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A TIMELINE OF FAITH AND COMMUNITY:

MARTINDALE-BRIGHTWOOD, 1872 TO 1998

1872	Original plat for Brightwood is signed by manufacturers Clement A. Greenleaf and John L. Mothershead and merchants William D. Wiles and Daniel H. Wiles.  Greenleaf is the inventor of a turntable to rotate railroad cars and locomotives.
1873	Martindale area is settled by Frederick Ruschaupt and Gustave Zschech, operators of the Indianapolis Car Works railroad machine yard.
1874	Plat of Brightwood is amended.  New plat outlines plans for a residential community surrounding industrial and commercial areas.  Plat is supported by employees of the “Bee Line.”  Brightwood becomes Indianapolis’ railroad suburb.
1875	Brightwood opens a high school, originally known as district school No. 12 of Center township. Located at 27th Street and Sherman Drive, the school is razed in 1890 following the incorporation of Brightwood into Indianapolis.
1876	Community is incorporated as the town of Brightwood.
1877	The “Bee Line” opens a major yard and machine shop in Brightwood.
1878	African-Americans make their homes and build churches in the area around Beeler Street in Martindale.
1880	In the census, a majority of Brightwood adult men are identified as skilled or unskilled workers; about 40 percent are foreign-born or first-generation, predominantly of German, Irish, or British ancestry.
1886	Brightwood Methodist Church is founded.
1892	Hillside Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is organized.  The church first located at 1942 Hillside Avenue is moved to 1831 North Ingram Street in 1912.
1894	Private waterworks are installed in Brightwood.  Also c. 1894, Two volunteer fire departments are organized—the “Wide-a-Wakes” at 25th and Station Streets and the “Alerts” at Roosevelt Avenue and Olney Street
1895	Beeler Street becomes Martindale Avenue.
1897	Brightwood is annexed into Indianapolis.
	Cohen Bros. Department Store opens at the corner of 25th and Station Streets and continues operation into the 1960s.
1898	St. John A.M.E. Church is founded.
1899	Fire-engine house No. 21 is established in Brightwood.
	Brightwood is a “thriving town of nearly 4,000 people...it is a model little city of cottages in appearance resembling a large park.  The fact that so many men living in the town work together in the great engine and car shops makes the community seem like one big family.”  Electric car service connects Brightwood with downtown Indianapolis.
1901	Indianapolis opens a branch library in Brightwood.  The library becomes one of the most patronized branches, loaning 7,632 books during its first year.
1902	Brightwood is a railroad town with four-fifths of the population dependent upon the railroad.  Other industries booming at this time are terra-cotta works, Laycock Manufacturing Company, Topp Hygienic Milk and Ice Company, and George F. Neher & Sons.  The “Big Four” railroad companies (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Street Louis) build a new roundhouse.
	New YMCA is proposed for Brightwood.  Membership includes 575 railroaders, many who sleep and dine there.
	Brightwood builds a new ten-room school.
1903	St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church builds a new school.  The school remains open until 1970 and reopens in 1977, only to close again when the parish is closed in 1983.
1906	Rev. A.E. Bolster becomes pastor at Brightwood Baptist Church (later known as Calvary Baptist Church).
1908	Mayor Charles Bookwalter calls Brightwood’s water-works “a joke.”  Plans are made to connect Brightwood with the Indianapolis water supply.
1911	Brightwood residents organize a commercial club to bring additional factories and municipal improvements to the suburb. Goals include establishment of a park and public playground and an addition to Indianapolis Public School 51, which will allow a two-year high school curriculum.
1912	Hillside Christian Church relocates from Hillside Avenue to a new building at 1831 North Ingram Street in Martindale.
1913	Under the pastorate of Rev. Charles M. Fillmore, Hillside Christian Church opens a free medical clinic.  A report indicates 200 students in the Washington school need medical attention.
	St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church builds a church at 22nd Street and Avondale Place in Brightwood which remains open until 1983.
1919	An extension of St. Bridget’s, Indianapolis’ first African-American parish, is organized as St. Rita’s Church.
1921	Douglas Park is dedicated to serve the African-American population in the Martindale neighborhood and throughout the city.
