Fort Wayne Bypass

If one looks at a map of Fort Wayne, the first thing you would notice is the interstates that flank the city. I-69 flanks Fort Wayne to the west, and I-469 to the east. Between the two, it forms a circle around Indiana’s second largest city. But the designation of I-469 was a late comer to the whole plan.

When the idea of a bypass of Fort Wayne was floated, the idea was create a bypass removing US 24 and US 27 from the downtown area. The location of the new bypass would route both of those US routes far outside the bounds of the city. Most of the new bypass would be built outside the distant city limits.

The bypass would be constructed starting at Lafayette Center Road southwest of the city at I-69. The first section of the route would be built from that point to connect to US 30 east of New Haven, a distance of 19 miles. The contracts were let for this project starting 12 June 1984.

1989 Indiana State Highway Official Map showing the Fort Wayne area. The first completed part of the bypass is US 24.

But it wasn’t an interstate project at the time. When it was assigned a number, it was given the designation SR 469. Contracts for the road, posted in 1987, all referred to the route as US 24. What is so important about the designation as SR 469 is the financing for the project. As a state road, the state would have to pay 25% of the total project costs. If it were an interstate, that share would only be 10%.

By late July 1989, the project would acquire an interstate designation. However, that designation would not come with the boost in financing from Washington that would normally be expected. Since the project started as a state project, it would be continued to be funded the same way. When the type of road switched from state to interstate, it was expected that the road would be completed by 1992. The section from Minnich Road to Lafayette Center was expected to open in October, 1989.

In September 1989, it was publicly announced that the Fort Wayne bypass was the important project when it came to state. An additional $9.6 million was allocated to Indiana from Washington, DC. Of that, three-quarters of the money would be applied to a single interchange at Fort Wayne – SR 469 and US 30.

Work came to a screeching halt on SR 469 in June 1991 when workers found a wooden lock from the Wabash & Erie Canal while excavating for the new US 24/SR 469 interchange. This was unique in several ways. One, there weren’t any locks from the canal that were believed to have been still intact. None were thought to have survived the removal of the canal. Two, the lock was pretty much in tact, even though it had been buried. Having been built in the 1840’s, it was quite a find. INDOT agreed to halt construction until a plan was put in place for preservation ideas. The choice was redesign the highway, or remove the locks. This particular lock was called the Gronauer Lock, measuring 15 feet wide and 100 feet long. It was one of the largest on the canal. And while the rest of the locks along the canal deteriorated, this one was saved by the fact that it was buried between 10 and 15 years after the canal was abandoned. The canal was only used for a few years after opening in 1853. Corruption, mismanagement and the railroads saw the end of the londest canal built in the United States.

For a project that started percolating in the minds of INDOT in 1984, and started being built in 1987, the Fort Wayne Bypass was finally opened completely to traffic on 23 October 1995. With the completion of the road, the designation SR 469 was removed, and all signs were replaced with the shield of Interstate 469.

1944: South Bend/Mishawaka Bypass – Ireland or New Road?

13 January 1944. A meeting for the next day at 3 PM was reported in the South Bend Tribune. That meeting, including Mishawaka Mayor Joe Brady, the city board of public works, the Chamber of Commerce, and “other Mishawakans,” were to meet with the Laporte District Engineer of the Indiana State Highway Commission, Frank E. Bernoske, concerning a bypass of the city of Mishawaka to the south…and where it should be placed. They were pushing the bypass to be a number one post-war project. And their preference was to push the bypass to Ireland Road, as opposed to New Road that had been recommended by others.

The original bypass idea gained footing in the spring of 1939, when, as reported in the South Bend Tribune of 19 May 1939, “construction of a primary system of state roads by which heavy traffic would be shunted around South Bend and Mishawaka probably will begin in 1941 and be completed about two years later, T. A. Dicus and C. W. Siniff, two of Indiana’s three state highway commissioners, said Thursday afternoon in a meeting of representatives of the two cities and of St. Joseph county after a luncheon in the Oliver hotel.” (Source: South Bend Tribune, 19 May 1939, pp 15)

The bypass made progress in 1943 when there was concern about the large number of trucks pounding their way through South Bend and Mishawaka. The South Bend Tribune of 23 November 1943 discussed plans of such bypass. The entire bypass would be a system of roads that created a rectangle around South Bend and Mishawaka. The plan was: to use Ash Road on the east from New Road to Cleveland Road; on the north Cleveland Road from Ash Road to Mayflower Road (an extension thereof, since it didn’t run to Cleveland at that time); on the west the extended Mayflower Road, Sumption Road, and Oak Road south from Cleveland Road to New Road; and on the south, New Road from Oak Road to Ash Road.

“The huge rectangle surrounding the South Bend-Mishawaka area by the by-passes would enable all heavy traffic to be rerouted around the two cities as all main arteries from every direction would intersect with its perimeter, Mayor Pavy pointed out.” (Source South Bend Tribune, 23 November 1943, pp 9) “Diversion of truck traffic from the cities is essential to reduce traffic congestion within the communities, eliminate undue noise and prevent deterioration of buildings shaken by the heavy vehicles, the mayor added.”

The purple lines drawn on this Google Map of the South Bend-Mishawaka Area show the proposed truck bypass of the two cities, as of reports in November 1943. Only parts of this proposed bypass exist today, with Mayflower Road truncated at the Lincoln Highway/Michigan Road on the west, and Ash Road not being complete, even then, from New Road in the south to Cleveland Road in the north. The Mayflower Road would have been across the grounds of what is now South Bend International Airport. The orange line stretching across the map 4.5 miles north of New Road is the Ireland Road corridor, which also never actually completely existed.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the city of Mishawaka had other plans. Instead of using the New Road corridor for the truck bypass, the Mishawakans recommended using Ireland Road. “Those favoring the Ireland road will argues that this project was approved locally two years ago and that the right-of-way for construction of approximately two miles of new highway from the eastern end of Ireland road at Union street east to a point on Dragoon trail had been obtained.” (Source: South Bend Tribune, 13 January 1944, pp 27)

“The Ireland road was favored two years ago by the road committees of the local Chamber of Commerce and the South Bend Association of Commerce. Some engineering work was done at that time, which it was reported showed that the Ireland road bypass could be completed without difficulty or excessive cost.”

As it turned out, the plan for the “number one post-war project” that the South Bend-Mishawaka bypass was supposed to be, the state highway commission had other ideas. A story in the South Bend Tribune on 21 September 1947 reported that “a truck by-pass through Mishawaka, a local issue of some five years, and originally designed as the city’s No. 1 postwar project, moved a step closer to a solution Saturday with the assurance from Gov. Ralph H. Gates and H. D. Hartman, a member of the state highway commission.” Part of the request was that US 33 through Mishawaka and South Bend be rerouted, cutting down truck traffic on that major thoroughfare.

I only scanned the newspapers between 1937 and 1950 for reports concerning this article. As of 17 June 1950, the South Bend Tribune reported no progress whatsoever on a truck bypass of South Bend and Mishawaka. The bypass west of South Bend, the St. Joseph Valley Parkway, started construction in the mid-1950’s. East of US 31 south of South Bend, near the Ireland Road intersection, the bypass would be in a holding pattern until the 1990s, at least according to USGS topo maps. It turned out that the road would become part of US 20, and bypass not only South Bend and Mishawaka, but Elkhart, as well. On the south and west sides of South Bend, the Parkway became part of US 31.

Indianapolis Street Car Saturday: Alabama, Central, Brightwood and Brookside

In 1873, the Alabama line was originally a branch from the Illinois Street line. It would leave Illinois Street at Seventh (16th) Street, running east Alabama Street, then north to Exposition Avenue (19th Street) to the main entrance of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds, at that time, were located at what is now 19th and Alabama. In 1888, the line was moved, starting as a branch from the Massachusetts line, going north on Alabama to Exposition Avenue, where it turned east to New Jersey, turning south to go to the barn. The line would be electrified in 1891. The last railed trolley car would run on 22 May 1937, and the line would be abandoned completely 17 February 1941.

The Central line would be put in place starting in 1888, when the line was completed to carry trolley cars from Christian Avenue (11th Street) to a turntable at 10th (20th) Street. It was rerouted the following year, staying on Alabama Street to Home Avenue (13th Street), then crossing over to Central. Electricity was added to the line in 1892, but it ceased running up Central at that time…at least most of the way. The line would be routed along College Avenue to 16th (24th) Street, turn west to Central, then north to 26th (34th) Street. Another round of electrification would see the line rerouted again, this time crossing over from College at 10th (20th) Street, then north to end at 16th (24th) Street. The last car to run on the rails on this line would do so on 20 March 1937.

