I have covered, at various times, the Madison & Indianapolis (M&I) Railroad. Long story short, on 01 October 1847, the M&I became officially the first long distance railroad in the state of Indiana. The line, covering the 87 miles between its title cities, helped in making Indianapolis a city legally.

I have also mentioned, several times, the conceit shown by the M&I management due to the fact that they were the first. Such conceit didn’t help the company in the long run. For instance, the time they turned down helping another railroad, because “they were not in the business of charity.” That was said to Chauncey Rose, owner of the Terre Haute and Indianapolis. This was to bite the M&I in the hindquarters, as the TH&I ended up being the much larger railroad.

The M&I also invested in several feeder roads along the way. Lines connecting to Martinsville and Shelbyville (and points beyond) did get financial help from the M&I. In the end, however, the M&I’s main competitor benefitted more. And that competitor ended up, in the end, buying the M&I.

I am sure that it was mentioned somewhere along the line that the M&I had entered a merger agreement with the Peru & Indianapolis, creating a line that would extend from Madison to Peru, through Indianapolis. The Peru & Indianapolis ultimately became the Nickel Plate route through Fishers and Noblesville. (And any more said on the subject is best left unsaid at this point.) That merger was contested by shareholders in the companies. Ultimately, a judge shot down the merger, forcing the companies to revert to their original forms.

But there was another planned expansion of the M&I that has had very little notice over the 174 years (as of this writing) since it was approved by the Indiana legislature. In 1845, two years before the completion of the railroad, a bill was passed and signed into law stating that provided “for the completion of the Madison and Indianapolis rail-road to Pendleton, Huntsville and Andersontown.” (Source: Indiana State Sentinel, 05 February 1846, pp 4, courtesy of newspapers.com)

Yes. You read that right. The M&I was to be completed to Anderson, via Pendleton. Now, my astute readers will suddenly put two and two together, realizing that the line in question was built, in 1850. However, it should be noted that it wasn’t the M&I that had anything to do with the completion of that route. Nor did they own any part of it. It was built as part of the railroad connecting Indianapolis to Bellefontaine, Ohio. It is still commonly referred to as the “Bee Line,” even though it wasn’t even called the Bellefontaine when it was completed.

I can not find any reference to the M&I losing the rights to this line. However, since it ended up going the way of the TH&I as far as the M&I management is concerned, it did not bode well for the latter company. The “Bee Line” ended up being the mainline from Indianapolis to points east, including Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany and New York City. The TH&I ended up being the major line connecting Indianapolis to St. Louis. In the end, these decisions by the M&I management relegated it to a second-class citizen status. Either or both of these other companies might have saved the M&I from the fate of being a branch line in its own company.

As a side note, the TH&I and M&I would ultimately become one…as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The “Bee Line,” when stock subscriptions were announced in the Indiana Sentinel of 6 May 1848, stated that the new road would be “a direct and almost straight route on the line of this rail-road to St. Louis through Sydney, Winchester, Muncie, Anderson, Pendleton, Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Vandalia, and that it was greatly the shortest route between New York and Philadelphia and St. Louis.” That almost sounds like they were muscling in on the TH&I, doesn’t it? The company that would ultimately own the “Bee Line” would end up also owning a route connecting Indianapolis and St. Louis…as part of the “Big Four,” and the New York Central system.

When Alexander Ralston made the plat for the town of Indianapolis, he named all but five streets (Washington, Meridian, Market, Circle, and Short) after states. (One would argue that number is four…but that is only because Washington became a state AFTER Indianapolis was designed.) In total, 38 (39) states have been given a street name in the city. But, there are some that have come and gone. Some never were.

The list of current state-named streets contains 27 names, and a partial (or two): Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The partial is Dakota Street, which runs north and south. That means that there are addresses, or used to be, on N. Dakota St. and S. Dakota St.

The first two state named streets that disappeared did so by 1831, a decade after the platting of the new Hoosier capitol city. Running parallel to each other on either side of Pogue’s Run were North Carolina and South Carolina Streets. (Another street that disappeared with those two was a connecting street called Short Street.)

Two more of the 1821 state named streets disappeared from the maps of Indianapolis near the end of the 19th Century. These two streets were named after states in the south: Mississippi and Tennessee. Mississippi Street became Senate Avenue. Tennessee Street became Capitol Avenue. Another state name was involved in these changes, sort of. In 1894, Utah Street, which is now Capitol Avenue from Morris Street south to past Arizona Street, was renamed Tennessee Street.

The fifth street south of Morris, running from Madison Avenue east, was originally called Texas Street. This street would also be called Lincoln Lane. Today, it is named Lincoln Street.

In the IUPUI complex, south of what is now Tenth Street, running from 408 N. Blake (later, when addressing in the city was adjusted, 800 N. Blake) west to Hiawatha Street, was Rhode Island Street. By 1904, Rhode Island was renamed Colton. The street would later be completely removed.