1924	Trinity C.M.E is established.
	Indianapolis Public School 38, The John James Audubon School, 2050 North Winter Avenue, operates a free dental school for needy students.
1926	St. John Baptist Church, 17th Street and Martindale Avenue, holds ground breaking ceremony.  The Indianapolis News reports, “The campaign for money for an institutional church has resulted largely from the great need of social betterment work for the east side of the city.”
1930	The population of the neighborhood is estimated at 21,869.  58 percent are European-American and 42 percent are African-American.
	The PTA of Indianapolis Public School 38 volunteers with the Red Cross to offer social services to the neighborhood’s needy—Thanksgiving baskets, clothing, and milk for the malnourished.
1931	Indianapolis Public School 56, Francis S. Parker School, 2353 N. Columbia Avenue, a segregated African-American school, builds a new facility for $137,345.
1935	The Brightwood Community Center is founded at 2305 N. Rural Street  The center serves as a social and educational headquarters for many African-Americans in the neighborhood.
	Rev. Bernard Strange begins his service at St. Rita’s Catholic Church.
	Indianapolis Public School 37, 2605 E. 25th Street, has a new principal, Mrs. Jeanette Cary from Kentucky.  Her training includes speech correction for African-Americans.
	The PTA of Indianapolis Public School 37 becomes the first African-American school to receive a charter and to become a unit of the State and National Congress of Parents and Teachers.
1936	Brightwood Free Methodist Church begins as a mission operating out of a storeroom; a building is not erected until 1943.
1938	In his tribute to the late Mrs. Hazel Hendricks, former principal of the school, Indianapolis Public Schools superintendent calls school 37, “one of the most important colored schools in the city.”  Mrs. Hendricks served the school for 33 years.  After her death the school is renamed in her honor.
1939	Indianapolis Public School 38 holds Christmas dinner for all 600 students.
1940	The estimated population of the neighborhood is 22,947.
	Calvary Baptist Church at Stuart and 23rd Streets.  Rev. William O. Breedlove, pastor, celebrates its 50th anniversary.  The church was originally established as Brightwood Baptist church, a mission of First Baptist Church.
	Indianapolis Public School 38 opens “The Jive Canteen,” community center for neighborhood children who live too far away to use the Brookside Community Center.
	Indianapolis Public School 38 raises $13,608 for the war effort selling war stamps and bonds.  The money is used to purchase an ambulance.  The school also collects $350 worth of scrap metal.
1940s	Indianapolis Public School 51, James Russell Lowell School, holds religious services for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
	The Cardinal Pioneer Club, a boy’s club at Indianapolis Public School 56, helps the war effort by planting a victory garden in a lot previously strewn with garbage.
1941	Douglas Park expands to its current boundaries.
1942	The Brightwood business district acquires new streetlights along Station Street, Roosevelt Avenue, and 25th Street
	Hillside Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) celebrates its 50th anniversary.
1944	Indianapolis Public School 38 PTA is one of five schools in the city to be awarded a superior rating for the 1943-44 school year.
	Brightwood is no longer a railroad stop; the railroad station is razed.
1945	Martindale Avenue Christian Church is organized at 1322 East 24th Street. It is the second African-American Christian Church in Indianapolis. The congregation receives support from the East Central Indiana Men’s Fellowship, Inc., a group of 33 white churches.
	The East Side Baptist Center opens at 1519 Martindale Avenue.  Mrs. Edna Martin is director.
1947	Indianapolis Public School 56 provides physical examinations for students prior to the beginning of the 1947-48 school year.
	St. Rita’s Catholic Church at 19th Street and Arsenal Avenue operates a summer youth center to combat juvenile delinquency.
1948	Brightwood petitions to expand its business district.
	Calvary Baptist Church, 3419 East 23rd Street, expands its 50 year-old church building.  Seating in the new structure allows for 350 in the sanctuary and an additional 200 in the balcony and chapel.  The congregation includes a number of electricians, cement finishers, stone workers, block layers, and other skilled labor who volunteer their services for the construction.
