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Meridian-Kessler, Indianapolis

1965 establishments in the United StatesNeighborhoods in Indianapolis

Meridian-Kessler is a residential neighborhood located about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of downtown Indianapolis. It is bounded on the north by Kessler Boulevard, on the east by the Monon Trail greenway corridor, on the south by 38th Street, and to the west by Meridian Street. Meridian Street forms a shared boundary with the adjacent Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. Beginning in the very late 1890s, a few wealthy individuals built a smattering of country estates along Meridian Street and neighboring streets north of Maple Road, which is now called 38th Street. However, the area remained mostly open farmland. A few of the original farmhouses still stand, with the oldest one dating back to 1832. In 1905, landscape architect George Kessler redesigned Maple Road into a grand urban parkway as part of his ambitious plan to form a network of parks and boulevards in Indianapolis. Also in 1905, Indianapolis annexed Meridian Street from Maple Road/38th Street up to the town of Broad Ripple, a distance of almost 2 miles (3.2 km). The city's gradual road improvements in the area encouraged residential development. The neighborhood population boomed beginning in the early 1920s, and the area became one of the most prestigious addresses in Indianapolis. Wealthy individuals built grand homes along Meridian Street, Pennsylvania Street, and Washington Boulevard. However, the neighborhood did not develop solely as an exclusive enclave for the very wealthy, and most of the new residents were upper-middle class individuals who constructed smaller, but nonetheless stately houses throughout the neighborhood. Growth continued at a slower pace in the 1930s as the neighborhood filled up, and the wealthy continued their northern migration beyond the city limits to communities such as Meridian Hills and Williams Creek which expanded and incorporated during this decade. Nonetheless, Meridian-Kessler continued to be a neighborhood of choice for the affluent, and by the end of World War II it was built-out. In 1965, the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association was formed to unify the neighborhood and protect its unique character.Today, Meridian-Kessler remains a predominantly upper-middle class area and a highly desirable neighborhood.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Meridian-Kessler, Indianapolis (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Meridian-Kessler, Indianapolis
Central Avenue, Indianapolis Meridian Kessler

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Wikipedia: Meridian-Kessler, IndianapolisContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 39.855 ° E -86.150277777778 °
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Central Avenue 5616
46220 Indianapolis, Meridian Kessler
Indiana, United States
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Meridian Street United Methodist Church
Meridian Street United Methodist Church

Meridian Street United Methodist Church, known in its early years as Wesley Chapel, the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Meridian Street Methodist Church, is a Methodist church located at 5500 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. The church originated from the first Methodist congregation in Indianapolis that began in a log cabin in 1821–22 with fifty members. The congregation worshipped at several locations and erected four earlier churches on Monument Circle and along Meridian Street in downtown Indianapolis before it merged with the Fifty-first Street Methodists in 1945. The first service at its North Meridian Street location was held on June 29, 1952. Designed by the architectural firm of Russ and Harrison, the Georgian-Colonial-style, red-brick church is noted for its architecture, pipe organ (one of the city’s largest), and formal parlor. The Aldersgate addition on the west side (rear) of the church was consecrated on October 4, 1989. The church conducts midweek and Sunday worship services in addition to its ongoing religious ministry and foreign missions. During its early years, the congregation was involved in the organization of Asbury University (present-day DePauw University) and Indianapolis's Methodist Hospital. The church’s membership reached its peak in 1965 at 2,571 members, but declined in subsequent decades as the city expanded. Notable members of the congregation include former U.S. Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks; Albert J. Beveridge, a two-term U.S. senator and Pulitzer Prize-winning author; James F. Hanly, a former Indiana governor and U.S. congressman; Mary Stewart Carey, founder of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis; Calvin Fletcher, an early Indianapolis citizen who helped found the city's public school system; and industrialists and philanthropists James I. Holcomb and Herman C. Krannert.

Oliver Johnson's Woods Historic District
Oliver Johnson's Woods Historic District

Oliver Johnson's Woods is a historic district and neighborhood on the northern side of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Located in southern Washington Township, the district occupies the site of what was once the family farm of Oliver Johnson. Born on the present site of the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Johnson grew up in a pioneer family that lived on the edge of the state capital city. Upon attaining adulthood, he bought property a short distance to the west, to which he moved in 1846. Here, he built a larger farmhouse in 1862, and he tilled the soil for most of the rest of his life. As Indianapolis grew northward, it reached the Johnson farm in the early twentieth century; the aged farmer and his sons saw the city's growth as an opportunity for financial gain, and in 1905 they announced the platting of 0.25 square miles (0.65 km2) of their property into individual lots. They chose an advantageous time to sell their property; as the new residents began to build their homes, an interurban railway was built along College Avenue on the district's western side that connected downtown with Broad Ripple. Many prosperous businessmen were attracted by the development's large lots and wooded streets; the city annexed Oliver Johnson's Woods in 1912, and by the outbreak of World War II, the streets were filled with large houses built in a wide variety of architectural styles. These early residents came from many different ethnicities: European immigrants were becoming more prosperous and leaving their ethnic enclaves, and new neighborhoods such as Oliver Johnson's Woods appealed to them. Among the neighborhood's leading residents was a colony of Jews of German descent.Houses in the district generally feature architectural styles that were popular in the early twentieth century, such as the Colonial Revival, the Tudor Revival, the Arts and Crafts, the American Foursquare, and the Prairie School. Many of the district's Colonial Revival houses were constructed by William F. Nelson, who acted both as architect and as general contractor for these projects. Standing out from all other houses in the district is the original Johnson farmhouse; now known as the Johnson-Denny House, it originally faced Central Avenue, but its new owner relocated it to face Park Avenue while the surrounding land was being developed in 1919. Other buildings were once located around the house, but they have not survived.Today, Oliver Johnson's Woods is surrounded by the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood, and it remains the wooded middle-class neighborhood that it was originally planned to be. In 1979, the Johnson-Denny House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it was seen as eligible because of its place in local history and because of its well-preserved historic architecture. Twenty-five years later, all of Oliver Johnson's Woods was designated a historic district and added to the Register because of its architecture and local historical importance. The area designated as historic encompasses approximately 40 acres (16 ha); ninety-two different buildings within this zone qualified as contributing properties. Ninety of these buildings are houses; a 1999 historic preservation survey conducted by Indiana Landmarks ranked four of them as "outstanding," seventeen as "notable," and the other sixty-nine simply as "contributing."