When children began writing letters to Santa
By 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 …
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History 301: City haunted by violent strike of streetcar workers
By 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 …
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History 301: Cadle Tabernacle: Indy’s home of fire and brimstone
This 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 …
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History 301: Thousands lost their homes because of 1913 flood
By 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, …
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A symbolic return of the name, Das Deutsche Haus
One 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 …
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HISTORY 301: ‘Newfields’ just latest step in museum’s journey
By 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 …
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History 301: Henry Ward Beecher’s fame launched from Indy pulpit
By 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 …
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History 301: When all Indy’s restaurants were owner-operated
This 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 …
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