Magazine touts Woodruff Place

June 24, 2009
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Woodruff Place homeThe magazine This Old House has named Indy's Woodruff Place as one of the country's 51 best places to buy an old home. The neighborhood about a mile east of downtown took top honors for the Midwest. "Take a walk around town and you'll see broad boulevards, decorative fountains and urns, and statues surrounded by magnolia and oak trees. The inspiration for Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, Woodruff Place is a quintessential Midwestern town..." the magazine says. "The stately homes in Woodruff Place were built for the elite but are now available at moderate prices." Home styles in the neighborhood, founded in 1872, include Eastlakes, Stick Victorians, Queen Annes, Georgian Revivals, English Tudors, Bungalows, American Foursquares and Colonial Revivals. Check out the full story here. (Photo: This Old House)
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  • AblerockJune 24, 2009 2:36 PM
    That's great news for Indy and Woodruff Place. It's definitely charming and a unique part of the city.

    But like other parts of downtown, it's a good area that's potentially ruined by an extremely unsightly (women's) prison right across the street.

    It would be a great boon to the entire east side if the prison were relocated to a less-residential area.

    Just wishful thinking. :-)
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  • EnthralledJune 24, 2009 3:22 PM
    Good for the City - but definitely driven by the four different publicly funded and two privately funded redevelopment efforts in that 'Super Bowl' area (see Arsenal Tech practice facility, St. Clair Place, and Neighborhood Stabilization Program). I like the attention and that neighborhood needs it, but others do as well and I hope the distribution of support continues to spread to other areas.
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  • BobJune 24, 2009 3:36 PM
    Just wait, the women's prison is going to become the New Men's and Women's work release in the near future. DOC is waiting after the crooks and thieves get done, so they can't stop it. That will mix things up...
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  • IndyxtopherJune 24, 2009 4:40 PM
    Hear, Hear on the Women's prison. If the NFL really wants to leave a legacy on the Eastside, then move the Women's prison to Elkhart County where they desparately need jobs, and construct the second NFL practice facility on the current Women's prison grounds. It's a mere stone's throw from the Tech High School campus.
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  • all-day breakfastJune 25, 2009 9:54 AM
    The women's prison and the county jail should both be moved to the former airport site. Easy access, out of sight.
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  • The UrbanophileJune 25, 2009 2:13 PM
    I agree that it would be a win-win to relocate the Indiana Women's Prison. Other communities need jobs worse than Indianapolis (though obviously the current employees of the prison would not agree), which has outperformed the state economically. Prisons are a known rural econdev instrument. And Indy needs that east side land cleaned up and made available for development.

    Great to see the props for Woodruff Place
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  • JulieJune 26, 2009 2:03 PM
    There's a new pizza/entertainment place coming soon to indy
    http://incrediblepizza.com/indy/
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  • Indy RockJune 26, 2009 2:40 PM
    Cory, what happened to the 500 Walnut proposal? It was supposed to be located right off of the Cultural Trail. Was this another victim of the recession?
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  • CoryJune 26, 2009 2:52 PM
    Julie: I wrote about Incredible here: http://propertylines.ibj.com/content/?p=1143
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  • shaneryan1981June 26, 2009 3:12 PM
    I drove by the lot for 500 Walnut on Saturday........there had been some bulldozer and some light earth moving. It looks like it's still a go.
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  • thundermuttJune 26, 2009 3:58 PM
    I walked by there this week...it's being used to stage sewer pipe for the Cultural Trail construction project, but the project sign is still on the corner.
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  • SassafrasJune 27, 2009 3:08 PM
    I don't think enough is made of Woodruff Place's direct reference in Tarkington's novel The Magnificent Ambersons. The book has definitely faded in prominence since its publication in 1900, but it was a landmark at the time, and it remains one of the best observed allegories for Industrial Revolution-era urbanization. It also was translated to film in what many scholars consider Orson Welles' second best movie, behind Citizen Kane; though the producers supposedly hacked away at his version of Ambersons, it remains a powerful production. Wasn't it considered a few years back for the One Book-One City campaign?
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  • temJune 27, 2009 3:51 PM
    The idea that Woodruff Place was in the Tarkington book seemed strange to me because i had always thought of what we call the Old Northside as being the native habitat of the Ambersons. So I went back to the library and leafed through the book again, yes it's clear that Woodruff Place is the setting of much of the book, but to say it is a direct reference is not quite correct as the book refers to it as the Amberson Addition and also National Avenue in the book was clearly Washington Street.

    The book remains a good study of social change in Indianapolis, we are in need of a sequel for today's world because we are still questioning the future of an automobile driven society.

    Booth Tarkington's house is still there on Meridian Street, I think a little north of 42nd St., on the west side of Meridian. There is a plaque on the brick gate in front that says Booth Tarkington House or something like that.

