, 101 S. Pennsylvania Street

C.A. Schrader Building, 101-105 South Pennsylvania Street, home of C.A. Schrader Wholesale Grocer from 1901 to 1953.  (Image: Bass Photo Collection, Indiana Historical Society) The American Civil War had yet to begin when C. F....

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Posted in: Bicycles, Historic Miscellania Keep Your Sauerkraut Away From My Bicycles

In 1896, readers of the Christmas Eve edition of Cycling Life, a trade magazine for America’s exploding bicycle industry, might have noticed this clever ad.  Probably drawn by an illustrator at an advertising house in Chicago,...

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Posted in: At Your Leisure At Your Leisure: In the Woods

This postcard shows how the Pennsylvania Hotel would have looked shortly after opening. (Image: eBay) Why would anyone want to surround a beautiful historic building with a brick wall separating the occupants from the rest...

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Posted in: Misc Mondays Misc Monday: John Muir’s Vision Lost and Found

The great naturalist John Muir lost his sight in an industrial accident in Indianapolis in March 1867. (Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections) Mystics and scientists alike have often found that there’s a strange...

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Posted in: Misc Mondays Misc Monday: The Magnetic Woman who Overpowered Indy

Lulu Hurst performs her “electric” wonders against a team of strong men. Illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, July 26, 1884. (Digital Public Library of America) For almost a whole week in December 1884, one...

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Posted in: Then & Now Then & Now: Meridian Park- 3100 North Pennsylvania

Looking north on Pennsylvania, decades ago Historic Meridian Park is small but mighty in its vintage housing stock–which you can examine more closely this coming weekend, May 30 and 31, 2015, from 12-6pm. Now and then,...

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Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Southeast Corner of Pennsylvania and Market Streets

Half of a circa 1876 stereoview looking south on Pennsylvania Street from Market Street (The Indiana Album: Loaned by Joan Hostetler) Merely a decade after the end of the Civil War, photographer John W. Pendergast...

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Posted in: Friday Favorites The Consolidated Building (aka Lemcke Annex)

When you see a stately old building in a vintage postcard, do you wonder (with furrowed brow) if the building still stands? This venerable old brick and terra cotta edifice, née the Lemcke Annex, was an addition...

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Posted in: Friday Favorites Friday Favorites: The American Building

The University Park Building, The Architects and Builders Building and the American Building (2013) 333 N. Pennsylvania Street Some people you never forget. Some places you miss like old friends. Such was the case with...

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Posted in: Vintage Flats Flats Lost: Falling Through the Cracks

How do historic properties, listed on multiple National Registers, become abandoned neighborhood eyesores? Lawsuits were filed against the owners of two such buildings, the Chadwick and the Lodge apartments two years ago. While National Register...

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Posted in: Vintage Flats Flats Saved: North Pennsylvania Street

Limestone detailing of the Sylvania, 2013, (c) photo by Kurt Lee Nettleton What’s your favorite apartment building on Pennsylvania Street? Many flats, including the Sylvania and Glencoe, are listed on the National Register of Historic...

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