With operation starting in 1889, the Brightwood line would take riders to the Big Four Repair Shops in Brightwood. The line would technically start at Home Avenue (13th Street) and Columbia Avenue, where Hill Avenue (now Roosevelt Avenue) began. It would follow what is now Roosevelt Avenue to Gale Street, north to Brickman (25th) Street, east to Brightwood Avenue (Sherman Drive), then north to what is now 26th Street. Five years later, in 1894, the line was electrified. The line was extended to 30th Street in 1911. On 19 September 1934, the last tracked trolley would run on the line.

A late comer to the Indianapolis Street Car system was the Brookside Line. Now, this line actually got its start in 1904, around the same time that the Union Traction Company built its line to Anderson and points beyond. The Brookside line was built to allow the UTC to complete its trip into Indianapolis. The line ran out Brookside Avenue (parallel to Massachusetts)from 10th Street to a “Y” at 18th Street. In 1920, the city street car company bought the trackage from the Union Traction Company to get to a turntable at Olney Street. The tracks for this line would be used by trolleys until 6 June 1934.

End of Year 1940: ISHC Projects and Contract Bidding

On 13 December 1940, it was announced that the Indiana State Highway Commission was about to open some bidding on projects, and that the bidding would be received by 31 December. These projects included four grade separations, eight bridges and thirty miles of paving and resurfacing.

One of the biggest projects on the bidding list involved a city street in Indianapolis. Sherman Drive, a major thoroughfare three miles east of the center of Indianapolis, crossed the Big Four Railroad northeast of the railroad’s major yards at Beech Grove. That yard is just over one mile southeast of the Sherman Drive. According to the press release from the ISHC, “among the grade separations to be built are a 13-span structure on Sherman Drive southeast of Indianapolis, to carry traffic over the CCC & St. Louis Railroad yard.” As shown in the picture to the left, this was an at grade crossing of multiple tracks. The picture at the right shows the same area of Sherman Drive in 1962.

Another bridge project opened for bidding at this time was grade separation on the Marion State Road 9 Bypass, crossing over the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroads. That bridge was planned to be a seven span structure. Another bridge to be built in the Marion area was a 392-foot structure over the Mississinewa River on the same SR 9 bypass. The bridge was to have a 28 foot roadway and sidewalks.

Paving projects included in this round of bidding were: 1.291 miles of US 50 realignment in Washington, Daviess County; 4.938 of SR 1 paving from Leo north to Allen-Dekalb County Line in Allen County; and paving 2.391 miles of SR 9 bypass (Baldwin Avenue) from Second Street in Marion, Grant County.

Another SR 9 project in Grant (and Huntington) County included widening and resurfacing 21.30 miles of SR 9 from 1/2 mile north of Marion to Huntington. The road was to be widened to 22-foot wide. Also in Madison County would be the widening of three miles SR 9 from SR 67 north to the Anderson city limits.

The last road project would be the widening and resurfacing of US 31 from the north edge of Franklin to the south edge of Greenwood, through Whiteland and New Whiteland. This contract would include 9.1 miles of highway.

Guard rail projects were also part of the bidding. Those installations would be in Adams, Allen, Dekalb, Elkhart, Floyd, Franklin, Grant, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Huntington, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson, LaGrange, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Miami, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Randolph, Steuben, Union, Wabash and Whitley Counties. These were on roads 3, 6, 9, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 29, 31, 37, 44, 50, 52, 67, 109, 128, 150, 209, 327, 427 and 434.

The Southern End of the Indianapolis and Peru

1854. The Indianapolis & Peru Railway is completed to Indianapolis. Looking at a map today, it is easy to tell that the old I&P, which would eventually become the Nickel Plate, shared the same right-of-way with the Bee Line and what would become, in time, the Monon. However, that wasn’t always the case.

1870 Map of Indianapolis showing the I&P and Bee Line.

The original route of the I&P ran as shown in this 1870 map, at the point where the Bee Line turned from north-south to northeast-southwest, the Peru turned south-southeast. Here, the I&P ran through the middle of a city street, at that point called Peru Avenue. Then the railroad would turn due south of North Street, again running down the middle of a city street. This time, it was called Railroad Street. But the original Bee Line wasn’t where it was in this map, either. The original Bee Line continued on Massachusetts Avenue to Railroad Street. Originally, the two railroads joined right of ways at North Street. By 1870, as shown in this map, the right of ways of the Peru and the Bee Lines would join just north of Market Street. The current property lines along the old railroad right of way still show this.

By 1880, the railroad had been removed from Railroad Street, and the right of way was moved for the Indianapolis & Peru to join with that of the Bee Line. The section that ran in Peru Avenue ended just shy of the intersection of Peru Avenue and Davidson Street.

The line of the current right-of-way of the three railroads on the east side of downtown is the survey line that is the line of Shelby Street to the south, and, above 38th Street, what is now the Monon Trail below Broad Ripple.

The street name of Railroad Street would be changed in 1893, prior to the mass street name change in Indianapolis, to Fulton Street. Peru Street, which ran north from what is now 10th Street, was changed to Cornell Avenue. Peru Avenue, the angled section that ran from North and Railroad Streets to Massachusetts Avenue, was changed to Davidson Street later. Most of the area of the original rights of way of the Peru and Bee Lines are still intact. But the location of Peru Street, and the north end of Peru Avenue, are currently under the north split of Interstates 65 and 70.

Rights of Way on the National Road…

1890. The Postal Telegraph Company was placing telegraph poles and wires connecting Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Looking at a map, even then, it is quickly noticed that fastest way between the two is the old National Road. Oh, but not so quick.

The National Road was built by the Federal Government in the early to mid 1800’s. The road was built on land that was already owned by the Federal Government. The path of the road had changed from what was planned, but it did connect the seats of government in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois at the time. In 1848, it was ceded to the states.

In Indiana, the road was sold to Curtis Gilbert and others in 1850. They sold the road to the Western Plank Road Company. By 1890, a Terre Haute attorney, Joseph H. Blake, owned the majority of the stock in the Western Plank Road Company. This would come into play when it came to the Postal Telegraph Company.

From Greencastle to the Vigo County line, farmers were having none of the telegraph installers. Some farmers were threatening telegraph company workers. Some were cutting down the poles as they were put up. One farmer filed a lawsuit against the telegraph company. The company counter sued.

This brings us back to Mr. Blake, owner of the Western Plank Road Company. As owner of the company, and the National Road, Blake claimed the right of the road for traffic, such as street car lines, telegraph lines, and the like. It all came down to Mr. Blake not allowing the telegraph company to install lines along the National Road without paying for the privilege.

The Postal Telegraph Company would detour their construction before getting to Greencastle, running southward to follow the Bloomington Road into Terre Haute. Such behavior would continue when it came to the right of way on roads until facilities like the National Road would be purchased back by the counties.

SR 37, A Review

One of the blogs that I follow everyday is that of Jim Grey. I started reading his blog over a year before I created the Indiana Transportation History Facebook page. It was because of that blog that I asked him to help me admin that group. He was also the one that encouraged me to start this blog…telling me, correctly, that it would be easier to keep track of the information I have been sharing in blog form than in a Facebook group. His blog is called “Down The Road.”

Jim had been sharing his passion for photography and road trips in the Facebook group. His topic has been that of SR 37. Due to those posts, I decided to put together a collection of posts that I have shared over the past 16 months that cover the same subject. Check out his photos on the subject at his blog, or through links on the Facebook group.

Waverly

In the early years of the state of Indiana, a small village located at the Bluffs of the White River became the meeting place for commissioners that set out to determine the location of the new state capital. Two years before that, in 1818, a trail was cut through the wilderness from Brookville that came to be known as the Whetzel Trace. Later on, a road was built north to the new state capital at Indianapolis. Because it went to the Bluffs of the White River, it was called Bluff Road.

Paoli State Road

When the Bluff Road was built, it was included in a longer “state” road that stretched from Indianapolis, through Martinsville, Bloomington and Bedford to Paoli. It would become the basis for original state road 22, and later, the original path of State Road 37.

White River on Indianapolis’ South Side, and its Effects

This article focused more on the effects of the Indianapolis Southern/Illinois Central Railroad, but it DID affect the routing of State Road 37. When SR 37 came into being, it ended at Washington and Meridian Streets, following Meridian Street south to Bluff Avenue (now Road) for its journey out of Marion County. The White River was moved, and the state built a new SR 37 over the old river.

Road Trip 1926: SR 37

On 1 October 1926, the entire state road system was renumbered. State Road 37 was given to what had been State Road 22 from Indianapolis south. The new State Road 37 was designated only south of the capital city.

Winners and Losers, Routing the Dixie Highway Through Indiana

When the committees met to create Carl Fisher’s Dixie Highway, political and personal gain played a part. Especially south of Indianapolis. While Fisher wanted the route to go directly from Indianapolis to Louisville, someone else wanted the same thing…just with a detour through Paoli. The latter won.

Original SR 22 – The “Fight” For the Way to Martinsville

The fastest way to Martinsville from Indianapolis wasn’t always the Bluff Road. When the state started taking over roads, a discussion was had to decide what road would be taken over to get to Martinsville. The choice was between the Vincennes Road and the Bluff Road. Eventually, it would be both.

