1916 On Oct. 12, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, visited Indianapolis as part of the Centennial Highway Day Celebration. In this photo, Wilson stands beside Gov. Samuel M. Ralston and Indianapolis Mayor Joseph E. Bell to view the Centennial Highway Day parade of automobiles from the Soldiers and Sailors […]
Government officials broke ground on the City-County Building on Oct. 30, 1959. Pictured from left are J. Wesley Brown, president of the county commissioners; William A. Hanley, president of the building authority’s board of directors; and Mayor Charles H. Boswell. The building opened in 1962. Now, Indianapolis officials have released a request for information seeking […]
Circa 1980s An Air France Concorde commercial jet makes a stop at Indianapolis International Airport in the 1980s. The unique plane was a supersonic passenger airliner, jointly built by manufacturers in Great Britain and France, that flew trans-Atlantic flights in half the time it took other commercial airliners. Only 20 jets were ever built. The […]
1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower rides in a decked-out convertible vehicle around Monument Circle on Sept. 9, 1952. Eisenhower, who would go on to serve two terms as the 34th president, from 1953 to 1961, was campaigning throughout the country in his race against Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower won the state with 58% of the vote and […]
The Walker Building was erected in 1927, eight years after the death of Madam C.J. Walker on May 25, 1919. The building, at 617 Indiana Ave., included a theater, drugstore, manufacturing company, beauty shop, ballroom and offices. It was saved from demolition in the 1970s and was restored in the 1980s, reopening in 1988 as […]
A captured Japanese submarine sits on display on Monument Circle in July 1943. Named HA-19, the submarine was one of five Japanese midget submarines involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. U.S. forces captured the submarine, and it was sent around the country to war-bond rallies from 1942 to 1945. Those who wanted […]
The Claypool was at one time the principal destination for political and business conventions, meetings and other events downtown.
A crowd of people gathers in July 1985 on Monument Circle for a rally to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Indianapolis at a time it seemed the league was looking to expand. After the Baltimore Colts moved to the city in the early ’80s and the Indiana Pacers survived the ABA-NBA merger, many […]
This photograph shows an aging and worn roller coaster at the former Riverside Amusement Park in the 1970s. Located adjacent to Riverside City Park, at West 30th Street between the White River and the Central Canal, Riverside Amusement Park was open from 1903 to 1970. Several factors led to the closure, including white flight, suburbanization […]
A flood in March 1913 left this unidentified street in Indianapolis under water. In this photo, the water rises above the horse’s hooves and covers the road and sidewalks entirely. Downpours began on Easter Sunday in 1913, and over three days—March 23-26—six inches of rain fell on the Circle City. At least 25 people died […]
Construction on the Hoosier Dome, later named the RCA Dome, began in the early 1980s.
A group of students talk and read in front of an entrance to Crispus Attucks High School in this photo from the 1939 edition of the school’s yearbook. The school, at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and West 12th streets, just northwest of downtown, opened in 1927 as a segregated high school for the community’s […]
Three men—Indianapolis city employee Charles Hack, “Presto Lite” pilot Dick Knox and an unnamed American Airlines pilot—pose with a small plane at the Indianapolis Municipal Airport in the 1940s. The airport, which opened on Sept. 24, 1931, was later renamed Weir Cook Airport after Col. Harvey Weir Cook—a World War I flying ace from Indiana […]
Christ Church Cathedral is photographed in 1932, where it still stands. Established in 1837 on Monument Circle as the first Episcopalian church in Indianapolis. At the time, the church had to erect a fence around the property to keep pigs out of the churchyard. Construction began on the current building in 1857; the spire was […]
The theater opened as a 1,500-seat motion-picture and vaudeville theater.
The pool at Broad Ripple Park opened in 1908 as an attraction at the White City Amusement Park, which had opened two years earlier at the northeast corner of Broad Ripple Village. The four-acre concrete swimming pool was the only attraction to survive a fire that burned the amusement park to the ground on June […]
The first Talbot Street Art Fair was held on Mother’s Day weekend in 1956.
The 1983 500 Festival Parade included local floats; high school marching bands, including the Arsenal Technical Marching Titans; and members from the School 27 chess team, who were national champions that year.
Arsenal Technical High School drum corps members parade around Monument Circle in March 1929, after the school’s basketball team reached the state finals.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was dormant during World War II but experienced a resurgence through the 1950s after it was purchased by Terre Haute businessman Tony Hulman.
