One of the Interurban lines created around the turn of the 20th century was the Indianapolis & Martinsville Traction Company. Work on creating the line started with the securing of rights of way, in 1899, by Jesse C. Tarkington. This would allow a traction company to build through towns between Indianapolis and Martinsville. The traction line would be, according to the Indianapolis Journal of 03 May 1901, “a short cut to Martinsville and will pass through all the towns on the Indianapolis & Vincennes road between this city and Martinsville.”

The same source newspaper reports that W. R. Todd & Company, bankers of Cincinnati and New York, had a representative, Reamy E. Field, in Indianapolis on 02 May 1901 to discuss with promoters of the line the possibility of investing in the new traction company. Mr. Field told a reporter for the Journal that “he had made arrangements to finance the road and had $600,000 at his disposal with which to begin work at once.” He also stated that “arrangements had been made with Dr. J. E. Lowes, of Dayton, O., to build the traction line, and work will begun (sic) as soon as a private right of way can be secured and the survey made.”

Dr. Lowes, at that time, was involved in building several traction lines. He built the line in Ohio connecting Dayton and Eaton, which would work in conjunction with the Richmond traction line that had just been organized. He also built 42 miles, between Dayton and Greenville (Ohio), that would become part of the line between Dayton and Fort Wayne.

The above mentioned survey, completed under Tarkington’s direction, would be the second such survey for a traction line to Martinsville from Indianapolis. This was reported in the Indianapolis News of 21 May 1901. Tarkington’s survey, under the the auspices of the Indianapolis & Southwestern Traction Company, followed the same right-of-way that had been surveyed by Charles Finley Smith. Smith’s company had already started condemnation proceedings to obtain that right-of-way. “In many places the stakes for the two lines are placed side by side.” The News added “it is understood that Mr. Tarkington claims that he had options on portions of the Smith right-of-way before the condemnation proceedings were begun, so it is likely that the matter will get into the courts.” The confusion caused by the two competitors caused many people to believe that neither line would be built.

The Indianapolis Journal of 25 August 1902 reported that the Indianapolis & Martinsville Rapid Traction Company had opened their line as far as Matthew’s Crossing, a location three miles south of Mooresville. This report, having been published on a Monday, stated that “it is expected to have the service in operation to Brooklyn and Bethany Park next Sunday.”

In 1903, interurban tracks were proposed to extend from Martinsville ti Evansville. (Indianapolis Star, 17 July 1903) This was under the auspices of the Indianapolis, Martinsville & Southern Railroad Company, the other company that had surveyed the original Martinsville route. The company had increased their capital stock from $50,000 to $900,000 to fulfill the plan, with the company changing its name to the Indianapolis & Southwestern Traction Company. This route would change the surveyed route to acheive their goal since the Indianapolis & Martinsville had already built along hte original survey. This new route would pass through Marion, Johnson, Morgan, Owen, Greene, Sullivan, Knox, and Gibson Counties to Princeton. There it would connect to the line already being built to that point from Evansville. It would connect Indianapolis to Waverly, Martinsville, Gosport, Spencer, Worthington, Linton, and Vincennes, with branch lines to Bloomfield, Sullivan and Washington. It was never built, but parts would come back into the reign of possibility.

By 1905 (Indianapolis News, 29 June 1905), ownership of the company was in serious flux. It started with the Stone & Webster Syndicate of Boston gaining control of the company from local owners. But in the source newspaper, rumors were floating that the ownership had changed again to Philadelphia interests of the Widener-Elkins Syndicate. While it was a rumor, the News stated that the acquisition of the line was “in line with the commonly accepted purpose of the Widener-Elkins syndicate to obtain the control of every traction line centering in Indianapolis, if that be possible.” At the time, the Philadelphia syndicate controlled the Union Traction, Indianapolis & Eastern, Indianapolis & Western and the Indianapolis & Northwestern companies. These were a small part of the total lines owned by the syndicate, almost creating an interurban line connecting the Mississippi River to New York City. In 1902, the syndicate controlled the Indianapolis Traction and Terminal Company that had just gained control of the Indianapolis Street Railway.