Removing the Bluff Road Bridge Over the Illinois Central/Indiana Railroad

The Indianapolis Southern Railroad was chartered in 1902, and it crossed the old Bluff Road at an odd angle. The Dixie Highway used the route starting in 1914. In 1923, it became State Road 22. In 1925, a bridge was built over the railroad due to increased traffic on both the road and the railroad.

The Dixie Highway In Morgan County

One of the most bypassed roads in the state is SR 37. And very few more so than SR 37 in Morgan County. But this article focuses on the Dixie Highway through the county…and how it was originally routed through the area.

State Highway Department Construction Plans for 1963-1965

This article is included because part of the plan was to build a new SR 37 through the west side of Indianapolis, and connect it to I-465 at Harding Street. The Harding Street connection would be made. It would be a complete reroute of SR 37 from I-465 south to Martinsville. It ended up that SR 37 would be routed along I-465 from Harding Street to East Street (US 31), and be multiplexed with US 31 all the way to 38th Street on the northside of the city.

Expanding SR 37 from Martinsville to Oolitic

The last article about the routing of SR 37 I want to share is the latest one posted. In the 1970s, SR 37 was being moved and widened from Martinsville to Bedford. The section north of Martinsville had already been moved and widened…in conjunction with the construction of I-465 around Indianapolis.

The Central Canal

16 January 1836. The Mammoth Internal Improvement Bill passed the Indiana General Assembly. With it, many projects were created to serve the residents of Indiana. Two directly affected Indianapolis. Those were the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad and the Indiana Central Canal. Today, I want to focus on an article printed in the Indianapolis Jounral of 12 August 1900, which was actually a paper read by Mr. William H. Smith to the Indiana Centennial Association.

“At the time Indianapolis was a straggling village in the wilderness, containing less than than two thousand inhabitants.” “It had been selected as the capital of the new State, but was located in the dense forests, without a cleared farm within twenty miles of it.” At the time, there were no wagon roads in the state. A buffalo trace connecting Vincennes and New Albany, and an Indian trail from the buffalo trace towards the center of the state. Jacob Whetzel had obtained permission to build a trace from Brookville to the Bluffs of White River at what is now Waverly. Transportation was very limited. And hence, the call was put out to create infrastructure to open the state up.

The call for improvements started when the Federal Government built “a military road from Cumberland, Md., to St. Louis.” The bill that passed the General Assembly consisted of a “number of canals, a railroad or two, and two or three turnpikes.”

The Central Canal was going to connect the Wabash and Erie Canal between Fort Wayne and Logansport to itself near Evansville via Muncie and Indianapolis. The Wabash and Erie Canal “was being constructed under the aid of the general government. It had been one of the dreams of Washington, the father of his country.”

Two routes were considered for the canal. The lawmakers preferred a route through Delaware County, as written into the law. But another route, coming almost directly south from Logansport through Indianapolis. This one was called the Pipe Creek Route. To attach to Muncietown, as Muncie was called at the time, a feeder route would run to the town if the Pipe Creek Route was chosen.

Hundreds of men started work on the Central Canal almost as soon as the $3.5 million was allocated. Real estate prices went through the roof. A dam was built at Broad Ripple to funnel water into the future canal. The canal was finished from Broad Ripple to downtown Indianapolis by the spring of 1839. The water, turned directly into the new canal, took several days to get to Indianapolis from Broad Ripple. This was due to the construction of the canal. The water was seeping though the gravel bed where the canal was built. “After the water was turned in at Broad Ripple the people of Indianapolis spent their days on the banks, watching for the coming of the tide to tell them that the first section of their canal was complete.”

The first excursion along the canal from Indianapolis to Broad Ripple happened on 27 June 1839. The canal packet was drawn by two horses. But the canal was never used for navigation purposes. “Once and a while a boat loaded with wood would come to town, and on one or two occasions hay was brought, but as the canal was never completed it failed of ever being of any use for navigation.”

“Suddenly the whole scheme of internal improvements collapsed. The financial panic of 1837 made it impossible for the State to secure any more money, and much of what had been obtained had been recklessly wasted by bad management.”

The State tried to sell the improvements for private completion…only to find that the only project anyone wanted was the railroad from Madison to Indianapolis. The Canal turned into a water power source for industry. A woolen mill, two cotton mills, two paper mills, an oil mill, two flour mills and two saw mills were located along the canal. “The supply of water was not sufficient, and the canal was damaged several times by freshets, and those who had leased water power refused to pay their rent.” In 1850, the Governor started suing those that would not pay their rent.

A series of private owners, starting with the original $2,400 given to the state by Shoup, Newman and Rariden, led the facility to be ultimately to come into the possession of the Indianapolis Water Works.

“In the original construction many of the owners of abutting property gave the right of way, while in some instance the right was condemned under the law. Through Indianapolis it had appropriated Missouri street it full width of ninety feet. If the town ever gave any assent to this appropriation it was lost when the records were destroyed by fire some years afterward.” “Along Missouri street the ditch was filled up, and finally the railroad to Lafayette was constructed along that thoroughfare.”

“As to the Central Canal, it was a great oversight that the city did not buy it in. With it the city could have owned its own water works, its own lighting plant, and would have had power to rent out that would have more than paid the cost of maintenance.”

Indianapolis Street Car Saturday – Getting to Irvington

1870. Sylvester Johnson and Jacob Julian laid out a town four miles east of Monument Circle on the National Road (or, at that time, the Cumberland Turnpike). They named their town after Washington Irving, hence Irvington. In the fall of 1875, the North Western Christian University moved from its home at College and Home Avenues (now College Avenue and 13th Street) to the southwest corner of Irvington between the Panhandle (Pennsylvania Railroad) and the Junction (Baltimore & Ohio) tracks. At the same time, there was a mule car line being built to the new suburb.

The Irvington Street Car line was planned along the following route: From Virginia Avenue and South Street, east on South Street (now Fletcher Avenue) to Reid Street (now State Street), north on Reid to English Avenue, east to English to Butler, north on Butler to Burgess, east on Burgess to Audubon, and north on Audubon to end just south of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line, according to the Indianapolis News on 25 February 1875, was expected to be in operation in June 1875.

On 2 August 1875, a small paragraph was in the Indianapolis News mentioned “the construction of the Irvington street railway has not come to a standstill, owing to a lack of funds, as stated in the Journal, but on account of the wet weather. The Stratford bridge has been washed away and it is impossible to ballast the track.” Two weeks later, the News reported, in a story about the new college campus, that the Irvington line was quickly nearing completion.

The line opened later in October 1875. The trip from downtown to North Western Christian University, using mule cars, was 45 minutes. It wasn’t long before the Irvington street car line found itself closed to service. A freight train on the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette jumped the tracks, causing a large section of the street car line to be ripped up. The IC&L crossed the street car line at English Avenue just east of Reid Street (now State Street). “In consequence no cars are running to-day on that line.”

Some might be wondering why service to Irvington was routed along English Avenue. As mentioned in my last blog post (Toll Roads in Marion County), Washington Street was a toll road outside the city limits. English Avenue was called a “shun pike,” a road that was improved and extended to avoid paying tolls to the toll road companies. That, and I believe that the toll road would have charged the street railways to use the road.

The line route was changed in 1881, when it was removed from Burgess to University Avenue between Butler Avenue and Audubon Avenue. That would be the last change in that line until the power lines stopped being used on 15 August 1934.

The East Washington line was mentioned in the last “Indianapolis Street Car Saturday.” The franchise for the Citizen’s Street Railway East Washington line extension to Irvington was issued on 20 September 1889, the day after the National Road was purchased by the county from the toll road company.

Toll Roads In Marion County

Toll Roads. In Indiana, they were a way of life for over half a century. The reason they started was very simple. The counties, after having the state build a road for them, found themselves in a bind when it came to maintaining those roads. So the solution became to sell the roads to private companies, and let them do the work of maintaining the road.

By the 1880’s, the non-existent love affair with the toll road companies was becoming just flat out hatred. Citizens, mainly farmers, were tired of paying to get to the city. This led to just ignoring the toll houses, or finding another way to get to town. This led to the toll companies to lose money. Both sides were arguing for legislation to eliminate toll roads. Residents to make travel cheaper. Businessmen in town to eliminate what they saw as a tax on people to use their businesses. And toll road companies to throwing money at the roads. This led to the counties purchasing these old toll roads back, which I covered in the article “Toll Roads, And State Takeover.”

At one point, Marion County had over 200 miles of toll roads. The county started buying the roads back one at a time. The last road to be purchased, as reported in the Indianapolis Journal of 13 August 1896, was the Pleasant Run Toll Road. The entire four mile length of the road was purchased for $100 a mile. The Pleasant Run Toll Road purchased started at what is now 21st Street and Arlington Avenue, going east for those four miles to end at the Mitthoefer Free Gravel Road. Bet you can’t guess what that road is called today.

