Indianapolis: The Story of a Changed City
Richard Lugar was born and raised in the city of Indianapolis. He attended Indianapolis Public Schools, spending his high school career at Shortridge High School, the oldest free, public high school in Indiana. He is a true Hoosier, with Midwest roots and a deep Midwest pride for his city. A city where he proudly served as two-term mayor from 1968 to 1975.
“People used to call us ‘India-No-Place,’ but I had an idea for Indianapolis, an idea that we’d be a greater city and make a substantial impact in urban development,” former U.S. Sen. Lugar said.
In 1967, Lugar was elected as the mayor of Indianapolis. In 1967, he had a vision for this city formerly known as “No Place.” And in 1967, the idea of transforming Indianapolis was a goal. Now, in 2017, Lugar’s goal has been accomplished.
“Indianapolis is now a city that’s highly rated in terms of the citizens’ quality of life and progress, and this is a very exciting thing to see,” Lugar said.
When the former mayor left the city for the U.S. Senate in 1976, Indianapolis was a sleepy Midwest city known as “Naptown.” Now, Indianapolis attracts a generation of millennials who live and work in a vibrant downtown full of award-winning restaurants, arts and other cultural attractions, and sports entertainment galore.
A key reason behind this transformation: the people of Indianapolis.
There is a tremendous passion and determination to see the city they love grow into something even greater than it already is: a place where people truly want to live, work and play.
Indy’s Early Years
Indianapolis has endured many different stages of growth and urban development, dating as far back as the 1800s, with the founding of Indiana. Picture this: a small, peaceful area of land home to many Native Americans. Then, enter U.S. settlers. The two groups were in conflict for many years, all the way up until 1811, when the tension reached its peak with the Battle of Tippecanoe, won by General William Henry Harrison, a future president.
Indiana, meaning “land of the Indians,” was admitted as the 19th state of the union on Dec. 11, 1816. With the founding of a new state, there needed to be a new capital, and in January of 1820, the Indiana legislature picked a group of Hoosier leaders to find a central location. Among those leaders were George Pogue and John McCormick. They brought their families and unknowingly settled on the land that was to become the site of Indianapolis, close to the exact center of the state.
After the site was approved in 1821, the name Indianapolis, a combination of Indiana plus the Greek word “polis” for city, was chosen. Four square miles were allotted for the city, but the chief surveyor, E. P. Fordham, plotted an area of only one square mile, not thinking the capital would ever get any bigger. Fortunately, he was mistaken.
Alexander Ralston was hired to design the future city, and he decided to model it on the nation’s capital, with four broad avenues branching out diagonally to the north, south, east, and west from a central circle. That central circle eventually grew, and became better known as Monument Circle, home to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, a main attraction for Indianapolis today standing at just under 300 feet tall.
In the early years of Indianapolis’s founding, the city experienced growth in population and urban expansion. The national highway was routed through Indianapolis, establishing the area as a central location for trade. It was incorporated as a city 16 years later and received the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, which was soon followed by seven major rail lines, gaining access to the Ohio River.
During this time, wealthy people bought large mansions on North Meridian Street, and Indianapolis became known as the “city of homes.” Now, as you drive down that very same street, beautiful mansions still stand tall for miles and miles, making North Meridian one of Indianapolis’s residential treasures.
Indianapolis was also a leader in the automobile industry at the turn of the 20th century, and it became known for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. The site became home to the Indianapolis 500, one of the most popular sporting events in the world, with as many as 350,000 people attending what is known nationwide as, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Although people might associate Indianapolis with the name “Naptown,” its very first nickname was something much more positive, signifying the transcontinental traffic that went through the state during the 1920s. The official slogan of “The Crossroads of America” was adopted for Indianapolis in 1926.
Indianapolis was almost impossible to access 10 years prior to this because of its poor road conditions. Millions of dollars were wasted each year on efforts to restore these streets. The city celebrated the first paved stretch in 1917 on the National Old Trail Road, known as the National Road, eventually turning into U.S. 40, the first highway in the U.S. A few years later, the state highway system more than tripled, and there was a surge of people coming in and out of the city.
A New Tempo for the City
Adding to this progress was the major jazz movement of Indianapolis, which happened throughout the 1900s and livened the pulse of the city. In the late 1950s, Gunther Schuller, a jazz musician, wrote in Jazz Review that Indianapolis offered “a caliber of jazz quite superior to the often blasé big-name jazz of the metropolitan centers,” according to a National Public Radio article. Indiana Avenue served as a cultural hub for African-Americans in the Indianapolis community.
Many famous Hoosier jazz artists came out of this period of creativity and inventiveness.
