The near Eastside has a storied history and a culture of community engagement.

HIGHLIGHTS

From the historic Rivoli Theatre to the opening of Arsenal Technical High School, check out a few historical highlights of the near Eastside.

Arsenal Tech
Arsenal Tech High School Opens in 1912

In 1863, a United States Arsenal opened at 1500 East Michigan Street. The Arsenal closed shortly after and in 1904 a group of citizens purchased the 75-acre arsenal grounds on Michigan Avenue for use as the Winona Agricultural and Technical Institute. Winona Agricultural and Technical Institute closed just five years later in 1909. Three years later in 1912, Arsenal Technical High School opened under Principal Milo Stuart, although the Board of School Commissioners had not yet received a favorable ruling in their litigation to acquire Winona Agricultural Institute. By 1937 Arsenal Technical High School had an enrollment of 7,000, making it one of the largest high schools in the nation.

Rivoli Theatre 1928
Rivoli Theater Opens in 1927

The Rivoli Theatre was built in 1927 by Universal Pictures Corporation, as the first Universal Studios owned theatre in Indiana. The theater could show movies, theatrical productions, and eventually concerts. Performers such as  Climax Blues Band, Kansas, Golden Earring and Lynyrd Skynyrd have taken the stage at the Rivoli. The theater eventually closed in 1992. The Rivoli Theatre was acquired by the Rivoli Center for the Performing Arts, Inc in 2007, and restoration efforts started. The theatre has since been acquired by Inspire 10th Street and is undergoing a renovation reuse study. 

2007 Quality of Life Promo Image with youth smiling
2007 Quality of Life Plan

In 2007, the original Quality of Life Plan was completed as a part of the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative. The Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative was led by the City of Indianapolis and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and it brought together over 500 near Eastside neighbors to create the original near Eastside Quality of Life Plan. The original plan had over 200 action items, many of which created sustainable and exciting projects on the near Eastside.

Chase Center 2012
2012 Super Bowl

The 2012 Superbowl Host committee selected the near Eastside and the 2007 QOL Plan as the 2012 Superbowl Legacy Project. The Legacy Project involved the creation of the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center, a 27,000 square foot community center that includes a fitness center, a media center, an instructional kitchen, an art studio, and the current home of Growing Places Indy. The project also included streetscape improvements and affordable housing in the St. Clair Place Neighborhood.

OUR HISTORY

TIMELINE

The near Eastside of Indianapolis has a storied history consisting of a variety of neighborhood driven efforts. The timeline below consists of a brief summary of the area since the 1870s.

  • 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. It remains at that location until 1911.
  • 1863 – United States Arsenal opens at 1500 East Michigan Street; later becomes Arsenal Technical High 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. The town’s population is 20 by 1880 and 161 by 1890.
  • 1873 – 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 – A small business district begins to build up along the 900 and 1000 blocks of East Washington Street

  • 1890 – Fire station constructed at 1030 East Washington Street.
    • 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.
    • Bishop Chatard responds to frequent demands by east-side Catholics for a church of their own. He appoints Rev. William Quigley, assistant pastor of St. Patrick’s, to found Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church.
  • 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.
  • 1896 – Englewood Christian Church begins services in January and a year later buys land that housed later church buildings, including the current church constructed in 1962.
  • 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.
    • Brookside Park becomes city park with 80 acres.
    • Highland Square becomes city park at the corner of Marlowe and Highland Avenues.

  • 1902 – Holy Cross School opens at 1417 East Ohio Street.
    • 59 charter members found Tuxedo Park Baptist Church.
  • 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 and a 125-foot electric tower.
  • 1907 – Willard Park opens at 1901 East Washington Street.
  • 1909 – Indianapolis Public Library Branch #3 opens at 2822 East Washington Street.

  • 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 is raided by the police due to its suspected “Blind Tiger,” a place where illegal intoxicants are sold. It is destroyed by fire in August.
    • East 10th Street Methodist Episcopal Church erects building at 2327 East 10th Street.
    • Emerson Heights, located on Emerson Avenue between 10th and Michigan Streets, was planned and developed as a streetcar community in the 1910s.
  • 1912 – Although the Board of School Commissioners has not yet received a favorable ruling in their litigation to acquire Winona Agricultural Institute, Arsenal Technical High School opens under Principal 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.
    • Peter Lutheran Evangelical Church constructs building at 2525 East 11th Street.