The National Road east of Indianapolis started on the way to free road status in September, 1889. The Indianapolis News of 19 September 1889 reported that the “the owners of the Cumberland Gravel Road turned the road between this city and Irvington over to the county this morning and it is now a part of the free gravel road system.” Another benefit of the turnover, at least to Irvington, is that the next day, the Citizen’s Street Railway Company would be granted permission to build a street car line along Washington Street/National Road to Irvington. The plan at the time was to build the street car tracks along the south edge of the road, leaving a 16 foot wide path on the north side of the road for drivers.

In the very same issue of the Indianapolis News, it was reported that “there has been a turnpike war on the Three-notch or Leavenworth road, leading south from Indianapolis to Johnson County.” Residents were claiming that the road was in disrepair, raising money to fight the owner of the turnpike. Many people were running the gates along the road, as there was an agreement to not pay tolls. “At the second gate from the city the pole was cut down by the ‘opposition,’ and there has been trouble all along the line.” A court case in Franklin, the day before, saw the toll road company winning, and the people paying tolls again.

An editorial in the Indianapolis News of 22 June 1892, calls for the remaining toll roads to be taken over by the county. It goes on to talk about the “shun pikes,” local roads built to avoid paying to use the toll roads. The first such “shun pike” in Marion County was English Avenue. It was improved by locals as a way to Irvington without using the Cumberland Toll Road. The next one was Prospect Street, from Fountain Square east.

One toll road that came in from the north became so valueless that the owner of the road tried to give to the county free of charge. Apparently, this wasn’t jumped on by the county commissioners. So the owner went to Noblesville, and had the deed for the toll road transferred, legally, to Marion County. It took twelve months after the deed was registered for the county commissioners to realize that the transfer had even taken place.

The Indianapolis News was the newspaper that was arguing, per an editorial of 22 January 1883, against the county buying the toll roads back. “Why should any county purchase a toll road and make it free? Those who never use it ought not to be taxed to make it free to to (sic) those who benefit by it. While it is a toll road, those who use it pay for it, as they ought.” My, how things can change in less than a decade.

It shouldn’t be lost on people that as the toll roads were being eliminated, the “Good Roads Movement” was starting. While this movement was started by both the post office and riders of bicycles, it would lead directly to what would be known as the Auto Trail era.

Toll roads reached in all directions from the city. In the end, most of the major roads that we use today have been in place for almost two centuries…and had spent time as a toll road. I recommend checking out the following map, which shows the improved roads as of 1895 (Palmer’s Official Road Map of Marion County, Indiana).

Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Railroad

In 1869, a new railroad was chartered to connect Plymouth, in Marshall County, to near Bureau, Illinois. It was a plan to build a road to connect the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago to the Rock Island & Pacific. Within four years, most of the roadbed had been graded. And the company was put into slumber mode due to the Panic of 1873.

Plymouth Weekly Republican, 22 September 1869: “Hon. Jas. McGrew, President of a railroad, visited our town this week to interest the citizens in a new line of railroad that is to be built from some point on the P. Ft. W. & C. R. R., in Indiana, through Kankakee City to Barean (sic), Ills., on the Rock Island and Pacific railroad. A company has been organized in Illinois to build that portion of the line which is in that state.” Both of the companies that would be connected by this railroad “are anxious to have the road built, and will iron it as soon as graded and tied.”

The Illinois section of the road, the Kankakee & Illinois River Railroad, was chartered in Illinois on 16 April 1869. The new railroad on the Indiana side, called the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific, would receive its charter on 7 January 1870. These two companies would be consolidated on 20 October 1870. The company would keep the name of the Indiana half of the railroad – PK&P.

The first sign of things to come for this road appeared in April 1871. According to the Plymouth Weekly Republican of 27 April 1871, “The Chicago Times, and in fact all of the Chicago papers, of April 12th contained an item relative to the sale of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific Company.” Basically, the company was being reported as sold to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. While this would have been entirely possible, given the feeder route status of the PK&P, there was one group of people that were not notified that the company had been sold. The company itself. As it turned out, right below the above mentioned article was a denial by the PK&P that such a sale had even happened.

Things came to a screeching halt for the company when William C. Richards, Kankakee, filed a petition in bankruptcy against the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific. The claim was based on eight first mortgage bond coupons for the railroad. Those eight coupons were to be paid, in gold, on 1 July 1873. They were valued at $35 a piece. There were hundreds of said coupons that were not being paid, as well payments for other law suits.

The bankruptcy put the railroad into a holding pattern. For years. In March 1879 it was reported that there were some mumblings about the PK&P being purchased by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago. When the company had suspended operations in 1873, most of the grading had been done and bridges built…at least on the Illinois side. There was hope that the PFtW&C would complete and operate the railroad as soon as possible. Such hope was misplaced.

The company languished even more. At this point, all the work had been done on the Illinois side. It had done no work whatsoever in Indiana. Finally, the PK&P was sold at foreclosure to John S. Cushman on 5 May 1881. On 11 July of that year, it would become the Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad of Illinois. 11 August 1881 saw the II&I of Iowa chartered. 14 September 1881 was the date of creation of the Indiana version of the II&I. They were all consolidated on 27 December 1881 to form the ultimate Indiana, Illinois & Iowa.

The II&I used the routing of the original PK&P, at least to Knox, Indiana. The II&I used that right of way set apart by the PK&P to build from Momence, Illinois, to North Judson, Indiana in 1883, a total of 56.2 miles. Three years later, the line was extended to Knox. The last 33.39 miles from Knox to South Bend were completed in 1894.

Through a few consolidations, what was originally part of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific would become part of the New York Central on 23 December 1914. I covered that railroad in the article “The New York Central in Indiana.” Plymouth never did get the new railroad that would connect it to the Pacific Ocean via the Rock Island and the Union Pacific.

1850: Status of Railroads In Indiana

In an article published in the Indiana State Sentinel of 10 January 1850, the editors of the paper were lamenting the fact that, when it come to eastern knowledge of Indiana, the state basically did not exist. “When any person, other than a resident of the State, speaks or writes of the improvements and resources of the west, them make but one stride from Ohio to Illinois or Missouri, and step entirely over the State of Indiana.” The article goes on to talk about the great strides the state was making in manufacturing and agriculture. But a good deal of the article was shining the light of information on the 18 railroads that were in use, under construction, or under charter, in the state.

“The Madison and Indianapolis railroad comes first, as it was the pioneer.” The railroad spanned a distance of 86 miles from Madison to Indianapolis. Originally, it was built with strap rail, but that had given way to 60 pound heavy “H” rail. 56 of the 86 miles had been, at the time of publication, been replaced with the new rail, with “the remainder is fast being completed.”

2) The Shelbyville Road. Officially known as the Shelbyville Lateral Branch. It ran from Edinburgh, on the M&I, to Shelbyville. Its total length was 16 miles. By the beginning of 1850, it was in “successful operation,” having been built on strap rail 2 1/2″ by 7/8″. Its “successful operation” wouldn’t last long, however. Within the decade, the Shelbyville Lateral Branch would be abandoned.

3) The Rushville Road. This railroad connected Shelbyville to Rushville, a total of 21 miles. At the time, grading had been completed for the railroad, and was quickly installing the same kind of strap rail that was being used at the time on the Shelbyville Lateral Branch. This railroad would last into the Penn Central era, as it was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s collection of lines that bypassed Indianapolis to the south and east.

4) The Knightstown Road. This road also started in Shelbyville, heading off to the northeast to connect to Knightstown. The entire road was 25 miles in length. The official name of the route was the Knightstown & Shelbyville. It was well under construction in the beginning of 1850, and was receiving the same strap rail that was used for the two railroads listed above. This railroad had a shorter life than that of the Shelbyville Lateral Branch. By 1855, it was almost gone. And in 1858, an attempt to revitalize the road failed. From there, it just disappeared.

5) The Columbus & Bloomington Road. “Branches from the Madison road at Columbus, and it designed to run to Bloomington, 37 miles west, where it enters the great coal basin of Indiana. A charter for this road is obtained and a sufficient amount subscribed and guarantied (sic) to insure its completion.” I will do more digging, but I can’t see that this road was ever built.

6) Jeffersonville Road. Starting at the Ohio River at Jeffersonville, this railroad ran north 66 miles to Columbus, where it officially ended at the time. It was designed to allow traffic from the Jeffersonville to use the M&I tracks to Indianapolis. It didn’t happen quite that way. The M&I refused to allow Jeffersonville trains on their tracks, starting a disagreement between the two roads until the Jeffersonville just bought the Madison. The railroad, at the time of the subject report, was receiving its iron in the form of 50 pound per yard “H” rail. This road survives today, having been part of the Louisville line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Today, it is the Louisville & Indiana.