John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery taught himself how to play guitar after watching recordings of his idol Charlie Christian. By day he worked an exhausting factory job to support his wife and seven children. By night he performed at local spots like the Club 440 and the Missile Club. Recognized as one of the greatest guitarists in the history of jazz, Montgomery was able to define modern jazz guitar with his unique fingerpicking style of play, and he was selected as top guitarist five times in the 1960s by jazz critics.
Freddie Hubbard was a Grammy-Award winning artist and one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, with a portfolio of 57 recorded albums.
James Louis (J.J.) Johnson made the trombone a high-profile instrument in bebop jazz because of his distinguished talent with it and his ability to execute lines as fast as humanly possible.
Finally, the Hamptons were one of the most important Indianapolis jazz families during this time. Their deep passion for the practice of jazz inspired others, as the Hampton family jazz rehearsals were infamous. As jazz was considered an important family value to the Hamptons, many of the Hampton children went on to become internationally renowned jazz musicians, specializing in singing, dancing and popularizing the vibraphone.
In addition to the jazz scene of Indianapolis, the city also produced visual artists throughout the 19th century.
Five artists, Theodore Clement (T.C.) Steele, Richard Gruelle, William Forsyth, John Ottis Adams, and Otto Stark, formed the Hoosier Group, creating impressionistic works from their home state of Indiana.
Steele, who picked up a knack for painting at the young age of 13, was perhaps the most well-known among the artists. He had a great love for creating landscapes, combining the different lights and colors of the changing Indiana seasons, causing him to settle in Brown County. The area’s picturesque landscape lent itself well to Steele’s work. Stark specialized in paintings featuring French influences, and Adams gained a reputation for being one of the finest portraitists in the state while working in Muncie. Adams and Forsyth opened an art school together in Fort Wayne. All the artists, including Gruelle, were talented in landscape style art, bringing them all together to share their talents with Indiana, and eventually throughout the U.S.
The city also produced writers.
James Whitcomb Riley was one of the most popular poets in American history. He was known as “The Hoosier Poet” and “The Children’s Poet” because of his beloved poems. Riley sold millions of books, including the 1890 “Rhymes of Childhood,” with adored stories like “The Raggedy Man” and “Little Orphan Annie.”
Indianapolis was also home to Booth Tarkington who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novels “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “Alice Adams.”
Famous satirical novelist Kurt Vonnegut was yet another Indianapolis native, writing renowned works like 1963’s “Cat’s Cradle” and 1969’s “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Similar to Lugar, Vonnegut also attended Shortridge High School.
Continued Revitilization
During this time of progress for Indianapolis, there was a push to revitalize downtown.
“In 1968, I saw a need for the unification of the city and surrounding townships,” Lugar said.
In 1970, the Indiana state legislature combined the governments of Indianapolis and Marion County. The result was “Unigov,” and it turned the city into the nation’s 11th largest. The adoption of Unigov secured Indianapolis’s national reputation and successfully revitalized the downtown and suburban areas of the city.
Brad Beaubien is the long range planning administrator for Indianapolis’s Department of Metropolitan Development.
“Unigov captured the next 10 years of suburban growth, and because of this, Indianapolis has remained financially solvent,” he said.
Bob Reynolds, an attorney at Barnes & Thornburg, has lived in Indianapolis since 1963, and has directly involved himself with improving the city. Reynolds said that Lugar’s decision to revitalize the city through Unigov was of the utmost importance.
“Unigov made politics different than they were before, and people soon felt that it gave way to more Republican mayors,” he said. “However, under either party, our city government has always been honest, and as a result the business sector trusts the government. That is a real distinguishing factor of Indianapolis.”
With the growth of Indianapolis came a migration of people towards the suburbs and away from downtown. By the 1970s, downtown Indianapolis had many boarded up storefronts, not much as far as arts, entertainment or eatery, and not many job opportunities. As more and more people chose to shop, live and work in the growing suburbs, the city became sleepy and dull, earning Indianapolis the new nickname of “Naptown,” and a reputation as a boring city that lacked an exciting downtown scene.
“A city without a downtown is not likely to succeed,” Reynolds said.
William Hudnut succeeded Lugar as Indianapolis’s mayor, serving four terms from 1976 to 1992. He was the city’s longest running mayor and instrumental in bringing about change for the city. The man had a vision to see Indianapolis become, “both economically competitive and compassionate toward urban and human problems,” according to a New York Times article.
Hudnut announced his idea for a downtown mall in 1979. On April 25 of that year, Simon & Associates, a commercial real estate agency, introduced a plan for a $10 million mall between Meridian Street and Capitol Avenue to connect L.S. Ayres and the William H. Block Co., which were the two powerhouse downtown department stores at the time.
