Posted in: Historic Miscellania The Rise and Fall of the Billy Goat Beer

If you strolled down the streets of Indianapolis in 1900, you would have needed a bale of cotton stuffed in your ears not to hear a conversation or two auf Deutsch. Thanks to Germany’s turbulent...

Read More 5 Comments

Posted in: Historic Miscellania A Chinese Gravestone and a Murder Mystery at 207 Indiana Avenue

Crown Hill — America’s third-largest public cemetery — has a few hundred thousand stories to tell.  One of its more extraordinary burials took place in 1902, when a Confucian ceremony officially ushered Doc Lung, a...

Read More 1 Comments

Posted in: At Your Leisure At Your Leisure: The Fading of the Orange Roof

A postcard showing the grandeur of the downtown Howard Johnson’s. (Image: Amazon) We often look towards chain businesses with a bit of disdain. Large corporations sending profits out of state while serving up conveniences with...

Read More 4 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Then & Now: Buddenbaum Grocery / Santorini Greek Kitchen, 1413 Prospect Street

Courtesy of the Indiana State Library Fountain Square neighborhood on the southeast side is becoming one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Indianapolis with a mix of affordable housing, a thriving commercial district, interesting cultural...

Read More 11 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Then & Now: White Castle No. 3, 660 Fort Wayne Avenue

White Castle No. 3, located on the northwest corner of Fort Wayne Avenue and Delaware Street, is the nation’s third-oldest surviving White Castle building. The small castle-shaped brick building, and hundreds of others across the...

Read More 18 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Then & Now: Criswell Mercantile Company/MacNiven’s Restaurant & Bar, 337-339 Massachusetts Avenue

Historic photograph courtesy of the Indiana Album: loaned by Evan Finch. / Modern photograph courtesy of MacNiven’s Restaurant & Bar For every Ayres or Vonnegut or Lilly, there were hundreds of business owners in Indianapolis...

Read More 10 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Meadowbrook Diner, 5151 E. 38th Street

Undated linen postcard of the Meadowbrook Diner (The Indiana Album: Loaned by Joan Hostetler) With three operating traditional diners and the recent explosion of food trucks zipping around town, Indianapolis is enjoying a diner revival...

Read More 6 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Court Street and Anthony’s Tavern, 128-134 E. Court Street

Court Street is one of those funny downtown alleys that became a street. A city ordinance prohibited taverns and saloons from operating in Indianapolis alleys, so the easy work-around was to reclassify some of the...

Read More 1 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: The Reid-Dickson House, 1456 N. Delaware Street

1906. Courtesy of the Herron Art Library, Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission Collection Indianapolis was past the Victorian era of architecture with its turned posts, gingerbread trim, and Queen Ann details by the time the Reid...

Read More 1 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Northwood Drive-In, 9075 N. Meridian Street

Every few years I get a call from some alumni group desperately seeking photographs of their favorite drive-in restaurant for a 50th reunion booklet.  The Blue Ribbon, the Igloo, Jack & Jill’s, Northway’s, the Tee...

Read More 8 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Ohio and Alabama Streets

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Fire Department (top, 1952) and Google Street View (bottom, 2010) This intersection was not photographed often, so I was thrilled to find this small diner documented in the background of an...

Read More 4 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Fountain Square at Prospect and Virginia

1927 – Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library, Indianapolis Power and Light Collection loaned by Deedee Davis The Fountain Block Building at the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Prospect and Shelby Streets in Fountain Square...

Read More 20 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Moy Kee Chinese Restaurant, 506 E. Washington Street

Although best known for its German and Irish immigrants, Indianapolis also had a small population of Chinese residents as early as the 1880s and estimated by local newspapers as 100-150 residents by the early 1910s....

Read More 9 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then & Now: The Barge Fish ‘n Chips, 3902 E. Washington Street

Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, 1990.0430 In the early decades of automobile traffic, it was common for restaurants, gas stations, and other roadside attractions to construct buildings that mimicked the product or service sold....

Read More 11 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: The Paradise and Devil’s Cafe, 108-110 W. Maryland Street

Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, P59 Carl Cafouros Family Collection Imagine the horror of Greek immigrant Alexandrine Cafouros upon learning that her husband’s restaurant, the “Devil’s Cafe,” did not mean what she thought. The...

Read More 8 Comments

Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then & Now: West Residence / Colonel’s Cupboard, 1500 E. Michigan Street

One of the city’s little-known gems is the Colonel’s Cupboard, tucked away on the grounds of Arsenal Technical High School. The restaurant, operated by high school students, is located in a brick Italianate house completed...

Read More 10 Comments

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...

Read More 26 Comments

Posted in: Editorial 10 Reasons Fountain Square Would Be My Next Indianapolis Neighborhood…

Fountain Square is the closest thing to a preserved microcosm of historic Indianapolis we have–a mix of neighborhood serving commercial, surrounded on all sides by plenty of residential options. Who wouldn’t love having a home...

Read More 26 Comments

Posted in: Indianapolis Collected Indianapolis Collected: The Accidental Tourist Guide Collector

One of the first things you learn as a collector is what constitutes a collection. The rules are pretty simple. If you have two of a kind, you have a pair. If you have two...

Read More 12 Comments