7) Franklin & Martinsville Road. The road that would be 27 miles in length when completed was only located at the time of this article. One half of the route was to be let to contractors in February 1850. The road went through some very hard times in its history. Including seven years of no trains running at all. Eventually, it would be extended to Fairland, and become the Fairland, Franklin & Martinsville Railroad. It would become part of the Big Four, and, as such, part of the New York Central. But it didn’t make it past 1950. In 1942, the section west of Trafalgar was abandoned. 1950 saw it removed from service west of Franklin. The extension to Fairland lasted until 1961.

8) The Lawrenceburgh and Greensburgh Road. (Before you ask, yes that it how they were spelled then. The “H” was dropped at the end of the 19th century, with very few towns putting it back.) “Running from the Ohio River at Lawrenceburgh northerly to Greensburgh, a distance of 42 miles, is at present under construction. The road will ultimately be extended about 30 miles from the latter place to intersect with the Madison and Indianapolis road between Franklin and Edinburgh.” That forecaster route never came into being, as it was eventually built to Indianapolis via Shelbyville. It would become a founding part of the Big Four Railway, and survived through the New York Central, the Penn Central and into the Conrail era.

9) The New Albany Road. Starting in New Albany, the road was designed to connect Salem, Bedford, Bloomington, Gosport and Crawfordsville, a total of 120 miles. In early 1850, it was located and under construction from New Albany to Bedford, some 60 miles. Iron had been delivered to cover 18 miles of that distance. “This road will be in operation to Salem next spring, and to Bedford next fall or winter.” It would go on to become a major part of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway…known to most Hoosiers as the Monon.

10) The Lafayette and Crawfordsville Road. This road was to commence at the end of the New Albany road mentioned above. It would continue carrying New Albany traffic another 28 miles to the Wabash River at Lafayette. It was nearly graded, and will “probably be finished next season.” It, too, like the New Albany road above, would form the backbone of the Monon.

11) The Evansville Road. This road was chartered to connect the 28 miles from Evansville to Princeton. It was speculated by the Sentinel that it would probably be extended another 28 miles to Vincennes, “from the latter place it will either run to Terre Haute, 65 miles, or direct across to Indianapolis, 110 miles, and will in all probability as the country becomes settled, diverge at Vincennes and run to both places.” The premonition came true, as railroads were built to both Terre Haute and Indianapolis. The road from Evansville to Terre Haute would become part of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. The diverging route to Indianapolis would become part of the Pennsylvania.

12) The Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad. “Commencing at Terre Haute on the State line of Illinois, runs from thence to Indianapolis, 72 miles, and from there 73 miles to Richmond, on the Ohio state line..” The first section, Terre Haute to Indianapolis, was under construction and would be fitted with 60 pound rail when complete. “The second division from Indianapolis to Richmond, will probably be abandoned, and the road diverted from Indianapolis direct to Rushville, and thence across to Cincinnati, via Hamilton, 110 miles, or from Indianapolis to Greensburgh, and thence Lawrenceburgh and Cincinnati, the distance in either case being about the same.”

There was a lot going on in that paragraph. For starters, yes the road from Indianapolis to Richmond was dropped. It would later be built by another company. In the end, it would become part of the Pennsylvania, just like the section from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis-Rushville-Hamilton-Cincinnati route would also be built, by another company. This road would become part of the Baltimore & Ohio eventually, and formed part of CSX’s only non-former Conrail asset from Indianapolis to the east. The last route mentioned was added to the Lawrenceburgh Road mentioned five paragraphs ago.

13) The Indianapolis and Lafayette Road. Connecting the state capital to the Wabash River, and hence the Canal, at Lafayette, for a total of 69 miles. It was under construction in 1850, and was expected to be completed in 1851. This road would join forces with the Lawrencebugh road above to become a founding member of the Big Four Railway. It would survive into the Penn Central era, but not much past that.

14) Indianapolis and Peru Road. Another route to connect Indianapolis to the Wabash & Erie Canal, this time at Peru 76 miles away. Parts of the route, as of the time of the editorial, were completed using strap rail. “Some portion of it will be in operation next year.” The I&P would became, in its history, part of the Lake Erie & Western, part of the Nickel Plate, and in the end of its mainline life, Norfolk & Western. Parts of this line survive today.

15) Indianapolis and Bellefontaine. Covered yesterday in the entry “The ‘Bee’ Line,” the 83 miles from Indianapolis to the Ohio state line was under construction, and was said to be using heavy rail.

16) The Michigan And Ohio Road. There was a lot going on with the plan of this railroad, which at the time was just being surveyed in sections. Starting at Logansport, the road was to connect to Anderson on the Bellefontaine line. From there, it would connect to New Castle and Knightstown, where it would directly connect to the Knightstown & Shelbyville, thus creating a line from Jeffersonville and Madison to the Wabash & Erie Canal at Logansport. It was also speculated that the road would eventually connect Knightstown to Cincinnati. There are so many future railroads involved in this plan, I will be writing an entire article on this one.

17) Fort Wayne and Muncie Road. Connecting the Wabash & Erie Canal at Fort Wayne to the Bellefontaine road at Muncie 70 miles away. At the time, a charter had been obtained. A line along this route would eventually be built, forming the Nickel Plate line connecting the two cities.

18) Michigan Southern Railroad. The plan was, at the time, that the Michigan Southern would make a detour south at Coldwater, Michigan, forming a “not less than” 100 mile route through Indiana on its way to connecting Detroit to Chicago. The line would be built. It would become part of the New York Central System in Indiana before 1930 when the Big Four was officially absorbed. It still survives today as a heavily travelled route through Northern Indiana.

The article goes on to mention other forms of transportation in Indiana. But that will keep for another day.

The “Bee” Line

One of the major components of what would eventually become the Big Four Railway was the line that leaves Indianapolis to the northeast, and would be commonly called the “Bee” line. The nickname came not from the directness of the route, but by the name the company would have when it was finally built: the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad.

The railroad started life when the Indiana General Assembly, through special act, chartered the Pendleton & Indianapolis Railroad. This happened in January 1846. Railroad charters were flying out of Indianapolis at a break neck pace at this time. While the Madison & Indianapolis was still being constructed toward the state capital, other companies were jockeying for position to be able to ferry the M&I’s traffic to other far flung points.

Even before the first piece of track was put down, the company would change its name. The new company name would be the one that it would live with in nickname form for the rest of time: Indianapolis & Bellefontaine. Exactly when this happened is unclear. But it was sometime possibly in 1848.

The Indiana State Sentinel of 6 May 1848 reports on the Indianapolis & Bellefontaine, and the goals of the company. A Mr. Smith addressed the citizens of Indianapolis from the porch of Washington Hall. “He maintained that this road was of great importance to central Indiana; that it was but a line, of eighty miles in the great chain of rail-road communication from Boston, New York and Philadelphia to St. Louis, running through central Indiana. He showed by map, which he exhibited, that the rail-road lines from Boston and New York, running north-west to Sandusky, being completed.” On that same map “the route of the road from Bellefontaine to St. Louis was 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.”

By August 1850, the route had been completed from Indianapolis to Pendleton, a total of 26 miles. The article to the left appeared in the Indiana State Sentinel of 1 August 1850. It makes mention that once the line was completed to Bellefontaine, Indianapolis would have direct connection to New York City via the Lake Erie and the New York Railroads. At Bellefontaine, the railroad would connect to lines that ran from that town to Cleveland, Sandusky, Columbus, and Cincinnati, among other places. At Sandusky and Cleveland, it was possible to change trains over to what was quickly becoming the New York Central system of railroads, allowing access to New York via the Water Level Route. The Lake Erie road mentioned in the article is the Little Miami Railroad, originally called the Lake Erie and Mad River, connecting the Ohio River at Cincinnati to Lake Erie at Sandusky.

Sometime in 1854 or 1855, the railroad in Indiana would change its name again to the Indianapolis, Pittsburgh & Cleveland. At that point, from Bellefontaine, one could connect to both New York through the above mentioned routes, or to Pittsburgh, and thus Philadelphia, via Columbus, Ohio. But locally, it was still called the Bellfontaine.

As was typical of the time, there was another company, formed in Ohio on 25 February 1848, called the Bellefontaine & Indiana Railroad. It was the Ohio end of the same railroad that was built from Indianapolis towards Bellefontaine. Although both railroads were legally separate, they were treated as one entity as far as traffic was concerned. All the above mentioned connections were happening in Ohio, so this part of the company was the lions share of the traffic collection.

At the Indianapolis end, the Bee line was a critical part in creating what would become the first Union Station in the United States. Union Depot, built in swamp land at the south end of the original mile square, would replace stations that each railroad company had throughout the downtown area. I covered this in the article “Before Indianapolis Union Depot.” The Bellefontaine’s station was located just west of Plum Street, now College Avenue, between Arch and Vine (now Ninth) Streets. The railroads, both the Bellefontaine and the Indianapolis & Peru, ran closer to downtown than they do today. Both ran along what is now Fulton Street, with the I&P curving off to the northeast along what is now Davidson Street, but was known then as Peru Street.