    I think the movie didn't work because it was too intellectual for the public taste. The movie has good points but rather than sit through the whole movie I'd recommend reading the book first.
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  1. liek the rest of America

  2. These quaint,obsessed musings by the stalkers are certainly entertaining, but I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, all the yelping below has to do with Zak Brown.

  3. It's evident that Moffett was pushing the right buttons and corporate America is now trying to squash him. He just wanted to withdraw the free pilot services provided to the company by the pilots to try and put some pressure on a company that has not been interested in negotiating a contract in over 5 years. The company does not provide a contract because not having one has saved them a bundle of money. Shame on any Republic pilots not standing behind their union leader just because things are getting tough, can you not see such strategic moves by the company as putting the last union president in a corporate position and into THEIR pocket. Do you really believe the last union president is so appalled at the attempts by Moffett, do you not remember his oppositions to the company? We stood behind him. It has been proven over and over again for thousands of years without fail, a man cannot serve two masters. Anyone that believes people vote contrary to their paycheck and livelihood deserve to be taken advantage of, the recent statements by the former union president are laughable as he denounces the current union president from his new corporate position. Have you ever seen a drafted sports player score points for his previous team, it cannot be done, he is not on the pilots side anymore, he gets his money a different way now than you and I do, and he should not be allowed to remain on the seniority list. A drafted player brings strength, credibility, tactical knowledge, and a strategic advantage to his NEW team, he would not be drafted or paid were it otherwise. We are all forced to choose only one side to play for and support, not doing so has many references in life such as insider trading and shaving points, all illegal for good reason. This basic fact is why corporate moguls, scientist, and engineers all sign non-discloser agreements and non-compete clauses, as protection in case they are lured into switching sides as our former union president has done. No NFL coach ever drafted a player so that both teams could benefit and better understand each other, they are recruited to win the game against that former team, period. Likewise the company does not recruit the former union president by accident or mutual understanding, its strategy. Don't confuse playing the game with good sportsman-like conduct in support of common business and prosperity goals, with the requirement to only play for one side. Good men we all love and favor fall subject to this manipulation, often without their knowledge, and it is not a betrayal of their friendship to oppose them when they switch sides. If we did not love and trust them, they would not have been chosen and lured to the other side in the first place. The deception by the drafted player is not made at a conscious level, it's just human nature and it's all about money and power which corrupts our ability to be objective and loyal to two masters. This is why our court system created the defense attorney, and why our military created counter intelligence. Its strategy and its propaganda, and it works, and that's why the "powers to be" manipulate the chess pieces by sometimes changing their colors. Some players know they are being manipulated when their color is changed, but it brings them more money and power so they do not care. The rest have good intentions but do not even realize they are being manipulated. This tactic is also known by another name, Divide and Conquer. In battle sending an imperfect message with an imperfect team is obviously not ideal, but it's still being sent by YOUR team, your union leader, a leader that has common goals and common rewards with you, they are the best, because we have elected them to do a job for us. If you are not backing Moffett but believing the spin by those that have recently switched sides, you are taking food out of your own mouth. Showing unity and backing an imperfect situation still results in taking just as much ground, it's about unity and bargaining power. It's not necessary to wait around for that perfect attack because it will never come, the company will spin and attempt to destroy anyone that gets in their way. Ultimately it's not about any specific attack anyway, ASAP or whatever it makes no difference, it is and always has been only about power. If this company cared about safety it would not build pairings with 8 hour overnights, come on, are you that naive? Besides, do you really think Hoffa cares, no, he got a call from corporate America and was squeezed into denouncing Moffett. If he didn't they would spin the safety card against him and the Teamsters National with implication for truckers, future contracts, insurance rates etc...saying something like the Teamsters use safety as a bargaining chip, blah blah blah... Do you really think any pilot is going to do something unsafe for the contract, absolutely not, the only ones threatening safety here is the company with reduced rest, fatigue, and poverty. Do you not find it odd that Hoffa and the Teamsters are opposing a Teamster president publicly? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and work with one of their own? Why did they not sit down and help him strategize, correct any mistakes, and charge ahead? Would the Teamsters National not normally support and leverage a contract for all those pilots that have been paying Teamster dues, isn't that why we have all been paying Teamster dues in the first place? I sure haven't been paying dues so that the Teamsters National could come along and write this kind of an article undercutting our union leader and our unity. Whose side is the Teamsters National really on, it's obviously not the Republic pilots side.

  4. No matter what Moffatt does the company is going to spin it like he is the terrorist and brainwash people like you into believing it, wake up, back your players that are trying to change things for you and your livelihood. Where has Hoffa been for the last 6 years, except collecting our dues. Seriously, do you really think an FO going for upgrade, signed off by a checkairman ready for the upgrade, who then fails, is not even capable of returning as a First Officer.

  5. whoa!

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