We are delighted to have a first person account and guest contribution from former neighbor and artist, Dick Lutin, relaying the details of how Charlotte Place in Herron-Morton Place got its name. Editor’s note: When The State Fairgrounds were in this neighborhood, this section was named Winter Street, until Morton Place was platted, the name was changed to Boston Street from 1892, changed to 21st Street Annex around 1930.
I moved to Indy in 1990 and in 1992 I bought the building at 110 East 21st Street for $13,000.00 from the Joy of All Who Sorrow church. They were formerly part of a large Christian community (Holy Order of Man). The group was founded is California in the 70’s. Locally they had a community of about 60 families that all lived in the area. In the 80’s the entire organization became Russian Orthodox. I was told that at that time they lost a bunch of members and decided to divest themselves of properties. They also owned Brother Junipers on Mass Ave and at 16th and Delaware. When I bought the building they had been using it as a sign shop and for storage for the materials they used to maintain their other properties.
Shortly after moving in I started having big problems with mail/UPS/FedEx/pizza etc. deliveries. This confusion was caused by the street just North of me being named “21st Street Annex”. I had cabs come, SWAT teams, police, and more, so I went downtown to the City County Building and talked to Doug Lynch, who was in charge of street names at the time. He told me that it’s a huge hassle to change street names in all the city’s data bases and they would not likely be able to do it unless there was a 911 emergency call that went to the wrong place.
Don’t let this map fool you, this is now Charlotte Place
As it happens, we had two in a row in the next few months. One was a guy who apparently made it up onto the porch at the address on the Annex and died. The emergency vehicles came to my address by mistake.
I went back and talked to Doug. He told me that they just wanted to change some addresses and not the actual street names. So, at my request we had a meeting downtown with the street department, fire department, health department, ambulance folks, post offic,e etc. During this meeting I explained that if they just changed the addreses then when a letter was addressed for the other street the postal carrier would assume it was incorrect and send it back. So, at the end of the meeting they agreed to change the name and asked me to send a list of suggestions.
I was dating Charlotte (my wife) at the time and put her name on the list which is the one they chose.
– Dick Lutin
Dick, this is very informative on the bureaucracy required to get a street name changed, and a capsule history of the Orthodox Church community that took over the former Congregational Church at 16th and Delaware (I have a family friend who attends there; she used to attend Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 40th and Pennsylvania before they relocated out to Carmel). Wish Brother Juniper’s were open today!