Posted in: Bicycles, Editorial International Cycling History Conference in Indy

If you monitor this website now and then, you will know that new content hasn’t been added for quite some time, while I work on a book about Indianapolis wheel history. And when I say...

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Posted in: At Your Leisure At Your Leisure: Flying Around the Track

Indy has been abuzz about aviation in the news this past week. First, the ultimately aborted downtown ‘buzz-by’ from a Boeing 747, which featured locally produced Rolls-Royce engines. Second, and perhaps the bigger news, was...

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Posted in: Historic Miscellania Women Take to the Skies in Jazz Age Indy

“You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.”  That was Amelia Earhart’s verdict on rising up to the aerial view, where she thought the soul changes after a glimpse of...

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Posted in: Penny Post Penny Post: The First Lap into the North Turn

Photo by F.M. Kirkpatrick Happy Race Week 2014, Indianapolis! Wilbur Shaw may have won his third race in four years during the 1940 Indy 500 on May 30, 1940, but “Mother’s” short Penny Post was...

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Posted in: Friday Favorites Friday Favorite: Driven to the Grave

  The Chevrolet Brothers – Louis, Arthur, and Gaston – were destined for greatness in automotive history but sadly, not wealth. Louis Chevrolet Unless you’re a racing enthusiast, Lois Chevrolet is probably best known to you as one of...

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Posted in: Indianapolis Collected Indianapolis Collected: And the winner is …. Schnitzer? In more ways than one.

On May 30, 1911, an aerial bomb exploded over the Speedway to signal the start of the first Indianapolis 500. But the first real auto race on the new track started with something less than...

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Posted in: Historic Miscellania Westwood Country Club

Dilapidated Westwood Country Club, Speedway Indiana – Photo by Ryan Hamlett Nestled between 10th and 21st Streets on High School Road on the western edge of Speedway, what was once the Westwood Country Club sits...

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Posted in: Mailbag HI Mailbag: The Lohrmann Residence

Reader’s Question:  There is a fairly large structure, presumably a home, on the west bank of the White River at 16th Street that appears to be boarded up or abandoned.  It looks fairly impressive (what...

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Posted in: Sunday Ads Sunday Adverts: First Car to Win Indy 500, Marmon Wasp

From a 1913 advert for Marmon & Nordyke, the “Six-cylinder ‘Wasp,'” and winner of the first 500 Mile International Sweepstakes Race “against a field of 40 cars.” The local branch was listed at New York...

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Posted in: Friday Favorites Friday Favorite: Indianapolis Athletic Club-What’s the Indy500 Connection?

It’s one of those arresting buildings that could trick you into thinking you live in NYC–well, if it were scrunched between 25 or so skyscrapers. On the southwest corner of Vermont and Meridian Streets, this...

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