  • 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.
    • 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 East Drive.
  • 1921 – Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church erects new building at 1401 East Ohio Street.
    • Therese-Little Flower Catholic Church took possession of land at 4720 E. 13th Street, where they dedicated the combined church and school in 1926.
  • 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.
    • 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, cottages, hospital, and chapel are added to the Indiana Women’s Prison.
    • 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 – Highland-Brookside area reaches population zenith with 41,856 residents.

  • 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. Mayor Alex M. Clark is convinced 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 – 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 East Side Community Organization (NESCO) forms to coordinate the activities of smaller neighborhood organizations in the area.
    • 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.
  • 1971 – Near Eastside Multi-Service Center is formed.
  • 1972 – Woodruff Place is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
    • Peoples Health, (which opened as the NESCO Free Clinic.) organized in a house at 26 N. Oriental Street.
  • 1973 – The United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana asserted jurisdiction over IPS schools to force IPS and township schools to integrate. This came after IPS Schools did not comply with the 1971 mandate to eliminate de jure segregation in schools.
  • 1975 – Woodruff Place introduces first Flea Market.
  • 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 economy.
  • 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.
    • The Woodruff Place Civic League bought their first multi-unit house, reduced it to a single family unit and sold it with covenants attached. Since then WPCL has purchased over 24 multi-unit houses, some having more than 10 apartments, and turned them into single-family, owner-occupied homes.

  • 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.
    • Near East Side Community Federal Credit Union is organized.
  • 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, Oriental, and Michigan Streets, and I-70.
  • 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.
  • 1993 – Tom Abeel founded the Woodruff Place Lawn Chair Brigade. They have marched in NESCO, St Patrick’s Day, July 4, and 500 Festival parades.
  • 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.
    • The Near East Side Multi-Service Center was renamed the John H. Boner Community Center in honor of a long-time director.
  • 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.
  • 1997 – Eastside Community Investments divests its menu of Programs Investing in People because of cash flow problems. Some programs are transferred to carefully chosen alternate service providers.

  • 2000 – Treasured Homes, LLC, forms to buy vacant and at-risk properties with the goal of returning them to owner-occupancy status and to maintain architectural and neighborhood integrity. By 2007 the group had resold 13 homes in and near the Springdale Neighborhood.
  • 2001 – Woodruff Place became a locally- designated historic district.
  • 2002 – East 10th Street Civic Association is organized. An early project is 10 East Main Street, which is not only a FOCUS corridor, but also is one of two designated urban “Main Street” sites in Indianapolis.
  • 2003 – IndyEast Asset Development is formed as a new Community Development Corporation.
    • The Feast of Lanterns, a historic east-side festival held at Spades Park, is revived by NESCO after a six-decade hiatus.
  • 2004 – NESCO’s History and Preservation Committee organized in response to the demolition of Brookside School 54. They hold the first of many programs including the Near East Side Pub Crawl and Simply Divine: Sacred Architecture Tour.
  • 2005 – Near Eastside Collaborative Taskforce is organized by community leaders to promote greater collaboration and systemic change.
  • 2006 – The Near East Side is selected as a GINI (Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative) Demonstration Neighborhood.
    • The Near Eastside Housing Tax Increment Financing (HoTIF) was created to stimulate economic development growth in an area bounded by Oriental, 12th, Rural, and Washington Streets.
  • 2007 – The John H. Boner Center moves into their newly-constructed 29,000 square foot addition to the Brookside Building at 2236 E. 10th Street.
    • The Near East Side completes its first Quality of Life Plan and begins implementation.

  • 2012 – The Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center is included in the 2008 Super Bowl bid and ultimately constructed on Arsenal Technical High School’s campus. Additional funds are used to develop affordable housing and create infrastructure improvements.
  • 2015 – The Near Eastside is selected as a federal Promise Zone. The Promise Zone designation encourages collaboration between the neighborhood and the federal government on neighborhood identified priorities.
  • 2019 – The Lilly Endowment Inc. awards the Near East Side $4.3 million to create an Arts + Design district on East 10th
  • 2019 – The former P.R. Mallory site began redevelopment as the new site of Purdue Polytechnic High School and Paramount School of Excellence Middle School. The site requires over $15 million in funding for renovation and environmental remediation.

  • 2020 – The Near East Side completes its second Quality of Life Plan with 9 focus areas, including the addition of objectives related to arts, health, sustainability, and equity.

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