Introducing "Favorites on Friday"

On Fridays, I shall endeavor to feature something in Indianapolis that I love. And if you, fellow lover of Indianapolis history have a suggestion on one of your Indianapolis favorites, I just may be moved to make it a favorite of mine too.

For my first favorite, I'm going to stick to what I know best: my neighborhood and street...as it was about 100 years ago.

Circa 1910...

Delaware Street has lost many of its grandest dames of architecture, but there are a few notables left. Up here in old Morton Place (now part of a larger neighborhood: Herron-Morton Place), I can't help looking out my window and wondering how it would have felt to see an esplanade in the street, rather than the "Indy 400" and its thousands of cars, trucks and motorcycles attempting to surpass the speed of sound.

These views looks at the east side of the 2000 block of Delaware.

In a newspaper article from March 1925, it was announced that the board of public works resolved to resurface and widen the street. Despite the vigorous objections of residents of the street, pointing to the historic value and the use of the esplanades as a safety spot for pedestrians, "progress" won the day. The article said "Resurfacing and widening of the street will open a main traffic artery to the north for automobiles and will relieve much of the congestion which has prevailed on Meridian Street, after approaches to the new Delaware street bridge have been repaired, according to city officials."

...And within the last couple of years