Join for walk on the Old Northside
We will meet at the Indiana Landmarks, 1201 N. Central Ave.
Indiana Landmarks, housed in the former Central United Methodist Church, is providing parking for us for this visit. There is ample parking in the lot immediately north of the sanctuary on the East side of Central.
Our host will be Libby Cierzniak, one of the foremost historians of Indianapolis neighborhoods. She prepared the tour booklets attached, as well as numerous articles for Historic Indianapolis.
The Old Northside is bounded roughly by I 65 on the South, 16th Street on the North, Pennsylvania on the West and 5 blocks East of College (Lewis Street) on the East. Click here
Other links:
Libby’s walking tour guides – which show the “before” – are linked here: Flyer, Booklet
The Old Northside has as great a concentration of historical markers as any neighborhood in the City; Here’s a link to the map of them
Today’s “Old Northside” began as two communities North of the downtown: the original campus of North Western Christian University for which Ovid Butler provided farmland near 13th and College beginning in 1855. A small town known as College Corner served the university until its move to Irvington in 1875. The second neighborhood was an outgrowth of the affluent residential development north of the city’s center. The wealthy built their mansions in the wooded and rural setting. After the Civil War, the Northside saw substantial development. From that time to the early 20th century, the area was the most fashionable place to live.
Historic designation in 1978 began a period of revitalization, in which most of the historic buildings have been renovated and historically sympathetic in-fill housing has been built, making The Old Northside one of the premier historic districts in the Midwest.
WHILE YOU ARE HERE, GO AHEAD AND DOWNLOAD OUR WAIVER OF LIABILITY FORM (REQUIRED FOR ALL FIELD TRIPS).