Latest Posts for Local History
Indy was a bit behind the curve on original Tiki crazeBy CONNIE ZEIGLER Urban Times contributing editor The next time you see a guy in a tropical shirt or a gal in a mumu, don’t feel disdain about their fashion sense, follow them to their favorite Tiki bar. Tiki has hit Indianapolis in a big way, [Read More…]
When German POWs partied in an Indy homeBy CONNIE ZEIGLER During World War II the United States housed nearly a half-million German prisoners of war. Indiana had its own contingent of German POWs housed at several locations across the state, including for a time at Fort Benjamin Harrison [Read More…]
History 301: How zoning affected city’s developmentThis south Meridian Street building once housed a butcher shop, with the butcher living upstairs. This essay was originally published in the February 2010 issue of Urban Times. Time will tell how the currently pending upgrades in the IndyGo bus [Read More…]
History 301: Hotels served black visitorsBy CONNIE ZEIGLER The Jackie Hotel was located to the left of the Indianapolis Recorder office on Indiana Avenue, as seen in this 1948 photo. Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society. In 1957, an article in the Indianapolis [Read More…]
History 301: Building helps celebrate 100 years of SloveniansTile artwork in the building’s entry led to its nickname, the “Nash By CONNIE ZEIGLER If a friend invited you to “the Nash,” would you know where to go? You would if you grew up in the Haughville area west of White River and happened to be of [Read More…]
When children began writing letters to SantaBy CONNIE ZEIGLER Famous illustrator Thomas Nast is credited with popularizing the idea of children sending letters to Santa Claus. In 1871, he published in Harper’s Weekly an illustration of the jolly elf sorting letters into piles sent by “Good [Read More…]
History 301: City haunted by violent strike of streetcar workersBy CONNIE ZEIGLER On Halloween 1913 Indianapolis was spooked by a strike of the city’s streetcar workers. Before the strike was over, armed strikebreakers and union organizers were fighting in the streets, damaged streetcars littered the city and [Read More…]
History 301: Cadle Tabernacle: Indy’s home of fire and brimstoneThis feature originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Urban Times. By CONNIE ZEIGLER The Cadle Tabernacle, an old-time-religion revival hall that looked like a Spanish Mission, once occupied most of a city block at the corner of New Jersey and [Read More…]
History 301: Thousands lost their homes because of 1913 floodBy CONNIE ZEIGLER On March 25, 1913, the earthen levees holding back White River collapsed. West Indianapolis, an unincorporated industrial and residential community bordered on the east by White River, was flooded with as much as 15 inches of [Read More…]
A symbolic return of the name, Das Deutsche HausOne hundred years after the building at the corner of Michigan and New Jersey streets lost its original name because of anti-German sentiment caused by World War I, a plaque now stands bearing the Athenaeum’s original name: Das Deutsche Haus. The [Read More…]
HISTORY 301: ‘Newfields’ just latest step in museum’s journeyBy CONNIE ZEIGLER In the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Harriet G. Warkel, then curator of American art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, described that institution as “One of the oldest art museums in the United States.” Time passed, Warkel left [Read More…]
History 301: Henry Ward Beecher’s fame launched from Indy pulpitBy CONNIE ZEIGLER In the modern era Indianapolis’s most famous minister would arguably have been William H. Hudnut, who, after serving Second Presbyterian Church for several years became the city’s four-term mayor, then a member of the Hudson [Read More…]
History 301: When all Indy’s restaurants were owner-operatedThis installment of History 301 originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Urban Times. By CONNIE ZEIGLER Indianapolis, these days, has a growing reputation as a city of fine independent restaurants. This is certainly welcome and newsworthy [Read More…]