Construction on the mall was consistently delayed for years. Construction on the underground parking garage finally started in 1991, but new Mayor Stephen Goldsmith put things on halt for about a year to try to reduce costs.
In 1993, mall construction resumed, and in 1994, work began on the Artsgarden. Circle Centre Mall opened to the public in 1995 with four floors, 100 retail stores, 20 places to eat, nine movie theater screens, and 12,000 parking spaces within one block.
Bob Schultz is a true advocate for Indianapolis, having lived in the city his entire life. He worked at the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association, better known today as Visit Indy, for a little over nine years and now serves as the vice president of marketing and communications at Downtown Indy, a nonprofit downtown that manages, develops and markets the city. He said that one of the biggest things that reinvented the city was Indianapolis’s transition into a major sports capital. He recognized Indianapolis’s potential during the “Naptown” phase, and has seen it come to fruition over the years.
“Mayor Hudnut was famous for saying, ‘You cannot be a suburb of no place,’ Schultz said. “And all of Indianapolis’s mayors agree that you have to continually reinvent your downtown.”
He said one of the biggest things that did that for the city was sports.
“We were already known for motor sports with the Indianapolis 500,” he said. “But then the Pacers, the Colts, and the Indians came in. And now, those who cover sports come to Indianapolis to cover them more than any other city.”
Sports: Turning Naptown into a Super City
The sports evolution started in 1967, with the Indiana Pacers as the face of Hoosier basketball. The team was first established as a member of the American Basketball Association and joined the National Basketball Association in 1976. Three years later, Indiana Sports Corp. was created as the nation’s first sports commission. With the Indiana Sports Corp., civic leaders seized the idea to ultimately use sports to change Indianapolis’s image.
Change continued. The city built a domed stadium in 1984 for football games, despite not yet having a team. Originally the Hoosier Dome, it changed its name to the RCA Dome ten years later. Also in 1984, Robert Irsay moved his National Football League team, the Baltimore Colts, into Indianapolis overnight. Once the city had a professional football team, it put Indianapolis on the map, and drew in more people.
In 2004, the Colts and the city of Indianapolis announced that the team would move into a new, modern stadium, with a sliding roof to open in good weather that would cost $720 million. The team moved into Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008, replacing one of the smallest stadiums in the NFL with one of the largest, fitting up to 70,000 people.
Indianapolis also received notoriety for sports when it hosted the 1987 Pan American Games, a major multi-sport event with teams competing from the Americas: North America, South America and Central America. In 1999, the National Collegiate Athletic Association moved its headquarters from Kansas City to Indianapolis.
One of the most significant moments for the city was in 2012: the city won the bid to host the 46th Super Bowl. Everyone doubted that a city known as “Naptown” and “India-No-Place” could pull something like this off.
Jeff Robinson is the marketing director for Visit Indy, the city’s tourism arm. He also worked for two years on the committee that planned the 46th Super Bowl.
“The national media was ready to come in and crush Indy,” he said. “Instead, they all walked away thinking it was the best Super Bowl they had ever seen. We not only did it, we set the parameters for how the Super Bowl should be hosted.”
Indianapolis had a Super Bowl Village downtown, with more than 300,000 people walking through within one week.
Bill Benner, senior vice president for corporate, community and public relations for the Indiana Pacers, said that after the Super Bowl, the NFL rewrote its policies for what is expected in hosting the game.
“This major capstone is really just a continuation of what Indy’s been doing since the late 1970s,” Benner said. “Now it’s become our DNA; it’s just what we do.”
Since then, Indianapolis has been the home for countless sporting events.
“We’re passionate about sports as a culture,” Benner said. “Sports draw attention. Sports enable Indianapolis to unveil itself. And it enables people to discover the city for themselves.
“Young people are looking for things they can do and be involved in,” he added. “Indy has those major sporting events that young people can take part in. Had Indy not made that investment in sports, then all the other things we have here would not exist.”
Indy: A City Changed
Now, Indianapolis is no longer viewed as a sleepy town with little to no arts, entertainment or restaurant scene. With the city’s transition into a sports capital, more opportunities emerged.
Young people started to take a significant interest in the city, according to Molly Chavers, executive director of Indy Hub, an advocate for Indianapolis millennials in their 20s and 30s.
“The sports strategy was critical for Indy,” Chavers said. “It laid the foundation for a lot of other things to happen, and all of the sudden there was a huge call to civic action to get more involved. This allowed for very strong nonprofits in the city and a strong arts community because of that civic engagement.”