The Indianapolis News of 13 June 1907 reported that promoters from Chicago were in Washington, Indiana, mentioning the with the next thirty days construction would begin connecting that city to Martinsville. This new line would run from Washington, through Bloomfield, to Martinsville. Further records don’t exist stating this line was ever built.

The company came under fire in 1911 when a series of rate increases for the journey between Martinsville and Indianapolis. Five Martinsville businessmen were in Indianapolis, according to the Martinsville Reporter-Times of 13 September 1911, on 12 September 1911 to discuss the problem. E. F. Branch, the spokesman for the Martinsville group, “called attention to the fact that pledges had been made when the franchise was granted that the round trip rate between Martinsville and Indianapolis would not be more than seventy-five cents. Later the round trip was made ninety cents; then it was placed at one dollar and now it is $1.10.” He added that “it is rumored that the round trip will be $1.20 after the first of October.”

A meeting of Martinsville citizens, in response to the rate increases, came up with the possibility of talking to the Vandalia Railway about the possibility creating a better transportation solution to the traction company. (The Vandalia was, at that time, the operator/owner of the original Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad that connected to Mooresville and Martinsville.) Officers of the traction company were told of this citizen meeting, “not as a threat, as the discussion was had in good humor.”

The traction company declined any concessions, as “ties, rails and material is higher and labor costs more.” Promises of an investigation into the matter were made. Mr. Branch countered with complaints of rough road conditions along the traction line, “that the jolting of the cards frequently made people sick, that the cars were not kept in good condition and that the service was not what it should be.” Mr. Todd, General Manager of the traction company, simply responded “it’s not so.”

Only a promise of investigation resulted from the meeting. But the businessmen would arrange a meeting with the Vandalia to decide where to go next.

Parts of the discussion mentioned above concerned the Martinsville line extending to Bloomington. There were questions, by the businessmen, about the possibility of the traction line getting the right to cross over the Big Four line that connected Martinsville to Franklin. The Martinsville contingent stated that the traction company would never get those rights. The traction company simply stated that they would go around. The Bloomington extension, in the end, would never be built.

By 1930, the line had been unprofitable for quite some time. The Franklin Evening Star of 19 September 1930 reported that committees had been formed in Martinsville to work on saving the line from the “probability of the discontinuance of operation of the Indianapolis and Martinsville traction line.” This plan was created with the bankruptcy of the parent company of the Martinsville line, the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern (THI&E). The THI&E held the lease on, or outright owned, and operated a large number of the lines that radiated from Indianapolis, the Traction Terminal in Indianapolis, and the street car companies of Terre Haute and Indianapolis, among other properties.

By October 1930, according to the Indianapolis News of 07 October 1930, court hearings were being held about the abandonment of the line. Businessmen from Martinsville, Brooklyn and Mooresville were, obviously, opposed to the plan. Judge Jere West, of the Public Service Commission, heard the case. Abandonment was postponed, at that time, for five days “in which objectors may present argument.”

The following May, the Union Trust Company and the Security Trust Company, both of Indianapolis, entered Marion Superior Court to seek a foreclosure on the mortgages of the Martinsville line. The THI&E had lost the lease on the line, and was listed as a defendant in the case. The THI&E was scheduled to be sold at auction on 23 June 1931.

The official abandonment by the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern would be announced on 18 February 1932 with a collection of other lines totaling 533 Indiana miles (Hancock Democrat, 18 February 1932). Those lines included: Indianapolis-Crawfordsville, 45 miles; Indianapolis-Martinsville, 30 miles; Indianapolis-Danville, 18 miles; Indianapolis-Lafayette, 67 miles; Lebanon-Crawfordsville, 15 miles; Terre Haute-Sullivan, 20 miles; Terre Haute-Clinton, 20; Indianapolis-Dunreith, 35; and Terre Haute-Illinois line to Paris, Illinois, 10 miles. That brought the total abandonment of the THI&E to 260 miles.