1949	Father Bernard Strange of St. Rita’s organizes a summer camp for underprivileged African-American boys.  St. Rita’s is also involved in improving the appearance of Martindale, encouraging residents to paint their homes.
1950	Renovation and expansion project is completed at Calvary Baptist Church.
	Population is 25,418.  European-Americans and African-Americans each account for 50 percent.
	Groundbreaking initiates the construction for the new St. Rita’s youth center in Martindale.
	New Bethel Baptist Church at 1519 Martindale Avenue operates a community center providing food, clothing, unemployment assistance, childcare, and health services.
1954	St. Rita’s Catholic Church opens a new school building.
1955	New Bethel Baptist Church, 1519 Martindale Avenue, is destroyed by fire.  The original structure was built in 1875.
1957	Brightwood Methodist Church, 2410 Station Street, begins offering Sunday school classes for children with learning difficulties.  Mrs. T. G. Robeson is the teacher.
1958	Zion Tabernacle Apostolic Church opens at 3302 N. Arsenal Avenue;  Elder G. C. Mills is pastor.  Cost of construction is $130,000.  The 500-seat church includes a dining room, kitchen, pastor’s office, women’s lounge, nursery, Sunday school rooms, choir room, and parking lot.
1959	Trinity C.M.E. breaks ground for a new church to be built at 23rd Street and Martindale Avenue. The church expands its ministry through the use of a telephone prayer line.
	St. Rita’s Catholic Church opens its new building at 19th Street and Martindale Avenue, built to serve 500 families, for a cost of $200,000.
1960	Martindale Avenue Church of Christ opens a new building.
	Brightwood loses the last of its railroad connections when the New York Central moves all operations to Avon.
	A Moslem mosque and mission house of the “Ahmadityya Movement in Islam” is established at 2248 Yandes Street.  The minister is Aminullah Khan.
	The Flanner House Homes project challenges aspiring homeowners to invest their own labor in the construction of modern ranch houses in a new development near Douglas Park.  Eventually, about 700 families build new homes in the project.
	The neighborhood population reaches 25,702.  The makeup is 45 percent European-American and 55 percent African-American.
1960s	Residents form the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood association, as a result of the area’s participation in Model Cities, a federal urban-renewal and rehabilitation program.
1961	Brightwood Methodist Church celebrates its 75th anniversary.
	Brightwood is a “neighborhood in transition.”  Growth of suburbs has affected the village atmosphere of Brightwood.  As the railroads leave the neighborhood, the population begins migrating to the suburbs.
	Station Street remains the business center of Brightwood.  Businesses include a shoe repair shop, laundry, jewelers, beauty parlor, doctors, dentists, sporting goods, hardware store, insurance agent, and a cafeteria.
	Industrial expansion into residential areas of Brightwood begins.
	Hillside Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1737 Ingram Street, relocates to 10th Street and Mitthoeffer Rd.  The building is purchased by the Association of the Christian Churches in Indiana for development of an “inner city” ministry.
1962	Operation Prove It, an inner-city ministry program that involves seventeen near North Side churches begins work.  Dr. F. Benjamin Davis, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, 1541 Martindale Avenue, is the organizing president.  The goals of the organization are to address inner-city housing conditions, juvenile delinquency, interracial tensions, and job insecurity.
1963	The Brightwood Church of Christ, 2446 North Gale Street, moves to a new location east of Brightwood.  The old church building is occupied by the Pentecostal First Bible Church.
1965	St. Rita’s Catholic Church, 1859 N. Arsenal Avenue, offers a number of programs to aid underprivileged children and adults.  These and similar programs at other inner-city churches are developed as a means to increase church attendance, which has been declining for thirty years as churches move to the suburbs.
	Construction of the I-65 and I-70 routes through Martindale-Brightwood divides the neighborhood and causes residents and businesses to move from the area.
1967	With many of its nearly 6,000 families meeting the federal definition of “poor,” Martindale is declared a poverty target area.  Martindale Area Citizens Service (MACS) organizes to provide aid.  Mrs. Fay Williams is project director.
