History

Latest Posts for Local History

• Indy architect unknown here, but not around world
  From Commercial Article 13: A smiling Jan Ruhtenberg in a family snapshot, circa 1970.Photo courtesy of: Vess Ruhtenberg By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor In 1969 one of the once-most-respected architects of European modernism moved to [Read More…]
• History 301: An ‘it’ couple who left a very big impression
  Rembrandt “Brandt” SteeleINDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY M1078 By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor Helen McKay Steele and her    husband, Rembrandt “Brandt” Steele, were the artsy “It” couple of Indianapolis in the early years of the [Read More…]
• Before Purdue Polytechnic, before P.R. Mallory, there was Wonderland Amusement Park
  This postcard shows visitors strolling around the lagoon which served Wonderland’s Shoot-the-Shoots flume ride. this is an updated version of a feature which appeared in the May 2010 edition of Urban Times. By Connie Zeigler Contributing [Read More…]
• The rest of the story: Wirt’s famed son-in-law
  Alpha with Louis Armstrong.courtesy of the Louis Armstrong House Museum August’s installment of History 301 about the city’s first Black pharmacist, Wirt Smith, ended with the surprising news that his daughter, Alpha, married the famous jazz [Read More…]
• History 301: Wirt Smith (who?) was an Indianapolis trailblazer
  For historical accuracy, this report contains terminology which newspapers of the time period used to describe African Americans. By CONNIE ZEIGLER, Contributing editor This is the story of Wirt Smith. Wirt Smith was a Black man and because of that [Read More…]
• History 301 – Madelyn Pugh: Writing the funny words for ‘I Love Lucy’
  Madelyn Pugh was very active in Shortridge High School activities. By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor For six years in the 1950s the name of former Shortridge High School student Madelyn Pugh was in 11 million homes every week, thanks to the [Read More…]
• History 301: Healing and rebirth after the Spanish Flu
  A group of 23 women gather on a the steps of a front porch for this circa-1920s photograph. Many of the women are wearing corsages or carrying bunches of flowers. INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTO The April 2020 installment of History 301 focused on [Read More…]
• History 301: City was hit hard by influenza pandemic of a century ago
  By connie zeigler Contributing editor This report was originally published in the April 2013 edition of Urban Times. This reprint was prompted by the global coronavirus outbreak. This year’s (2013) influenza flare-up had us all wondering if we [Read More…]
• Fallout shelters had their day in Cold War era
  Three civil defense members stand at the base of the stairs to a shelter looking over what appears to be a blueprint or map. Civil defense was tasked with educating the people, creating evacuation routes, identifying fallout shelters, and alerting [Read More…]
• As long as we’ve been a city, we’ve been losing stuff
  By CONNIE ZIEGLER Contributing editor, Urban Times George Pogue was one of the first, perhaps the first, white settler in what would become Indianapolis. Pogue, for whom Pogue’s Run was named, lost some horses in 1821 and, when he went to look for [Read More…]
• Oliver Johnson left us a wooded legacy
  By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor, Urban Times Oliver Johnson, whose family pioneered in the early settlement of Indianapolis, left a green legacy in that village that became this city. His woods remain, in more than just name, on Indianapolis’s [Read More…]
• History 301: Highland currently in its second reincarnation
  Highland Country Club’s home was constructed in the NeoClassical style. By CONNIE ZEIGLER Contributing editor, Urban Times In 1904, the Highland Golf Club opened on land west of the White River in Riverside Park. The clubhouse that members built for [Read More…]
• History 301: Girls Inc. traces its roots to two girls clubs
  Patricia Turner-Smith, director of Girls Inc. Girls Clubs of America National Resource Center in Indianapolis, is pictured with three Girls Club members who had delivered the official Olympic torch to Dr. Sally Ride, first woman astronaut, in New [Read More…]
• Polk’s history was a sanitary one
  The unique building which housed the Polk Sanitary Milk Co. stood on the 1100 block of East 15th Street. Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society By CONNIE ZEIGLER If you had lived on short 15th Street on the Near Eastside of [Read More…]
• Indy was a bit behind the curve on original Tiki craze
  By 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 home
  By 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 development
  This 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 visitors
  By 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 Slovenians
  Tile 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 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 the jolly elf sorting letters into piles sent by “Good [Read More…]