In the history of the city, there were actually two Nevada Streets, both at the same time. The first listed Nevada Street, in 1894, was described as “fr Hillside ave., w. between Eighth and Ninth.” The Eighth and Ninth Streets listed are now called 17th and 19th Streets, with this Nevada becoming 18th Street. The other Nevada Street, also in 1894, is listed as from “J. M. & I. (Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis) R. R. e to East, first s of Iowa.” This old Nevada Street is now known as Beecher Street.

Oregon Street, described as “fr Darnell n to McIntyre (13th), first w of West” in 1894, with intersections at 85 N. Oregon with Mayhew (now 12th) and 100 N. Oregon at Drake. This is one of the few street names that was removed in the city without having a replacement name. It is currently an unnamed alley connecting 12th and 13th Streets

Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have never been so honored with street names in Indianapolis. Both Maine and West Virginia make sense, talk about confusion.

That covers the 50 United States as of the writing of this article.

When the town of Indianapolis was platted in 1821, the largest street in the new town was Washington Street. That has been discussed here earlier. When the National Road came to Indianapolis, it also used Washington Street. But when the National Road crossed White River leaving Indianapolis to the west, it did so on a route that wasn’t Washington Street. The road curved slightly north, around 15 degrees or so, and crossed the White River perpendicularly. The bridge put in place would be a covered bridge, built in the 1830s.

The National Road then continued westward on its journey to Terre Haute and Vandalia, Illinois. I have mentioned elsewhere that if Abraham Lincoln had had his way in Illinois just a few years earlier, the National Road wouldn’t follow what is now US 40 to Vandalia and St. Louis, but what is now US 36 to Springfield and who knows where. But I digress.

The slight jog in the road between West Street and the river would be called National Road. The landing point on the west bank of the river would be roughly where the old Washington Street bridge in White River State Park lands on the west bank.

In the 1860s or 1870s, I haven’t been able to completely nail this down as yet, Washington Street itself was extended to White River. A bridge over the river was built in a straight line with Washington Street, landing on the west bank in a three way point with the National Road bridge. This created two bridges across the river at the same point.

It continued this way until 1904, when a new Washington Street bridge was built in place of the old one. At the same time, the National Road bridge, having been standing for 80+ years, was removed, severing the street called National Road. This street would be renamed, confusingly, Washington Avenue.

This new bridge wouldn’t last long. January 1913, and the brand new Washington Street bridge would be washed away in a flood. Newspaper articles of the time, trying to nail down the cause of the washout, blame was placed on design, construction, and even the taxpayers of Indianapolis for not spending more money on the bridge in the first place. (The Indianapolis Star called taxpayers of Indianapolis and Marion County “cheap taxpayers and the blame for the flood disaster shouldered on the trusting public.” – Letter to the editor, Indianapolis Star.) The current “old” Washington Street bridge was built as a replacement. At the time, this was built by Marion County, as the state had no organization to build any roads for itself. It wouldn’t be until 1919 that this would change.

With the coming of White River State Park in the mid-1980s, Washington Street was rerouted south to skirt the railroads that had been in place since the 1850s. This would cause the old bridge to become a pedestrian walkway through the park, and Washington Avenue to (eventually) be completely removed from the city street inventory.

One of the things that the Indiana State Highway Commission was tasked with from the very beginning was to add roads to the state highway system that would connect facilities owned by the state. Sometimes this created very short roads, that exist for no other reason, to connect those facilities that weren’t already on the state road system. Here are a four of these.

SR 134, Marion County: Known locally as Girls School Road, this short .5 mile highway connected SR 34 (later US 136) to the Indiana Girl’s School, a reformatory for girls and young women. This road started showing up on ISHC maps in 1939. Even though the Girl’s School has become the Indiana Women’s Reformatory, SR 134 still exists.

SR 140, Henry County: Listed as under construction in 1937, this state road is two miles long, heading south out of Knightstown. It connects US 40 to the Indiana Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home. The Soldier’s Home was created in 1865 for veterans of the Civil War. Eventually, it became a home and school for veteran orphans, then for “at risk” children. In 2011, it was transferred to the property of the Indiana National Guard.

SR 158, Lawrence County: This .5 mile road was created in 1933 to connect SR 58 to what was at the time the Moses Fell Annex Farm, now the Feldun Purdue Agricultural Center. When SR 158 was created, SR 58 left Oolitic, more or less, due west. SR 58 was rerouted to multiplex with SR 54 with the pending creation of the Crane Naval Depot in the Martin County State Forest. The old SR 58 from Oolitic to the Martin-Lawrence County line became SR 158, so there was a “main” SR 158 and a branch to the farm. This situation changed in 1951, when the farm branch was renumbered to SR 458.

SR 524, Wabash County: Another short road, created in 1941, that connected US 24 in Lagro to the Salamonie River State Forest. At the time, US 24 went through the town of Lagro as what is now the Blue Star Highway. This would change with the US 24 Lagro Bypass that was finished in 2001. SR 524 was then extended along the old US 24 route to the west of the town.

These are just a few of the examples of ISHC/INDOT creating short roads for this purpose. There are more, and I will cover those at a later date.

This marks the 150th post in the Indiana Transportation History blog. Thank you all for your support. I really do appreciate it.