While looking for older maps on the USGS TopoView website, I found one that really sparked my interest. One of the early towns in Indiana was Bloomington. It was established very early, and the college there, the state financed Indiana University, was also located there from the very beginning. Early descriptions of the place describe a pleasant town, with pleasant landscape, but without large quantities of non-poisonous water, or water at all.
But how did one get to to the town? If the state college was there, how did students reach it before all the roads became hard surface and passible all year round?
This first map shows three major roads coming from Bloomington towards the west and northwest. Two of these are marked on this map as Pikes, or former toll roads.
Starting with the blue line, the Ellettsville Pike lead there…to Ellettsville. It was part of a bigger road that was the Bloomington-Spencer State Road built in the 1800’s. Today, it is called Arlington Road leaving the city of Bloomington. It would form the basic route of the original state road 32. This SR 32 would on 1 October 1926, become part of the new SR 46.
The red line leaving Bloomington, still called by the name listed on the 1910 map above, is the Vernal Pike. It led from Bloomington to the Vernal School, 5.5 miles west of the town, and with a branch to the Vernal Church, the same distance. The Vernal School was located near where Vernal Pike and Oard Road come together. The Vernal Church was on the northwest corner of what is now the intersection of Howard and Louden Roads west of Bloomington. At the school, the Vernal Pike turned southwest to connect with the green line on the map above.
The green line, now the basic route of what is now SR 48, is the Whitehall Road. It connected Bloomington to the town of Whitehall in Owen County, just across the Monroe-Owen County line. Whitehall is located at the intersection of Howard Road (mentioned above when it came to the Vernal Church) and SR 43, the current name given to the old Whitehall Road. Thus, there were three routes connecting the two towns of Bloomington and Whitehall.
The next road I want to focus on comes north out of Bloomington. It is called the North Pike on this map, and was the road that leads to Martinsville. It was part of the larger Paoli State Road connecting Indianapolis to Paoli. It travelled through Martinsville and Waverly. It had many names between these points. At the northern end, it was called the Bluff Road. That was due to the fact that it connected Indianapolis to the Bluffs of the White River at Waverly.
From Waverly, it was called the Martinsville State Road, winding its way through the Hoosier landscape between the two towns.
From Martinsville, it did more winding on its way south to the Monroe County seat of Bloomington.
When it was added to the state highway system in 1919, it would be given the number State Road 22 between Martinsville and Bloomington. By 1923, the old connection from Martinsville to Indianapolis was given the same State Road 22 designation.
With the Great Renumbering of 1 October 1926, old State Road 22 would be changed to State Road 37. Over time, the section that is shown as the green line on this map would be bypassed several times. The route is now called Old State Road 37 after it leaves Bloomington proper, where it connected to the then SR 37 in Morgan County south of Martinsville. It no longer connects to SR 37 directly, as that road has been converted into Interstate 69 at the old connection point.
Due to a lack of resources, tracing to old paths east out of Bloomington is difficult using Topoview. However, what is now 10th Street in Bloomington would wind its way north and east from the city as the Unionville Road. This would later become part of SR 45. Third Street east out of town would wind its way through the hills of Monroe and Brown Counties, connecting to the Brown County seat of Nashville. This would later form the core of SR 46. It was originally (in 1923) part of State Road 26, which prior to 1923 only connected Columbus to Nashville.
In part 2, I will cover the three major roads that left Bloomington to the south. These are the Rockport Road, the Bedford Pike and the South Pike. I will also be mentioning the two railroads: one is the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (known as the Monon) and the other is the Indianapolis Southern, which just started appearing on maps around 1910. The Indianapolis Southern would become the Illinois Central, and is now known as the Indiana Railroad.
Indiana Transportation History 