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A TIMELINE OF FAITH AND COMMUNITY:

NEAR EASTSIDE, 1838 TO 1996

 

1838	National Road meets Washington Street.
1850	Indiana State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb opens at Washington Street and State Avenue—now Willard Park. Remains at that location until 1911.
1863	United States Arsenal opens at 1500 East Michigan Street; later becomes Arsenal Technical School.
	A portion of the southwest corner of the Highland-Brookside area is platted for residential development due to demand for housing brought about by economic boom during the Civil War.
1870	City purchases Brookside Park from heirs of Indianapolis attorney Calvin Fletcher.
1871	Mule cars installed on Massachusetts Avenue.
1872	James O. Woodruff plats Woodruff Place with three boulevards, East, West, and Middle, intersected by Cross Drive.
1873	Michigan Street graded and improved east from Arsenal Avenue to Woodruff Place.
	Clifford Avenue (Tenth Street) graded and improved from Pogue’s Run to east edge of Woodruff Place.
	Indiana Women’s Prison opens at 401 North Randolph Street with 17 prisoners. It is the first prison in the U.S. built to house female convicts.
1876	Woodruff Place property owners successfully petition for incorporation of subdivision as a town.
1878	Washington Irving School #14 opens at 1229 East Ohio Street; additions made in 1899 and 1927.
1880	Woodruff Place population is 20.
	A small business district begins to build up along the 900 and 1000 blocks of East Washington Street.
1886	Irish residents of Highland-Brookside area found Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church.  By the end of its first year the church has 900 members.
1890	Fire station constructed at 1030 East Washington Street, now the Firehouse Image Center.
	Woodruff Place population is 161.
	John Greenleaf Whittier School #33 erected at 1119 North Sterling Street, additions in 1902 and 1926.
1891	Anheuser Busch Beer Agency opens at 920-924 East Ohio Street.
1895	Thomas D. Gregg School #15 erected at 2302 East Michigan Street.
1896	Dr. Albert E. Sterne locates Norways Sanitorium near Woodruff Place (at corner of present-day 10th and Sterling Streets) in former Stoughton A. Fletcher home, Clifford Place. The sanitorium attracts clients from across the country and remains open for many years.
1897	Brookside School # 54 constructed at 3150 East 10th Street.
1898	The New Telephone Company organizes as a competitor of Central Union and builds a branch exchange at Beville Avenue near Michigan Street on the east side.
	Brookside Park becomes city park with 80 acres.
	Highland Square becomes city park at the corner of Marlowe and Highland Avenues.
1900	James Russell Lowell School #51 opens at 2301 North Olney Street; addition made in 1913.
	Census records reveal that nearly one-quarter of the residents of Cottage Home area hold "low white-collar positions,” 47 percent are skilled workers, 20 percent are semi-skilled, and 11 percent are unskilled. Only one person was in the "high white-collar" category.
1902	Holy Cross School opens at 1417 East Ohio Street.
1904	Marietta Glass and Refrigerator Co. locates manufacturing firm at 16th Street and Sherman Drive. Plant covers 64 acres and employs 225 by 1907. Company manufactures cathedral glass, sky lights, etc., and refrigerators and store fixtures.
	Group of citizens purchase 75-acre arsenal grounds on Michigan Avenue for use as the Winona Agricultural and Technical Institute.  The school closes in 1909.
1905	Lucretia Mott School #3 opens at 23 North Rural.
1906	Wonderland Amusement Park opens at the corner of East Washington and Gray Streets, the former location of the Indianapolis baseball grounds. The park includes 24 buildings, 125-foot electric tower, and 50,000 incandescent lights.
1907	Willard Park opens at 1901 East Washington Street.
1909	Indianapolis Public Library Branch #3 opens at 2822 East Washington Street.
	Mothers of children from Lucretia Mott School #3, Emerson Public School and the Irvington Mothers clubs hold meetings at their respective schools to discuss the negative effects of a proposed German Beer Garden at Wonderland Amusement Park. Their threatened petition-signing effort against the withdrawal of the park’s beer-selling license is successful, and the Beer Garden idea is scrapped.
1910	St. Philip Neri Convent erected at 530 North Rural Street.
	Brookside School #54 erects new building at 3150 East 10th Street; additions in 1915, 1921 and 1928.
1911	Wonderland Amusement Park, which is hosting the Interdenominational County Fair, is raided by the police due to its suspected “Blind Tiger,” a place where illegal intoxicants are sold.