The city is small in size. The accessibility of downtown is one of its main draws.
“There’s always going to be some things that are sexy about a city, and some things that aren’t,” Chavers said. “It’s like a relationship, how you’re attracted to certain things.
“We have the cultural trail, a great restaurant scene and fun neighborhoods. … But it’s the not-so-sexy things that are the most desirable,” she added. “You can have a car here and actually park it. You have the perfect balance of access and also opportunity.”
Indianapolis has grown substantially in the amount of opportunities available to people. The city ranks fifth in tech job growth and saw a 30 percent increase in tech jobs from 2013 to 2015, according to an Indianapolis Business Journal article. The city is host to major corporate headquarters such as Anthem, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co.
Additionally, Indianapolis is nationally ranked in a number of categories related to the job market.
· First for cost of doing business
· Second for mid-career professionals
· Second among cities that are secretly great for technology graduates
· Fifth for women in technology
· Sixth for top cities for tech jobs
· Ninth for cities creating the most technology jobs
· Tenth best city for young professionals
Affordable apartment opportunities downtown continue to expand. For example, Indianapolis is ranked as the №1 city for most affordable housing market, according to a CNN article. Median home price is $93,000. Average income is $65,100. People who live downtown, also work downtown; they are not commuters.
“I have lived all my life in Indianapolis,” said Schultz of Downtown Indy. “And I plan to make it my home for years to come. Indianapolis is the ideal environment. … It’s also a great place to live and work.”
The cost of living in Indianapolis is substantially less than a larger city like Chicago. Consumer prices in Indianapolis are almost 10 percent lower than Chicago, rent prices are close to 50 percent lower in Indy, and restaurant prices are nearly 20 percent lower in Indy. That makes it a very “healthy city” for citizens and tourists alike, according to Beaubien, the long range planning administrator for Indianapolis.
“A healthy city has places that hold its values and hold plenty of opportunity, like a decent education, opportunities to improve economic status and a place where you can find the support that you need,” he said. “To have a thriving environment, you need to have a thriving connection between people and place.”
The city of Indianapolis has invested time and effort into making downtown a thriving arts, entertainment, leisure and restaurant scene for millennials.
Every other year, Indy Hub sends out surveys to try to find the priorities in 20- to 30-year-olds of the city, according to Chavers.
“What’s the pulse of our city? We work on always finding that,” she said. “And we need to keep up with the learning curve to find the best for our city. We are constant students of what is the best way to communicate the message we’re trying to reach.”
That message is spread across several different platforms and attractions, showcasing the true heart of the city. Those platforms include sights like:
· Mass Avenue — the city’s art and theater district, with up-and-coming restaurants like Black Market and Mesh
· Indianapolis Canal Walk
· White River State Park
· Indianapolis Cultural Trail
· Indianapolis Zoo
· Bankers Life Fieldhouse
· Lucas Oil Stadium
· Victory Field
· Indiana Convention Center
· Fountain Square, featuring restaurants like Bluebeard and Milktooth
Twenty-one-year-old Kailey Eaton is about to graduate from college in May. Her first choice in living somewhere post-graduation is right in the heart of downtown Indianapolis.
“After I graduate, Indy can give me all the benefits of a big city, just in a smaller space that’s much easier to navigate,” she said. “There always seems to be something to do there, it’s affordable even for broke college students, and it offers a lot of great job opportunities, whether that’s working with the multiple sports teams or one of the healthcare giants.”
There is a reason why Indianapolis is ranked 17th among America’s favorite cities and the seventh most underrated city for millennials, according to a Tech Point article. The people that have worked to make the city into what it is today continuously seek ways to expand on what has already been done.
So what’s next for this up-and-coming city? Making it even more livable with better transportation and more living options for the younger generation of city dwellers are just a few options for these city leaders. There is a need to create more community engagement spaces and capitalize on the walkability of Indianapolis’s neighborhoods, according to Schultz.
Urban planning and expansion are a constantly evolving process, but it is a necessary one for Indianapolis if the city wishes to forever lose the name of “Naptown.”
“We don’t have mountains, and we don’t have seashores, so what do we have? We have a belief in our culture and a belief in our community,” Downtown Indy’s Schultz said. “All these things sustain a community much more than a nearby mountain.”
Sometimes, a strong belief in the potential for a city is what turns that belief into a reality, just as it did for then Mayor Richard Lugar back in 1967.
“There have been five mayors of different parties since me, and they were all tremendously important to Indianapolis,” he said. “Each one has built on the successes of the one before him.
“The momentum of progress for Indy is still very strong. And each time I come back to visit, I’m continuously impressed with the new leadership and vigor of this great city.”