1969	The area is designated a “most in need” district as part of the federal Model Cities rehabilitation program.
1970	Population is estimated at 18,928—a ten-year decline of 26 percent.  European-Americans account for 23 percent while 77 percent are African-American.
	St. Paul A.M.E. Church holds a ground-breaking ceremony for a new community building at 1900 East 25th Street.  The center offers daycare facilities and training programs.  Total cost of the project is $154,000.
1971	Indianapolis seeks $5.6 million in federal aid for urban renewal projects in Brightwood.
	Judge S. Hugh Dillin declares Indianapolis Public Schools guilty of de jure segregation, based on racially motivated acts and policies of the IPS board.  Dillin orders the immediate desegregation of all single-race schools.
1972	Rev. Andrew J. Brown celebrates his 25th anniversary at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church.
1974	Dr. Edna M. Martin, director of the East Side Baptist Center, dies.
1976	St. Rita’s Catholic Church sponsors Saturday night dances, with DJs from WTLC, attracting between 500 and 800 youth each week.
	Construction of I-65 and I-70 is finished.  Much of the original Martindale-Brightwood area is now replaced by the interstate system and the economy of the neighborhood continues to decline.
	Mount Nebo Baptist Church at 2325 Hovey Street, established in 1967, dedicates its new church building.  The pastor is Rev. Jack C. Perkins.
	Brightwood’s Station Street business district is almost vacant.  Many merchants are relocating to Brightwood Plaza.
1970s	Brightwood loses a doctor’s office, accounting and bookkeeping services, cafe, insurance company, Salvation Army store, drug store, pool hall, and pet store.  Crime and vandalism continue to rise.
1980	St. Paul United Methodist Church, 2410 Station Street, with a remaining congregation of 76, dissolves and transfers its property to the First Korean United Methodist Church.
	With a population estimated at 15,366, growth declines further by 19 percent.  The makeup of the neighborhood is 5 percent European-American and 95 percent African-American.
	Brightwood Community Center, the NAACP, and several block clubs organize to fight decline of the area.
1983	St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 2191 Avondale Place, closes after 102 years in Brightwood.  Parish membership has declined since the 1950s, when the railroads moved south to Beech Grove, followed by the construction of I-70 cut through the area.  The parish debt is $275,000 dollars.
1984	St. Rita’s Catholic Church joins the Urban Parish Cooperative, organized to help inner-city parishes cope with the increasing costs of parish work.
1985	Merchants National Bank, the last remaining branch in Brightwood, announces plans to leave the community.
1986	The city zoo leaves Washington Park on the northern boundary of the neighborhood.  A police station is built on part of the site.
1987	Martin University opens a branch campus at 2171 Avondale Place, which will later become the school’s central campus.
1989	St. Rita’s Catholic Church celebrates its 70th anniversary.
1990	New Bethel Baptist Church, 1535 Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue, celebrates its 115th year with membership at 1,500.  Rev. F. Benjamin Davis has been pastor since1954.  The church also serves as headquarters of the Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Indiana, which offers bachelor’s degrees in theology, missions, and education.
	Population for the neighborhood declines to 11,289.
1991	Martindale-Brightwood is targeted by law enforcement for programs to combat gang and drug activity.  Juanita Smith, president of the Martindale-Brightwood Neighborhood Association and Rev. Arthur Kelly, executive director of the St. Nicholas Youth Ministry, represent the neighborhood.
1994	St. Rita’s celebrates its 75th anniversary.
	Scott United Methodist Church erects a new building.
1995	Martindale-Brightwood Community Development Corporation opens Ralston Estates, a new housing development.
	Under an IndyParks program, Oasis of Hope Baptist Church assumes management of Douglas Park while St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church manages J.T.V. Hill Park.
1996	Clergy from 11 churches, the Martindale-Brightwood Community Development Corporation, and National City Bank cooperate to form the Community Resurrection Partnership “to enhance the lives of individuals and families.”
1998	The suburban East 91st Street Christian Church opens the Jireh Sports facility for neighborhood youth in Martindale-Brightwood, teaching gymnastics and providing academic tutoring and religious education.