	East 10th Street Methodist Episcopal Church erects building at 2327 East 10th Street.
	Wonderland Amusement Park, open during the last few years only for special events, is destroyed by fire on August 27.
1912	Although the Board of School Commissioners has not yet received a favorable ruling in their litigation to acquire Winona Agricultural Institute (later Arsenal Technical), the school officials open the high school under the principalship of Milo Stuart.
	Indianapolis Public Library Branch #6 opens at 1801 Nowland Avenue.
1913	St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church erects building at 2195 North Avondale Place.
1914	St. Paul A.M.E. Church is established at 1825 East 25th Street.
1915	First German Reformed Church established at 3102 East 10th Street.
	St. Peter Lutheran Evangelical Church constructs building at 2525 East 11th Street.
1916	Arsenal Technical High School at 1500 East Michigan Street becomes the city’s third high school.
1920	Wealthy families in Woodruff Place and Near Eastside neighborhoods begin to move to the suburbs as noise, pollution, and car traffic intrude on the area from downtown.
	Emerson Heights subdivision, located on Emerson Avenue north of Washington Street, is developed.
	Garfield Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church erects building at 300 Grant Avenue; addition on 4100 East New York Street in 1952.
	Woodruff Place Town Hall erected at 735 Middle Drive.
1921	John Hope School #26 opens at 1301 East 16th; addition constructed in 1938.
	Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church erects new building at 1401 East Ohio Street.
1922	Robert Browning School #73 opens at 4101 East 30th Street; additions in 1922, 1928, 1957, 1960.
1924	Theodore Potter Fresh Air School #74 reopens at 1601 East 10th Street after being restored.
	Woodrow Wilson School #75 opens at 2447 West 14th Street.
	Tuxedo Park Baptist Church erects building at 29 North Grant Avenue after previous building burned.
1926	Woodruff Place Baptist Church erects building at 1739 East Michigan Street.
1927	Brookside Community Park Building erected.
	Rivoli Theatre opens.
	Calvin N. Kendall School #62 opens at 910 North Wallace Street, additions in 1924 and 1927.
1929	P.R. Mallory and Company opens a production facility and headquarters at 3029 East Washington Street, former location of Wonderland Amusement Park.
1930	The Great Depression affects Woodruff Place and surrounding wealthy neighborhoods as families find it difficult to maintain large, single-family homes and begin to divide them into apartments.
	An administration building, residential cottages, hospital and chapel are added to the Indiana Women’s Prison.
	Woodruff Place population is 1,216 people.
	Grace Rupp builds grocery at corner of Emerson Avenue and 16th Street. The location later turns into a small business complex in the 1940s and 1950s.
	Parkview School #81 opens at 3126 Brookside Parkway North Drive
	Arsenal Tech High School has 242 teachers, 6,000 students, and 12 buildings.
	Christian Park Community House constructed.
1936	James E. Roberts School #97, specializing in “crippled” students, opens at 1401 East 10th Street.
1937	Arsenal Technical High School has an enrollment of 7,000, making it one of the largest high schools in the nation.
	Thomas Carr Howe High School, located at 4900 Julian Avenue, is named in honor of educator Thomas Carr Howe.
1940	Woodruff Place population is 1,434 people.
	Highland-Brookside area reaches population zenith with 41,856 residents.
1950	A business center develops at corner of Emerson Avenue and 16th Street, where Rupp's grocery store has stood for 20 years. New businesses include Delbo Drugs, a dry cleaner, a barber-beauty shop, a doctor's office, and Star Hardware.
	Woodruff Place population grows to 1,557, an increase due to subdivision of large houses into multi-family dwellings.
1953	City of Indianapolis begins to charge Woodruff Place $25,000 annually for police and fire protection.
1955	Eastside residents form a delegation to protest against selling Highland Park and turning it into an Air Force Reserve Training Center.  The delegation convinces the mayor, Alex M. Clark, to invest $20,000 in new facilities at the park.
1962	Woodruff Place loses court battle to remain an incorporated town. On March 20, residents hand over the town hall keys to city officials.
1966	Student Council of the Indiana School for the Deaf erects marker in memory of William Willard, founder of Deaf School at Willard Park, where first school was located.
	P. R. Mallory and Company has 8,000 employees, 1,500 of whom work at its Indianapolis facility.
1969	A study of the Highland-Brookside area by the Metropolitan Planning Department proposes a 15-year plan for major physical and social improvements in the neighborhoods.  Study shows housing deterioration, conflicting land-use patterns, and significant transportation and street deficiencies. Substandard health, rising crime rate, a moderate level of welfare dependency, and "some racial tension" were also mentioned.