Both the Indiana and Ohio portions of the road were consolidated into one company, the Bellefontaine Railway, with acts approved in both Indiana and Ohio in February 1864. Four years later, on 16 May 1868, the name Bellefontaine would officially disappear from railroad maps when the Bellefontaine would consolidate with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati to form the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway. And although Indianapolis was an important central point on the CCC&I and the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railway, when those two companies were merged, the name Indianapolis was removed from the corporate title. That consolidation, on 1 July 1889, became known as the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, or Big Four.

Today, the Bee Line still chugs along, with a fair amount of traffic, now owned by CSX. It had seen its share of owners over the years: Big Four, New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, and finally CSX. The railroad created a community, that would later become a part of Indianapolis, called Brightwood. The line would also be instrumental in transportation to Fort Benjamin Harrison during both of the world wars. I also like to think that there was a bit of “Folsom Prison Blues” going on as the train wound and whistled its way past the Indiana State Prison at Pendleton. When Conrail was created after the complete failure of the Penn Central, it was decided that the Bee Line would be used instead of the old Pennsylvania Railroad lines through the Hoosier State. The old Bee Line’s connections made part of the decision easy. Also, the maintenance of the line before it became part of the Penn Central played a big role in the decision.

Today, I will occasionally ride up to Muncie, plop down a lawn chair, and watch the trains as they muscle their way back and forth along the Bellefontaine. Trains going off to who knows where. And trains that have been the same thing, past the same point, for 170 years.

Michigan Road in Marion County

It is often times mentioned that the Michigan Road, connecting Madison on the Ohio River to Michigan City on Lake Michigan, is the first state road in Indiana. However, that is not entirely accurate. There were state roads that were build before the Michigan Road. The special spot that the Michigan Road has is that it was the first state road to connect across the entire state. Most roads to that point connected one town to another. And it connected to the state capital at Indianapolis.

Crossing Marion County, it entered from the southeast section of the county, roughly two miles north of the Johnson-Marion County line from Shelby County. The road had been built to Shelbyville, and went in a directly line, more or less, from that county seat to Indianapolis. Not many towns were built along the Michigan Road in Marion County. The first built would be New Bethel, known today as Wanamaker. The town is located two miles north and three miles west of where the road enters the county.

The next location to pop up along the road would be where the road crosses from Franklin Township to Warren Township. That that location, the road meets a north-south road heading south, and a road that runs almost the entirety of the line that separates Franklin and Warren Townships. That location would acquire the name of “Five Points” due to the roads there.

It should be noted that through the 19th century, and quite a bit into the 20th, this section of the road had been known as the Michigan Road. It also had a turnpike, then a free gravel road, name: Lick Creek & New Bethel Turnpike (Free Gravel Road). This road, like many others in Marion County, would keep its original name until it entered the city limits of Indianapolis. Until the late 1890’s, the city street name for Michigan Road was Michigan Avenue. This was changed due to the fact that there already was a Michigan Street in the city which had been on the original design of the town of Indianapolis in 1821. The name was then changed to match the direction it left Indianapolis… Southeastern Avenue.

The first section of the road “ended” at the National Road east of downtown. That is now the (redesigned) corner of Washington Street and Southeastern Avenue. As with other state roads at the time…and even into the 1930s when state roads made a come back, no city streets were part of the original state road. Indiana had a history of “local, local, local” government mentality. This means the state would stand back while local government entities took care of the little things. In towns, that meant roads and streets.

But that is not to say that there wasn’t a plan on how to get the road from one end of the county to the other through Indianapolis. According to the Indiana State Board of Accounts, in a book published in 1914, the route of the road through the state capital would include Circle Street (now Monument Circle), Ohio Street, and Indiana Avenue. When the Michigan Road was built, Indianapolis was barely bigger than the original mile square. So once the road got to the corner of Indiana Avenue, West and North Streets, it was out of the town again.

Heading north, the Michigan Road was built as an extension of West Street, turning north northwest to travel in basically a straight line to the Hamilton-Marion County line. When street names were applied to the old road, the name West Street was continued until the old road crossed the Central Canal. At what was then Seventh Street, the name changed to Northwestern Avenue until the city limits…where ever those were at the time. When the city expanded, so did the name Northwestern. Eventually, the name got to 38th Street, where the city officially ended. From there, then as it is today, it still maintains the name Michigan Road.

Heading to the northwest, again there were very few towns built along the old road. North of the crossing of White River and (again) the Central Canal, a post office was installed. The post office had two names in its history: Mount Pleasant; and Alliance. The “town” of Mount Pleasant, most of which is long gone, was tucked between what is now Cold Spring Road and 51st Street. (A common mistake is that a lost of people will call it Cold Springs Road…it is singular.)

Further north is the town of Augusta. It is centered at what is now 76th Street and Michigan Road. The post office there would be called Augusta, until it was moved 1.5 miles west of town where the railroad was built. A new town called Augusta was created in the 1860’s in Pike County. When the post office was reestablished in the original Augusta, it was called Eck.

The Michigan Road keeps going, uneventfully, to the Hamilton-Marion County line at what is now 96th Street. Commercialization along the route, especially from below 86th Street to past the county line, as led to a removal of the country scenes that had graced this section of Marion County for years.

The Michigan Road, especially in Marion County, has also been a second class citizen when it came to the railroads. I mentioned about that the Augusta post office had been moved 1.5 miles west due to the railroad. This was in 1852, when the Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad was built connecting those two cities. It rain parallel to the Michigan Road for most of the journey through Marion County. A new settlement was built south and west of Augusta, originally called Hosbrook. It would be later called New Augusta. I have done some work on researching New Augusta, as it came up when I was working on my genealogy. One of the important families in the town is distantly related to mine.

Another place where the Michigan Road lost its importance to the railroad is in the southeastern section of the county. Two miles east, and three miles south of New Bethel (Wanamaker) is the railroad created town of Acton. Acton is along the line that connected Indianapolis to Cincinnati via Shelbyville, Greensburg and Lawrenceburg. The line was built in 1853 from Lawrenceburg to Indianapolis.

In a strange twist of fate, during the railroad consolidation era of the late 1860’s, the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad merged with the Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad in 1867 to created the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railway. Thus, two towns (Augusta and New Bethel) that were built along the same Michigan Road were basically replaced by two towns (New Augusta and Acton) built by what became the same railroad. The IC&L would become part of the founding members of the Big Four – the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway.

Indianapolis Street Car Saturday – New Lines, 1866-1870

Today’s “Indianapolis Street Car Saturday” focuses on

1866. The East Washington Street line commences service. The original length of the line only connected Illinois Street to Liberty Street (now Park Avenue). Service along this line was truncated to Liberty Street until 1883, when it was extended one block to Noble Street (College Avenue). Five years later, East Washington Street became one of the longest mule car lines in the city when it was extended to the new suburb of Irvington, going all the way out to Audubon Avenue, turning south to a turntable near the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks that run through the town. Until this time, access to Irvington via street car was via the English Avenue line, which didn’t originally open until 1875.

The extension to Irvington of East Washington Street was due to its residents wanting a more direct route to downtown Indianapolis. I will get to the English route probably next week, describing the route that Irvington wanted to replace. The line was electrified in 1891. Two more extensions were added to the East Washington Line: in 1900, to west of Arlington Avenue; and in 1920, a purchase from the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Company Richmond line extended Indianapolis Street Railways to Sheridan Avenue, where a “Y” turned cars around.

The last tracked street car to run along East Washington Street did so on 11 August 1950. This started a combination service using both trackless trolleys and busses.

In 1867, a new line was extended to the then new cemetery at Crown Hill, called the Northwestern Line. The line followed Illinois Street to 12th (21st) Street, crossed over to Northwestern Avenue, followed Northwestern to a spot where 34th Street would be later built. This line was a mule car line for its entire life, because it was completely removed in 1879.

Another 1867 line that commenced service was the Central Line. The start of this line is intertwined with the College Line, as it would for its entire life. In the beginning, it merely followed New Jersey Street from Washington Street to Fort Wayne Avenue. In 1888, the line was extended along Fort Wayne Avenue, then Central Avenue from Christian Avenue (11th Street) to a turn table at 11th (20th) Street. A short detour along Tenth (19th) Street to New Jersey would allow street cars to visit a barn facility located on New Jersey Street.

The line was rerouted in 1889, when it used Alabama Street from Fort Wayne to Home Avenue (13th Street), following Home to Central Avenue. Three years later, the Central line was again rerouted. This time, it would follow the College Line to 16th (24th) Street, turning west to Central Avenue, then north on Central to 26th (34th) Street. This was in 1892, the same year that the line was electrified. A loop was built in the line in 1894. The line was rerouted at the time, moving over to Central from College along the then Tenth (20th) Street to connected to the 1892 line at 16th (24th) Street. The loop then went west on 17th (25th) Street to New Jersey, and back to Central on 16th (24th) Street.

