During this month of the Greatest Spectacle in the World!, join us for a intro to Old Speedway and walking tour.

We will meet at the Rosner Building, 1552 Main Street, in the heart of Old Speedway. At 7PM, Gillian Fletcher will provide an orientation for us to the Old and the New. Feel free to come earlier to take best advantage of the daylight -- from 5 to 6PM.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Jay van Santen at 317-513-2825.

Old Speedway. We'll visit the community surrounding it. The neighborhood has an integral connection with the automobile industry, providing the labor force and engineering talent and competition. Speedway was created as a planned community, rather self-contained, with industry and housing in close proximity.

In the last several decades, a number of motorsports groups have established offices near the downtown, and provide a rather dramatic contrast between historical and new Speedway.

Walks are typically scheduled on the 2nd Thursday of the month at our regular meeting. Our neighborhood host will meet us at 7PM, though members are welcomed to arrive earlier to take advantage of the lighting.

Click here for more information

Cottage Home. This is a working class neighborhood -- taking its name from the many cottages built -- of the same vintage as Lockerbie. The neighborhood borders on the southwestern segment of Massachusetts Avenue, which will be our early night shooting opportunity.

General Timeline:

• 5-6 PM - Light is good, so arrive then if you can. Park on the west side of Dorman at 716 N. Dorman.

• 7 PM - Meet with Joan Hostetler, 716 N. Dorman. Plan on a half hour presentation, Q&A.

• 8 PM - Sunset. Drive West on St. Clair or 10th Street to shoot on Massachusetts Ave.

walks are typically scheduled on the 2nd Thursday of the month at our regular meeting. Our neighborhood host will meet us at 7PM, though members are welcomed to arrive earlier to take advantage of the lighting.

Click here for more information

Because of shortening days, you are welcomed to come to the neighborhood at 6 PM

At 7PM, we will meet a resident of Irvington at the Bona Thompson Memorial Center/Irvington Historical Society for a 15 minute introduction to this truly historic neighborhood.

The Center -- formerly Butler College's library -- is located at 5350 University Ave.

Click here for a map of Irvington Press the + key to expand the map to show the location of the Irvington Historical Society/Bona Thompson Center. Feel free to print out the map.

A promising tour is to take South Downey -- which runs past Bona Thompson -- past the historic Benton House to Ritter, where Downey turns into East Burgess, which we'll take north east up to Irvington Circle Park.

Jay van Santen will be the PVCC representative. His cell phone is 317-513=2825 if you need further information.

Irvington was founded as the first planned suburb of Indianapolis, 5 miles due East of the
Downtown Circle. Developers in 1870 purchased/contributed a total of nearly 400 acres of
farmed land alongside the National Road for a community of “refinement and culture” named for author Washington Irving. They platted the town with 109 randomly sized lots situated
along meandering curved streets, in the spirit of the Cincinnati suburb Glendale with its
romantic Victorian plan. In the year of its incorporation, 1873, a grant from the town brought
North Western Christian University, renamed Butler University in honor of its founder. Admitting students regardless of race or gender reflected the Quaker abolitionist background of the founders of school and community. Faculty members, the Irvington Group all contributed to the cultural life of the city.

Walking Tours links:
https://tours.huniindy.org/tours/indianapolis-irvington-walking-tour
https://pocketsights.com/tours/tour/Indianapolis-Irvington-Neighborhood-4193
https://tours.huniindy.org/tours/indianapolis-irvington-biking-tour
https://pocketsights.com/tours/tour/Indianapolis-Irvington-Neighborhood-Biking-Tour-4243

Encyclopedia of Indianapolis link
https://indyencyclopedia.org/irvington/

WHILE YOU ARE HERE, GO AHEAD AND DOWNLOAD OUR WAIVER OF LIABILITY FORM (REQUIRED FOR ALL FIELD TRIPS).

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

• Historic Indianapolis’ articles on the neighborhood

• The PocketSights tour intro

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).

Neighborhood Walk – New Augusta. Join us for another evening exploring historic Indy

New Augusta, on the Northwest side of Indianapolis – just east of Georgetown Road and just
north of 71 st Street – sits in the midst of busy shopping malls and modern housing
developments.

But visiting the community is like stepping back in time 150 years, into one of two remaining
“railroad villages” in Marion County. The tree-lined narrow streets, the generous plots and
gardens, stables and other outbuildings, the household architecture of the late 19 th century, all
contribute to the experience of inhabiting one of the thousands of such towns that grew up
alongside the railroads expanding network at the time. As a rather newly minted Conservation
District, the integrity of the historical character is assured.

We’ll gather at Mosaic lot, just south of the Salem Church, 4705 West 72nd Street (SW corner of 72nd and Pollard). We’ll be met at 7 by Mark Patty, a lifelong resident of New Augusta and current President of the neighborhood. He’ll give an introduction and then set us loose to explore the town. Photographers from the neighborhood may join us.

There are distinctive buildings to capture, and many textures of the time. But, more difficult, I
think, is capturing the 19th century ambience of this community. Wide to normal lenses will
help in the constrained visual field, but other focal lengths will reveal nuances.

A map in PDF is available to download and print.