1970	Near Eastside Community Organization (NESCO) forms to coordinate the activities of smaller neighborhood organizations in the area.
	Census shows that half of all residents of Woodruff Place had moved into the area since 1968.  Only 16.5 percent of residents have lived in Woodruff Place for ten years or longer.
	Average income of Woodruff Place families is $8,636.
	Construction of I-70 along western and northwestern portion of area negatively impacts the neighborhoods near the interstate.  Residents are concerned that highway will divide neighborhood.
1972	Woodruff Place is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
	A federally funded "Environmental Stress" study finds that residents in the current NESCO area experience a fair-to-good neighborhood environment. Only those living adjacent to I-70 experience an "inadequate" environment.
1976	Holy Cross Catholic Church membership drops to its lowest level due to the loss of many longtime residents.
	Arsenal Technical High School listed on National Register of Historic Places.
	Eastside Community Investments (ECI) forms to address issues of decaying housing and economic development of area.
1977	Father James Byrne of Holy Cross Catholic Church becomes president of Eastside Community Investments.
1978	Holy Cross Catholic Church sees a resurgence of membership with an increase in young parishioners; average age of the parish council members is 34, although nearly half the parish members are older.
1979	Lilly Endowment funds the Near Eastside Church and Community Ministry Project.  Project becomes self-sufficient within 4 years.
1980	Eastside Community Investments participates in a program to renovate 12 two-family residences in the NESCO area and sell them to low- to moderate-income families who will pay their mortgage by renting the other side of the double.
1982	Holy Cross-Westminster neighborhood named as a Community Development Block Grant Target Area.
	Eastside Community Investments, Inc. holds an open house at 1210 East Ohio Street—a former home of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club—to display the area's revitalization efforts.
	Holy Cross-Westminster neighborhood selected by the National Reinvestment Corp. to be a Neighborhood Housing Service area, which provides low-interest loans for home rehabilitation and assists the neighborhood in attaining long-term goals.
1984	Cottage Home residents hold first annual Cottage Home Block Party. Cottage Home Neighborhood Association is organized and named. It is bounded by East 10th Street, Oriental Street, Michigan Street, and I-70.
	Member churches of the Near Eastside Church and Community Ministry Project are First United Church of Christ; Westminster Presbyterian; East 10th Street United Methodist; Brookside United Methodist; East Park United Methodist, Grace United Methodist; Centenary Christian; Linwood Christian; Holy Cross Catholic; St. Philip Neri Catholic; Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; St. Matthew Lutheran; St. Peter Lutheran and Woodruff Place Baptist. Members sponsor neighborhood activities and “Partners in Ministry for Justice,” Neighborhood Children’s Ministry, Caregiving to the Homebound, Ministry to and With Young Adults, “Church Responses to Poverty,” and “Getting Back in Touch with Our Neighbors”.
1985	Holy Cross Church, with help from Eastside Community Investments, turns one of its buildings into apartments for low-income elderly and handicapped residents.
	Aetna Life and Casualty Co. and Indiana Mortgage Corp. offer low-interest home mortgage loans to low- and moderate-income residents in Highland-Brookside area. The program makes $650,000 available in the neighborhood, enough for about 30 mortgages.
1988	Nearly one-half of the homes in the Holy Cross-Westminster neighborhood are rentals.
1990	A portion of Cottage Home neighborhood is placed on National Register of Historic Places.
1992	Indiana Women’s Prison houses 350 inmates and has a staff of 240 full-time employees.
1994	Eastside Community Investments begins renovation work on former Nabisco Blue Bonnet Margarine Factory at 1102 Roosevelt. The renovated facility will be known as the New East Industrial Center.
1995	Rivoli Park Neighborhood Association (Michigan to 10th; Rural to Tuxedo) holds first organizational meeting. Twenty-four residents attend.
	Indianapolis Public Schools Board votes to close Thomas Carr Howe High School.  Protests by students and area residents do not stop the closing.
1996	CIDONE Industries joins New East Industrial Center. CIDONE, in which the Eastside Community Investments has an investment, creates up to 20 jobs for neighborhood residents.
	IPS Board of School Commissioners approves recommendation to use Thomas Carr Howe High School as a second alternative-placement center for middle school students. The program is partially funded by Lilly Endowment.