The last electric railed street car would run along this line on 20 March 1937.

1905 Indianapolis. Map showing the River
and Kentucky Avenue bridges.

Street cars would be added to Kentucky Avenue in 1868. The line was short: from the Louisiana Street barn to Tennessee Street (Capitol Avenue), then along Kentucky Avenue to Illinois and Washington Streets. The line was turned around, heading southwest from Tennessee Street in 1890. The line would end at River Avenue, which at that time was at the south end of Greenlawn Cemetery. This was located half way opposite of a point between what is now Merrill Street and Henry Street on Kentucky Avenue. The following year, the line was electrified. The last documented extension that I can find was in 1903, when the line crossed the White River on the River Avenue bridge (there was no bridge at Oliver Street), following River Avenue to Morris Street. I can find no more information on this line. It is entirely possible that it was extended, in 1914, to connect to the Indianapolis suburb of Mars Hill. But another line that started in 1881 might be the successor to this line. More research is needed.

The last line today is the Pennsylvania line. Started in 1870, the mule cars would run along Pennsylvania Street from Ohio to St. Joseph Street, where it turn west to Illinois Street for its trip downtown. 1873 saw the Illinois/St. Joseph turn removed, and the line wet north to Seventh (16th) Street where it turned east to Alabama. In 1891, the route turned north on Talbot from Seventh (16th) to a turn table at Tenth (19th) Street. 1894 saw the line electrified and extended to 14th (22nd) Street. The last car to use the rails would run on 18 July 1934.

1941: Hamilton County, and Proposed State Roads

14 February 1941. Announcement was made that the Hamilton County Road Superintendent was advised that the Indiana State Highway Commission was looking into some road work in the county. The plan was to widen the Range Line Highway (US 31), and to add two new state roads. All of the projects were to be considered part of the national defense program.

The project that the County Superintendent thought was most important was the widening of the Range Line Road from the Hamilton-Marion County line to the Hamilton-Tipton County Line. County Road Superintendent Carey said “his understanding is that it might be widened to a two lane highway or he had understanding there was a possibility that it might be converted into a four lane road.” (Source: Noblesville Ledger, 14 February 1941). Some property owners had been contacted about right of way acquisition at that time, as well.

“It is recalled that the last time the widening of this road attracted much attention was 2 or 3 years ago when the Commission sought to secure the right-of-way but the project was dropped when it was ascertained that 90 per cent of the abutting property owners were opposed to the change.”

Two state roads were proposed at the time. The first one would be across the south part of the county, starting southwest of Carmel on the Range Line Highway, traveling east across the Delaware and Fall Creek townships, connecting with State Road 67 a short distance south of Anderson. This project had been running around in the minds of the ISHC for years.

The second road proposal involved a road that started at Fort Benjamin Harrison, connecting to Hamilton County southeast of Fishers. “This road might be of an advantage for military purposes, the State Commission and Federal government officials think.” The proposed road would give the fort an outlet to the north, which it did not have (or really still doesn’t).

Both proposed roads would be new construction. There was no way of knowing, at the time, how far these projects would progress. But considering that the county was contacted at all lent credence to the proposals.

Expanding SR 37 from Martinsville to Oolitic

20 December 1970. The Sunday Herald-Times (Sunday edition of the Bloomington Herald-Telephone and the Bedford Times-Mail) has as the lead story at the top of page one, “All Four-Lane 37 To Be Started In 1971.” It discusses the last projects that would make SR 37 a divided highway from the Martinsville Bypass to Oolitic. It was the beginning of the projects…all scheduled to start before the end of 1971.

Chairman of the Indiana State Highway Commission at the time, Ruel W. Steele, stated that the ISHC had let eight contracts, totaling over $22.5 million, along the highway corridor. The section between Bloomington and Martinsville was under going right of way purchasing, with construction projected to start in the fall of 1971. Right of way purchasing would consist of one contract. Construction would be divided into two contracts.

“We expect to clear the right of way on the south half of the Bloomington-Martinsville project by some time in July of next year,” said Steele, “and on the north half by September. We expect to have both sections under contract next year – the south half by September, and the north portion before the end of the year.” Construction of this section should go quickly, the newspaper mentions, because it will mostly be widening the current road from two to four lanes in place. “There will be some places along the corridor where the new lanes will be west of the present road, and some where it will be to the east.”

One section was already under construction. A new northbound SR 37 bridge over Indian Creek, south of Martinsville, was being built 60 feet east of the then current two lane bridge. Once the new bridge was completed, traffic would be rerouted to the new facility while the old bridge was rebuilt. In Indiana, most contracts for road construction are let separately for roads and bridges.

Included with the discussions with Mr. Steele was a status report on all of SR 37 from south of Bedford to the south end of the Martinsville bypass. The Bedford bypass was anticipated to start construction in Spring 1972. Due to rough terrain and three sets of bridges having to be built, the Bedford bypass was to be the most expensive part of the entire project. It will be the last project to be put under contract.

4.8 miles of the new highway from Oolitic to south of the Monroe County line was, at this time, 40 percent complete and 15 percent ahead of schedule. Completion was scheduled for December 1971. The next 3.3 mile section, to just north of the Monroe County line, was scheduled for completion by 1 June 1972.

The next 2.5 mile section from 1.5 miles north of the Monroe County line to three miles south of Dillman Road had been let to contract the previous week. This included an interchange at Monroe Dam Road, allowing access to Lake Monroe, and bridges over the Monon and Clear Creek. This section was scheduled for completion by December 1972.

Right of way problems were being resolved for the next 2.5 miles, all south of Dillman Road. Most property had been acquired, but some condemnation suits would have to be filed. The right of way was expected to be cleared within the next two weeks from the publication of this article, except for the condemnation suits which would be filed by 15 January 1971. The new Bloomington bypass would start at the end of this section, one half mile south of Dillman Road.

March 1971 was the scheduled date for the start of right of way purchasing for the south four miles, from south of Dillman Road to SR 45, of the new Bloomington bypass. The Commission expected to have the right of way cleared by August 1971, and contracts to be let by the end of that year.

Herald-Times photo, 20 December 1970. New road for SR 37 bypass west of Bloomington.

Four miles of the middle section of the Bloomington bypass, from SR 45 to SR 46, as shown in the newspaper photo above, was progressing quickly. This section was anticipated completed by 1 September 1971. The next section, however, was being re-let when the bids for the first round of contracts came in over engineer’s estimates. The second round of contract letting would commence on 26 January 1971, with “hopefully the contract will be let January 28.”

“Steele said eight separate projects – five highway and three bridge – are now under contract, including the Ind. 46 companion project which extends from the new four-lane Ind. 37 to Indiana University. There are six more projects to be let to contract in the entire relocation from White River to Martinsville.”

In October, 1971, contracts were opened for four projects as part of the new SR 37: the south section of the Bloomington Bypass; additional two lanes on the Martinsville bypass; bridges over Clear Creek and the Monon; and bridges over the Illinois Central Railroad. The Clear Creek/Monon bridge is a twin bridge, each with five spans. The IC bridge consisted of two bridges each with three spans. With these contracts, the only part of the new SR 37 that still needed to be opened to contract bidding included the Bedford bypass and from the north end of the Bloomington bypass to near the Morgan-Monroe County line. (Source: Bedford Daily Times-Mail, 26 October 1971)

SR 49 Bypass at Valparaiso

November 1947. The mayoral elections in Valparaiso have just finished, electing Elden Kuehl. This now first term mayor decides that traffic through Valparaiso needs curbing. He recommends that the Indiana State Highway Commission build a bypass of SR 49 around the city. State Senator John Van Ness goes so far as to initiate a feasibility study for the road. And there it sat.

Porter County has always had plenty of roads crossing it to the east and west. Into the Auto Trails age, this included the Lincoln Highway, which entered Valparaiso from the west, leaving via the northeast. But north-south routes were lacking. Valparaiso itself had SR 49 that went right through downtown.

Mayor Kuehl thought there might be a groundbreaking for the new SR 49 by 1950. As it turned out, in the 1950s committees were formed to try to create a route for a bypass. Some plans included using SR 149 to the west of town. But most of the attention was placed on an eastern bypass of Valparaiso. In 1960, then Mayor Don Will said the plans for the eastern bypass were on the drawing board with the state. He announced that before the Valparaiso Lions Club. Later that year, an official from the ISHC told the same Lions Club that “a 49 bypass was not that day’s answer for moving people through the city.” (Source: The Times, Munster, Indiana, 20 July 2003)

The project was still in limbo into the 1970’s when what would become the Northern Indiana Regional Planning Commission stated that they were trying to keep the bypass alive. A bypass of Chesterton had been built in relation to I-94 construction. In 1975, Governor Otis Bowen tried to put locals at ease by saying that the bypass was still a high priority, but that the Federal government places a rather large roadblock in the way. The Governor said that there were now 236 steps from start to completion required according to government officials in Washington, DC. Some didn’t see this as honest, since an eight year completion date in 1975 was the same period that the bypass completion was going to take since 1963.