My friend Sharon Butsch Freeland has written for Historic Indianapolis the best short
introduction to New Augusta at the following site: https://historicindianapolis.com/hi-mailbag-new-augusta/

A brief profile of the town is an entry in the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis: https://indyencyclopedia.org/new-augusta/

WHILE YOU ARE HERE, GO AHEAD AND DOWNLOAD OUR WAIVER OF LIABILITY FORM (REQUIRED FOR ALL FIELD TRIPS).

Neighborhood Walk – Riverside. Join us for another evening exploring historic Indy

Riverside is a west-side community straddling the White River between 18th and 38th Streets. Early in the 1900’s, real estate developers and local landowners saw the opportunity to create a community that would be accessible by the newly expanded downtown transportation system. The “streetcar suburb” would feature landscaped traffic circles, generous front yard set-backs, wide boulevards, and glacier boulder retaining walls. A George Kessler designed park, Indianapolis’ first zoo, and the now-demolished Riverside amusement park, followed the success of the planned community.

Today, Riverside enjoys a wide array of amenities and boasts a diverse and active neighborhood community, including an amphitheater, family center, golf courses, gardens, etc. Additionally, there is connecting linkage to nature trails: White River, canal towpath, and Fall Creek. Future projects include The Riverside Heritage Promenade and The Nature and Adventure Park for Indianapolis.

Because of the size as well as the variety of visually attractive areas, this will likely turn out to be a driving tour. Jay Van Santen will be receiving a map from our host and making that available online as well as at our gathering.

We will gather at 7:00 at the Taggart Memorial, 2420 N. Riverside Drive. Our host Phyllis/Sakina Hackett will give an introduction to the history of the neighborhood as well as the variety of photographic perspectives. Members are welcomed to arrive earlier and take in the driving tour should that be of interest.

www.tours.huniindy.org

WHILE YOU ARE HERE, GO AHEAD AND DOWNLOAD OUR WAIVER OF LIABILITY FORM (REQUIRED FOR ALL FIELD TRIPS).

We are meeting at the JWR Museum home at 7:00 PM for a brief presentations (15 minutes) You are welcome to shoot before or after the presentation.

Neighborhood Walk – Lockerbie. New member Jay van Santen is webmaster for Historic Urban Neighborhoods Indianapolis and will be our expert guide for tonight’s photo shoot

Lockerbie Square is a quiet residential area that abuts the eastern edge of the “Mile Square,” Indianapolis’ downtown business core. With beginnings in the 1860’s, it is rich in history and charm, with tree-lined streets, a mixture of charming homes from small cottages to Victorian mansions,.

After laying out the city’s center, in 1821, excess land was sold to developers for residential neighborhoods. Lockerbie Square became the first of such neighborhoods. After the Civil War, craftsman desiring proximity to work purchased smaller lots and built cottages, near wealthier families’ grander residences, one the home of James Whitcomb Riley. Religious organizations, such as the original St. Vincent Hospital, established themselves.

The late 1800s and early 1900s saw a peak of neighborhood vitality, prior to industrialization and migration from the urban center. Revitalization of the neighborhood led to the formation of local historic preservation groups in the 1960s. Lockerbie was a placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

www.huniindy.org

For the latest news about field trips and other activities, check the Calendar or our Facebook page.

All participants must furnish a PVCC Release and Waiver of Liability Form each year.

PVCC – HUNI PHOTO WALKS

PVCC is initiating, on a trial basis, walks of historic urban neighborhoods of Indianapolis (HUNI). The first two are scheduled on the 2nd Thursday of the month during the summer. They will give members another opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, during the cherished “Golden Hour” of the day.

Our first walk takes place on April 14 in historic Lockerbie Square, the neighborhood east, just outside the Mile Square. James Whitcomb Riley lived in the neighborhood, which has undergone a fascinating history, parallel to that of Indianapolis, for 200 years.

Marjorie Kienle will meet us at the James Whitcomb Riley home, 528 E Lockerbie Street, at 7PM. She has arranged with the Riley Museum Visitor Center – immediately east of the home -- for our group to have exclusive use of the parking lot there as well as any spaces on the street signed “Museum Parking.” Parking is restricted to residents in the neighborhood, so feel free to take advantage of this.

Members are welcomed to arrive ahead of time and tour the neighborhood before 7. Marjorie will speak for about 15 minutes about the neighborhood and its history before letting us tour on our own.

Marjorie is a long time resident of the neighborhood. She served as the first President of the Lockerbie Square People’s Club, and reprised that role several years ago. Professionally, she was a speech language pathologist for over 40 years, and has served in the IU School of Medicine and on the faculties of IU and Purdue. She also is the managing partner of James T. Kienle & Associates – an architectural firm that specializes in preservation. Some James’ projects include the renovation of Circle Theatre, the Madame Walker Theater, the James Whitcomb Riley Visitor Center, as well as the State government office buildings earlier in his career.

We are pleased to have her interpret the neighborhood for us.

If you’d like to take a more structured walk before or after, feel free to visit the PocketSights tour which you can download onto your phone

A brief history of the neighborhood is on their website

Click here for a map of the neighborhood