The gutted Martinsville line, as of March 1932, was actively being sought to become part of Public Service Company of Indiana, owners of the Indiana Railroad (1930). At that time, all that existed was the unused tracks, the right-of-way, three substations and a signal switch. (Indianapolis News, 21 March 1932) The company offered to pay $8,233, including $6,320 for the transmission lines. But the city of Martinsville wasn’t going down peacefully. Objections to the plans of disposal were presented by Ralph K. Lowder, City Attorney. It was argued that if the traction company was going to remove their tracks, the company’s original franchise required the company to restore the condition of the city streets that contained the now unused tracks. The purchasers, continued the argument, should be solely responsible for removing the tracks and restoring the streets used.

Easily one of the biggest railroad yard facilities in Indiana was built by the New York Central in Avon, a town right across the western county line from Indianapolis. It would be built in the 1950’s as the most advanced such facility in the United States. The yard itself would stretch across almost four miles, including connecting tracks, while the facility itself covered 490 acres.

15 September 1960. That is the day that the new Big Four Yards were dedicated. President of the New York Central, Alfred E. Perlman, and Governor of Indiana, Harold W. Handley, found themselves in a former farm field cutting through a photo-electric beam with a railroad lantern as an electronic ribbon cutting officially opening the facility. The name of the yard would come from the nickname of the company that became part of the New York Central in 1930: the Big Four Railway.

Everything about the new yard was huge…and modern. The purpose of the location in rural Hendricks County was to allow a facility that would allow the New York Central to consolidate several other yards in the Indianapolis area that were being hemmed in by neighborhoods in the city itself. At the time, NYC facilities in Indianapolis included a freight house yard east of Union Station, a coach yard at Shelby and Bates Street, a yard facility at Brightwood, and a large yard and maintenance shops at (and creating) Beech Grove.

The new location would allow, if needed, expansion. It already covered over 490 acres. The investment into the facility cost the New York Central, the second largest railroad in Indiana, $11 million. It would be the fourth such yard built by the Central, with others at Elkhart (Indiana), Buffalo (New York) and Youngstown (Ohio). It had a capacity of 4,480 rail cars and an ability to process 3,000 of them a day.

According to Perlman, “the Big Four Yard will save 24 hours in rail shipments from the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard.” (Munster Times, 15 September 1960) “Just as the Big Four Railroad was a forerunner in carrying freight by rail, helping develop midwest farms and factories, the Central’s new finger-tip-controlled yard will spearhead faster rail service to all parts of the nation.”

The entire yard would be electronically controlled. This was a big upgrade from the pneumatic handles that had controlled such facilities to that point. The same photo-electric beam that was “cut” in the ribbon cutting would alert controllers that a train was entering the yard. A television camera would scan the numbers on each of the freight cars, passing that information through a closed circuit to receivers in the main yard building.

From there, the cars would be classified by the destination. As classification was being done, a yard engine would start moving cars toward a 19-foot (man made) elevation called a “hump.” The cars were then uncoupled, one at a time, and allowed to roll down the hump to one of 55 classification tracks. Each of these tracks were controlled by a push button panel in the main yard building.

From there, computers and electronics take over. Switches were opened automatically. Computers would measure the car weight, rollability, distance, track conditions and even the wind speed. From there, the computer regulated braking devices, called retarders, slowing the free rolling cars to a safe coupling speed as the car rolled onto the required classification track. As the train is completed, another yard engine moved the new train to departure tracks. Road engines then take that train on its way to its destination, whether that be a customer or another yard closer to where the customer is located.

The whole system could “hump” 160 cars an hour, or 3,000 a day. The yard itself contained 66 miles of tracks across the 3.75 mile length of the facility. A total of 2,030 cars could fit into the classification tracks. This was a little less than half of the total capacity of the Big Four Yard. While this was all going on, a microwave link, using 24-channels, connected all this information about the cars to the New York Central’s Southern District offices in downtown Indianapolis, 12 miles away.