The Times, Munster, Indiana, photo, 20 July 2003. Groundbreaking for the SR 49 bypass of Valparaiso.

That eight years was an accurate statement. On 10 June 1983, a groundbreaking was held to commence construction on the new SR 49 bypass east of Valparaiso. At the groundbreaking was the then Mayor of Valparaiso…Elden Kuehl, the man that started discussions on the project in the first place way back in 1947. It would be exactly six years later, on 2 June 1989, that the grand opening was held.

A reconstruction project on the road in 2001 turned into a two year project when it was discovered that the soil along the route was inferior when it came to road construction. Previously, craks were starting to form in the concrete as the sub-base of the road was being destroyed by the weight of vehicles using the highway. In 2001, the just poured road had to be ripped up and replaced due to the inferior sub-base. A one year, $12 million project turned into a two year, $18 million project.

Lafayette, And Electric Trains

The county seat of Tippecanoe County has a very important distinction in the annuls of electric railroads. In 1888, it became the first city in Indiana to have a completely electrified street car system. But while not the subject of this post, this fact contributed to it. Today, I want to look at Lafayette’s two interurban lines, as shown in the Lafayette Journal and Courier of 7 March 1976.

“The electric interurban! For those of us past 50, fond memories,” wrote Dave Chambers. He also made sure to mention that the interurbans and electric street cars used the same current, and same railroad gauge, as the street railways…so it used them.

Lafayette Journal & Courier photo of 7 March 1976. This image shows
the Indianapolis & Northwestern Traction Company’s Car #32
at Mulberry, Indiana. This picture was taken originally in 1907.

The first line to Lafayette was the Indianapolis & Northwestern Traction Company. “On Dec. 1, 1903, the Lafayette Street Railway has a visitor – Indianapolis and Northwestern traction car No. 21. This was the first interurban to come to Lafayette, the service entering the city via East Main St.”

Main Street was the Lafayette end of the old Lafayette State Road, which started at Indianapolis at the corner of North, West and Indiana as the Lafayette Road.

The interurban terminal, from the first day in 1903 to February 1923, was located at 16 North Third Street. To get there, the traction cars would loop around Courthouse Square. All of the city’s street cars circled around Courthouse Square. Outbound, the Indianapolis & Northwestern Traction would turn east on Columbia, north on Fourth, then turn eastbound on Main Street.

This route was followed even after the Indianapolis & Northwestern Traction was purchased by the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern in 1907. Riding down the center of Main Street, the interurban started using its own right of way after passing Earl Avenue, where it moved to the eastern edge of the road. From there, it followed the current SR 38 out of the greater Lafayette area on on its way across the Tippecanoe County countryside. Near Dayton, it crossed the road to follow the then gravel road along the south side. “The tracks crossed in a treacherous manner from the north to south side of” the highway. “In the weeds and dust, only a traditional cross-buck sign stood sentinel to caution of the approach of the rapid and quiet traction cars.”

The horns on the interurbans were described in the article, as well. “Interurban air horns resembled the sound of an over-grown harmonica, melodious but not too penetrating.” Many accidents occurred at this crossing at the west end of Dayton.

The cars that ran along the line were described as averaging “61 feet in length , and weighed approximately 84,500 lbs.” The last car to run along the Indianapolis-Lafayette line would occur on 31 October 1930, less than three decades after it started.

The other line that entered Lafayette came from Fort Wayne, in the form of the form of the Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company. As mentioned in my previous article, Lafayette, the traction company was trying to obtain the old Wabash & Erie Canal towpath, starting in 1902, for use as the interurban right of way. As the new traction line entered Tippecanoe County, it basically paralleled the Wabash Railroad from Colburn to where both railroads crossed Wildcat Creek. Here the traction line turned east to cross, then follow, what was Springvale Road (now Schuyler Avenue) near Springvale Cemetery. Here it would follow the north edge of that road until it reached the city limits.

The interurban joined the city street car line at 18th Street and Schuyler Avenue. “The Monon Shops line was a series of six sharp-radius turns on the north side of the city, and it was a sight to be hold these big interurbans negotiating these sharp curves with the trucks squealing, and at nearly 45 degrees with the axis of the car body.”

The terminal for this traction line, until 11 February 1923, was located on Third Street between South and Columbia. Due to congestion, the schedules suffered from many delays at this terminal location. The freight depot for the line was on Ferry Street, between Ninth and Tenth Streets. The passenger station was moved to this location in February 1923. A lunchroom was added to the station in April 1923.

In January 1920, the name of the line changed from “Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction” to Indiana Service Corporation, the name of the electric utility in Fort Wayne. The line was also used, under agreement, by the Indiana Union Traction Company.

This line ended service on 21 May 1932. In the end, Lafayette was serviced by the interurban for a total of 28 years.

Celebrating The “Greenwood Line” For Johnson County’s 150th

1 January 1900. The first electric traction car runs into Indianapolis. More importantly, however, according to the Daily Journal of 6 March 1973, it ran into Greenwood. “Townsfolk cheered and applauded as the orange-colored passenger car screeched to a halt at the end of the line.” Thus was the beginning of the interurban era in Central Indiana. “At that proud moment, none of the overjoyed citizens had the slightest idea that the flashy monster called interurban would die some 40 years later – only a few miles down the track.”

Greenwood, when it was created, found itself astride two important forms of transportation at the time: the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad and the Madison State Road, later the Madison Toll Road. Both of these facilities connected the little village, called Greenfield starting in 1825, to the state capital directly. The railroad ended at South Street, between Pennsylvania and Delaware Streets. The Madison State Road ended at the end of Meridian Street at South Street.

The idea started in 1894 when $150,000 was invested to construct a 12-mile line from Indianapolis to Greenwood. In 1895, the plan was laid out by Henry L. Smith to create an electric traction company to connect Greenwood to both Indianapolis and Franklin. The route would follow the Madison State Road (then known by the names of either the Madison Free Gravel Road or the Indianapolis-Southport Road depending on where you were). From Greenwood, it would run along the east side of the Madison Road right of way, switching over to the west side of the road just south of Union Street (now Southport Road) in Southport. The route would turn north on Shelby Street when it connected to Madison…connecting to the Indianapolis Street Railways just south of Troy Avenue.

While riding the new electric traction in the rural areas of Marion County, between Greenwood and Southport, “a passenger, Charles Coffin took out his pocket watch to check the interurban’s speed. In that brief stretch the motors of the car had propelled it nearly 38 miles per hour.” That was extremely fast for the time. Interurban stops were 1/2 mile apart at the time. Stops 13 and 14, numbered from Indianapolis, allowed passengers to partake of a popular picnic grounds on the north end of Greenwood – Greenwood Park. Rural stops 10, 11 and 12 were mainly for rural residents to go shopping in downtown Indianapolis. Southport did not have a stop number. Towns and/or housing additions were later built at stops north of Southport: Stop 9 (Homecroft – Banta Road); Stop 7 (Edgewood – Epler Avenue); Stop 6 (Longacre – Thompson Road); and Stop 4 (University Heights – Hanna Avenue).

By June 1900, with the financial success of the Greenwood line, the electric traction route had been extended to Franklin. And that success kept growing, for by September 1902 the interurban crossed all of Johnson County as it headed off to its end at Columbus. By 1910, the interurban had become part of the lives of thousands of people across Indiana. And that is when the wheels started coming off.

Between Bluffton and Fort Wayne, on 21 September 1910, the “worst wreck in the history of traction operations” occurred. More than 40 people were killed in the crash. On 2 February 1924, another tragic accident, caused by two interurban cars meeting head-on, killed 21 people. But nothing would hurt the interurban more than the car and the bus.

The interurban had teetered on the brink of financial failure for years. Then the Great Depression occurred. Many of the Indianapolis-centric traction routes would be consolidated. But 1933 came, and that consolidation was taken out of the hands of its owners, and placed in receivership. Many of the lines were closed at that point – either outright, or replaced with the very busses that helped seal their downfall.

But the Greenwood line soldiered on. For almost another decade. The first line into Indianapolis was also the last when a crash occurred south of Columbus. 8 September 1941 spelled the end of the interurbans along the Greenwood line. “In the end the interurban system had one weary passenger car remaining out of a mighty army of 700 as the hearts and minds of the public turned to other marvels.”

The article in the Daily Journal is actually two parts. The top of the page covers the Greenwood line, in parts. The bottom talks about the electric street cars in Indiana, and the birth, life and death of the interurban. The best quote in that part of the story is this: “Before the interurban craze was over – and it hit like a meteor and died a painful death – there were about 200 operating companies; 250 with incorporation papers filed; and another 250 companies which tried to start. Just like canal companies and steam railroad companies, they went big in Hoosierdom.” They sure did. But in Central Indiana, it started with rumbling its way to a point south of the Hoosier Capital.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: