All Stories: 449
Stories
Studebaker Clubhouse
In 1926, Studebaker Corporation purchased several farmsteads to construct a proving ground. They built a clubhouse, 8 miles of roadway, and engineering building, and garages on the property. Studebaker also started a major reforestation project with…
Washington Park Zoo
Washington Park started in 1891 as a greenspace along Lake Michigan. The Park was a recreation destination and popular place for company picnics out of Chicago. In 1913 the South Shore Amusement Company operated a dance floor, skating rink, bath…
Century of Progress Houses
In 1933-1934 Chicago hosted the Century of Progress Exposition. The Home and Industrial Arts group consisted of 13 state-of-the-art homes thought to represent what residential design of the future would look like. Innovative engineering and…
Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium
Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium is an architectural blend of the Neoclassical and Prairie styles. This two-story, cast concrete and reinforced steel building was designed by Chicago architect George Maher in…
Longcliff Museum
Opened in 1888, the original Administration Building of the Logansport State Hospital only recently became home to the Longcliff Museum. The well-preserved Administration Building, symbolic to the Logansport State Hospital Building, has been…
Dr. Hutchings Office and Museum
Built between 1838 and 1848, Dr. William Hutchings’ hospital and personal office currently functions as a small public museum. Born in 1825 in Kentucky, Hutchings would later complete his medical study in Kentucky and his medical training during the…
Martinsville Sanitarium
Built from 1925 to 1926, the Martinsville Sanitarium’s first residential unit is a lasting representation of the city of Martinsville’s most substantial industry. Within several years of the discovery of mineral water in 1887, Martinsville, Indiana…
Clay County Hospital
The three and a half story limestone-trimmed brick building of the Clay County Hospital was the hospital’s original building, and it was constructed from 1927 to 1928. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building retains many of…
National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers - Marion Branch
On the heels of the Civil War, the federal government realized the need to provide care for soldiers who were disabled from injuries sustained during their service. Consequently, in 1865 the federal government established the National Asylum of…
Culver Union Hospital
In the second half of the 19th century, an organization of women in Montgomery County displayed a strong focus on bettering their community and helping those in need, mirroring a national trend. With virtuous intentions, the Women’s Union in…
Conrad and Catherine Bloch House
The historic residential dwelling of Conrad and Catherine Bloch, owners of a thriving shoe business, was built in 1873. In 1923, the home was leased to Dr. Harvey Cook, who transformed the building into the last privately owned hospital in…
Luckey Hospital Museum
Founded in 1928 by Dr. James Edward Luckey, a physician working in the African-American resort Wolf Lake area since at least 1893, Luckey Hospital served the surrounding rural communities until 1961. Prior to 1928, Dr. Luckey operated his practice…
Brown County State Park
Opened in 1929, Brown County State Park is the largest of Indiana’s state parks. Known for many decades as the “Little Smokies” because of the area’s resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains, the park draws more people to it than any other in the…
Mounds State Park
From Native American mounds to merry-go-rounds, Mounds State Park attests to the varied history of Indiana. Named after the numerous Native American-constructed mounds dotting the park, these features drove the preservation of this land and the…
Shades State Park
Though not as well known or as visited as Turkey Run, Shades State Park shares much of the same natural splendor, geology, and ecosystems that visitors to Turkey Run have enjoyed for one hundred years. Added to the state park system in 1947, “Shades…
Turkey Run State Park
Originally slated to be Indiana’s first state park, the failure to reach a deal on the purchase of park lands resulted in the creation of McCormick’s Creek S.P. a few months earlier than Turkey Run. The brainchild of Colonel Richard Lieber, who also…
McCormick's Creek State Park
Eyeing the state’s centennial, Colonel Richard Lieber and others helped organize the creation of McCormick’s Creek State Park in 1916, making it Indiana’s first state park. McCormick’s Creek earned its named from John McCormick, a Revolutionary War…
Paramount Theater
This 1929 Spanish Eclectic style building was designed by Alvin Strauss, an architect from Fort Wayne. Chicago architect John Eberson specifically designed the theater. Eberson was known for his innovated designs of atmospheric theaters—theaters…
Hedden's Grove Neighborhood
In August 1860, at a site beside the Charlestown Road on the northeast side of New Albany, African Americans gathered to celebrate the emancipation of slaves in the West Indies a quarter-century before. Speaking before the group, a Reverend Kelly…
New Albany Shipyards
From the mid-1820s to the Civil War, shipbuilding fueled New Albany’s economic growth. New Albany shipyards produced $12 million worth of rivercraft by 1860. Production began in 1819 and peaked in 1856, when New Albany builders produced twenty-two…
St. Mary of the Knobs Catholic Church
St. Mary of the Knobs Catholic Church exemplifies the enduring strength of Roman Catholicism in southern Indiana. In the 1820s, Catholic priests began visiting several families in Lafayette Township, six miles north of New Albany, to celebrate…
Sherman Minton Bridge
The Sherman Minton Bridge is a two-deck, two-span steel through-arch bridge that carries Interstate I-64 across the Ohio River west of Louisville. Completed in 1962, the bridge dramatically improved automobile transportation between New Albany and…
Freedomland Cemetery
From the 1850s until the early twentieth century, Freedomland Cemetery served as the main burial ground for African Americans in New Albany. Originally called the “Colored People’s Burial Grounds” and the “Colored People’s Graveyard,” it lies in a…
Great Flood of 1937
The Ohio River flood of 1937 is one of the greatest disasters in American history. Heavy rain began falling in the Louisville area on January 9 and continued with only brief interludes until January 23. Combined with runoff from melting snow, the…
Lucy Higgs Nichols Historical Marker
Atkins Chapel United Methodist Church
Cannon Acres
The Ohio River has supported human life since people first settled along its banks thousands of years ago. Groups that survived on agriculture used the river to irrigate their crops. The river supplied water for drinking, washing, and a host of…
Robert E. Lee Steamboat
The Robert E. Lee is among the best-known steamboats built in New Albany. Completed in 1866 for Captain John W. Cannon, the Robert E. Lee cost $230,000 and was designed to be the fastest and most luxurious steamboat on the western rivers. Its…
Bethel AME Church (New Albany)
Believed to be the oldest African American church in New Albany, Bethel African American Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church has been a pillar of Black life and culture in southern Indiana for more than 150 years. Founded in 1848, the church became…
Andrew and Mary Israel and the Israel House
In the early 1830s, Andrew and Mary Israel arrived in New Albany, Indiana, from Ohio. Andrew, a native of Kentucky, earned his living as a cobbler. Mary, originally from Virginia, helped her husband finish shoes. Most of her time, however, went into…