All Stories: 449
Stories
Studebaker Plaza
Studebaker Plaza, today a city-owned public space, serves as a reminder of the humble roots of South Bend's industrial age. The enormous Studebaker corporation grew from a small blacksmith shop established on the corner of Michigan Street and…
Kokomo's Historic Highland Park
The gas boom impacted not just the economy of east-central Indiana, but also the communities and even the landscape. People followed the jobs and money. As the city of Kokomo more than doubled in population, community leaders began to look for ways…
The Haynes Museum
The Gas Boom of the late 1800s kicked off a population explosion, bringing people of all skills, social backgrounds and educational levels into the area. They arrived with new ideas and ways of thinking. One such person was Elwood Haynes.
Haynes…
Greentown Glass
The gas boom was led by energy-intensive manufacturers including glass companies. Glass plants popped up by the dozens in the region, making everything from window glass to stained glass to dinnerware and art glass items. For a time in the 1890s,…
Kokomo Opalescent Glass
Beautiful glass has an almost inexplicable magical quality whether it’s a bowl, a sculpture, or a window. The way glass seems to capture the sun holds our attention. Making it though is a dangerous, energy-intensive process. Commercial glass…
Kokomo’s Seiberling Mansion
Construction of the Mansion - 1889 Monroe Seiberling used the wealth earned from the Diamond Plate Glass Company to build himself a beautiful house. Construction of Seiberling’s spacious home began in 1889. The mansion reportedly cost $50,000 –…
Diamond Plate Glass Company
The Gas Boom brought about an economic revolution in Indiana during the late 1800s. The Diamond Plate Glass Company played a pivotal role in those changes. When a huge natural gas reservoir was discovered under east-central Indiana, local…
Natural Gas Well Drilled in Kokomo
The use of natural gas as fuel goes back to the 1820s, but its real value didn’t become apparent until the 1880s. The discovery of a gas reserve in Pennsylvania revolutionized the steel and glass manufacturing industries there in the 1870s and…
Crump Theatre
The building that houses the Crump Theater dates back to 1870. It was converted into the Crump Opera House about 1899. The 600 seat Romanesque styled building was remodeled again in the 1920s to accommodate motion pictures. However, the most…
Crown Theater
The Palace Theater was built in 1914 to show motion pictures. Its name changed to the Crown in the 1940s. At some point in the theater's history, the façade was altered and now has a large crown projecting from above the marquee.
The Crown…
Ritz Theater
The Rockville Opera House was built in 1912 of yellow brick. Designed in the Mission Revival style, the Opera House originally held live performances and was later adapted for movies.
Now known as the Ritz Theater, the Rockville Chamber of…
Artcraft Theatre
The 1922 Artcraft Theatre is just off of the courthouse square in Franklin. It originally hosted silent movies and vaudeville. It was also used by the local high school and Franklin College for plays and performances. In the 1930s-1940s the Artcraft…
Elco Theater
The Elco started out in 1924 as the Lerner Theater. This 2000-seat theater was designed for vaudeville by K. V. Vitchum, a Chicago architect. The exterior was covered in glazed terra cotta and had a series of columns, urns, and decorative cornice…
Murat Shrine Temple
This massive building, constructed in 1909, originally was the headquarters for the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Indianapolis architect Oscar Bohlen created this Middle Eastern styled building with minarets, brick banding,…
Scottish Rite Cathedral
George T. Schreiber designed the Scottish Rite Cathedral in the Tudor Gothic style. Construction began on the limestone building in 1927 and lasted until 1929.
Centralized within the Scottish Rite is a 210 foot tower that holds a 65 bell…
Eagles Theatre
Eagles Theatre, named for its location within the Eagles Building, opened in 1906. It was designed by Arland W. Johnson of Toledo, Ohio and occupied the first, second and third floors of the building. There were approximately 700 seats on the main…
Indiana Theatre
The 1927 Indiana Theatre is the largest theater ever built in Indianapolis. Architects Rubush and Hunter designed the six-story building faced in white glazed terra cotta in the Spanish Baroque style. The central bay of the exterior is overwhelmed…
Hilbert Circle Theatre
Unlike many of the larger scale theaters around the state, the Circle Theatre was designed in the Neo-Classical style instead of the Spanish Revival Style. Since it was constructed in 1916, it predates many of these other theaters, and the full…
Huntington Theater
The Huntington Theater was constructed in 1904 as a vaudeville house. It had 1100 seats, including 400 in the balcony. By 1911, the Huntington started showing movies and continued doing so until 1999. A major remodeling occurred in 1939 when the…
Alhambra Theatorium
The Alhambra, designed by Frank J. Schlotter, opened in 1913. The 350 seat theater was built within a local neighborhood rather than a commercial area. It only took 120 days to construct the Alhambra with a final cost of $18,000. Schlotter utilized…
Morris Performing Arts Center
The Palace Theater (Morris Performing Art Center's original name) was designed by J. S. Aroner, a Chicago architect, in 1922 as part of the Orpheum theater chain. Initially it hosted vaudeville shows, which ran continuously with a new act every…
Indiana Theater
The Spanish Revival style Indiana Theater is yet another creation of Chicago architect John Eberson. It was built in 1922 with a capacity of 1600 people on the main floor and in two balconies. The corner entry opens into a 3 story open rotunda that…
Embassy Theatre
Originally called the Emboyd Theater, the theater opened in 1928 with 3100 seats. Given the $1.5 million price tag, opulence reigned throughout the building. However, not all the extravagance was visible. The Emboyd contained a state-of-the-art…
Buskirk-Chumley "Indiana" Theater
Originally known as the Indiana Theater, the Buskirk-Chumley has quite a history. The 600-seat Indiana Theater was built in 1922 to show movies but soon after it opened its doors, vaudeville and live acts performed on the stage. Bloomington native…
Dr. Samuel Harrell House
Dr. Samuel Harrell, a late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century physician, played an important role in both Hamilton County and Indiana medical history. He first studied medicine in Michigan and later in both Vienna and Paris before he and his…
Lake County Sanatorium Nurses' Home
In the early 20th century, tuberculosis took its toll on Indiana’s population. As a result, tuberculosis sanatoriums were built throughout the state for those infected. In 1918, the Lake County Tuberculosis Association began the process of building…
Dr. George Sutton Medical Office Building
In 1819, George Sutton, a prominent figure in Indiana medical history, immigrated to the United States from England. After completing a vigorous education in Ohio, Dr. Sutton moved to the small port town of Aurora, Indiana and in 1836 began his…
Indiana Dunes National Park
Garnering its name from its most prominent features, Indiana Dunes State Park offers an experience and ecosystem exclusive to the state park system. The ever-changing dunes began forming around 6,500 years ago with the retreat of the last glaciers,…
Falls of the Ohio State Park
Established in 1990, the Falls of the Ohio State Park encompasses a rich cultural and natural history unlike anywhere else along the Ohio or Mississippi rivers. Between the start of the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, PA and the confluence of the…
Pokagon State Park
Dedicated in 1925, Pokagon State Park is named for Potawatomi leaders Leopold and Simon Pokagon, who lived in this area during the 1800s. Potawatomi settlements date back to at least the early 1800s around Lake James, now part of Pokagon State Park.…