The major reason for building the Avon facility, and its brethren, was to help modernize a flailing New York Central. The railroad was suffering in many ways by the economics of the time. Talks had already started into the possibility of a merger of the New York Central with other companies. The one chosen by management was the Chesapeake & Ohio. But the Interstate Commerce Commission felt that a merger between the two would be bad for the market, and hence shot it down. (At the same time, the Central’s biggest, and bigger, rival, the Pennsylvania, was trying to get a merger with the Norfolk & Western approved by the same agency. It went down in flames, as well.)

With the opening of those four yards, the New York Central did stop of financial bleeding for a while. For the first time in over a decade, the NYC would border on profitable. It wouldn’t last long due to the collapse of the economy of the northeastern United States, the Central’s main bread and butter area. In less than eight years after Avon opened, the New York Central would disappear along with its Philadelphia based rival. It would become a junior partner in the new Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company, known as Penn Central. Three years after that, the Penn Central would file the largest bankruptcy in American history to that time.

The Avon Yard would survive, and still does today. It outlived its builder company, the ill fated merger company, and the government takeover of bankrupt northeastern railroad companies into the Consolidated Rail Company (Conrail). Today, it serves CSX, the consolidation of the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Seaboard System. While the original C&O/NYC merger was shot down, the yard now is part of the same system that would have been created by that merger.

This post was originally uploaded on 19 August 2019, but it was to the wrong side of the site. So here it is on the Blog side, instead of the Page side, making it more accessible.

In 1916, in a cornfield east of Indianapolis, the Pennsylvania Railroad started building what would be, at the time, a modern yard facility. It would be a surprise to the local community, as very few people knew who was buying the property and why. In the end, the Hawthorne Yards ended up being a large employer for the area. And a very fancy stub end yard.

The years 1916 and 1917 were very busy ones for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR or Pennsy) in and around the city of Indianapolis. At the time, that company already owned rail lines connecting Indianapolis to Columbus (Ohio) and points east, St. Louis, and Louisville. The Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh and Erie (PL) also had trains running between Indianapolis and Chicago, but at the time that required trackage rights on the Lake Erie and Western (the original Indianapolis & Peru, through Noblesville and Tipton). This was problematic, given that the LE&W was controlled by the Pennsy’s major rival: the New York Central. As a matter of fact, both lines to Chicago from Indianapolis were owned by the NYC. Hence, the building at the time of the Indianapolis & Frankfort. But that was the subject of a previous entry (link here).

The other thing that the PL was working on was a new, larger, yard on the eastside of Indianapolis. The Pennsy had a yard on the eastside, where the B&O/CSX State Street Yard is now. Covert property acquisition began in 1914 for an area that was bordered by the Indianapolis Belt Railroad, Lexington Avenue, Arlington Avenue, and the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction tracks running along Prospect Street. This is a span of over two miles east to west, and one-half mile north to south. By 1916, construction started on what would become called “Hawthorne Yards.”

Part of the reason for building this yard was to eliminate the running of freight trains through Irvington. The town of Irvington, founded in 1870 but annexed by Indianapolis in 1902, was along the mainline of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (Panhandle). As such, all train movements would travel through the town. As Irvington was a college town at the time (being the home of Butler University), this was a blessing and a curse. Passenger trains were the blessing, freight trains the curse.

The east end of the new Hawthorne Yards would connect to the Panhandle two miles east of the yards at a point called “THORN,” just east of Franklin Road. This allowed traffic coming from the east to detour into Hawthorne, thus eliminating freight trains traveling west of THORN. These train movements allowed traffic through Hawthorne for either running through or for break up. Traveling west out of Hawthorne, the tracks would connect to the Indianapolis Belt, then run north along the Belt to a point called “PINE,” where traffic would reconnect to the Panhandle main. PINE is about 3/10 mile west of Sherman Drive south of Washington Street. It is also located at the east end of the State Street Yard.

Hawthorne Yards would not only be the major collection and distribution center of rail cars, but it would also became the maintenance center for the Pennsy for the Indianapolis area. Due to connections directly to the Indianapolis Belt, which was 60% owned at the time by the PL, all PRR traffic coming in and out of Indianapolis would be connected to Hawthorne. Louisville/Madison traffic could travel the Belt from DALE to Hawthorne. St. Louis/Frankfort traffic could come through downtown or around the Belt. This allowed Hawthorne to become a central hub in the Pennsylvania Railroad system.

Hawthorne Yards cruised right along into the merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central into Penn Central on 01 February 1968. The New York Central had very large yards west of Indianapolis at Avon. The coming of Conrail on 01 April 1976 led to even more scaling down of the Hawthorne Yards. The removal of the Panhandle main line led to the removal of the trackage from the east end of Hawthorne.

In a final bit of irony, Hawthorne Yards would became part of CSX in 1999. When the PRR was building Hawthorne, they also built an overpass for the Baltimore & Ohio over the trackage from the yard to THORN. In the Penn Central days, any excess property that could be dumped for money was sold. This led to selling any land wider than the right-of-way for the feeder track from THORN. Due to this sale, direct connection from the old B&O (now part of CSX) to Hawthorne (again, part of CSX) is now impossible.

Hawthorne now acts as an interchange yard between Norfolk Southern (NS), CSX and the Indiana Railroad (INRD). Bridges over Sherman Drive and Emerson Avenue, built in 1916, still stand as a testament to the importance of the yards at the time. A Google Map image of the current area will show the remnants of the roundhouse and how many tracks have been removed from the once sprawling yards.

In September 1926, the Indiana State Highway Commission was deciding on whether or not to add roads to the state highway system. Part of the purpose of that system was to connect all of the seats of government of each county to one another. Each county seat should have, at minimum, two state roads. There was an 1820’s era state road connecting Richmond to New Castle (and, using the same program that created the road, Noblesville, Lebanon, and Crawfordsville). But in 1926, there was only OSR 13 (soon to be SR 3) to New Castle, and OSR 3 (soon to be US 40) and OSR 21 (soon to be US 27) to Richmond. According to the Richmond Item of 17 September 1926, the state wanted to change that. It would be up to Wayne County to make this idea a reality.

It was reported on the front page of the mentioned newspaper that the state asked Wayne County for the right of way of the Richmond-New Castle Pike, a road that had been a toll road until the 1890’s. The state requested that the Wayne County Commissioners guarantee a 60 foot right of way for the road. But John D. Williams, Director of the State Highway Commission, wasn’t entirely sure that the county would approve of the plan.

“The value of such a road as a line of the state highway system is based to a large extent, on the fact that it is a diagonal road which gives the shortest route between Cincinnati and Chicago, it was pointed out.”

The Henry County section of this road had already been guaranteed. The ISHC also added that Henry County had offered to deliver 500 yards of gravel per mile of the road. This would get the new, unnumbered, state road from the Henry-Wayne County Line to New Castle. The only condition that the ISHC placed on the offer is that the right of way be no more than $4,000. According to the state, relinquishing this right of way to the state would save Wayne County between $12,000 and $14,000 a year in maintenance.

One of the sticking points for the county is the fact that “the road in question has been the subject of an oil penetration treatment, applied to the gravel surface.” Wayne County, that summer, had spent, reportedly, $20,000 for this treatment. Due to this expenditure, some in the county government didn’t want to spend any more money on the road.

But one source mentioned that “it is understood, on authority of a member of the county council, that the commissioners asked for an appropriation of several thousand dollars in the budget recently for the purpose of widening bridges on the section of road now under consideration. This was done on the condition that the state highway commission probably would take over the road.”

The ISHC wanted to get the process started as soon as possible, as they were working on adding 900 miles of roads to the state highway system. They wanted the entire package available for consideration all at once. But Wayne County decided that a vote would be in the cards on Saturday (18 September 1926). The ISHC agreed to hold the matter that long, although they were very anxious to get started.

It is assumed that the vote was affirmative, since the now SR 38 did appear on official state highway issued for the Great Renumbering that would occur two weeks later. It is shown on that map (as shown above) as an authorized addition under construction. The extent of SR 38 would be this section for a few years. It wouldn’t be until 1931 that SR 38 made it to Pendleton. This section would complete the two state roads to New Castle that stood for years. Ultimately, SR 103 would be added to the city. SR 38, US 27 and US 40 would be the extent of the state road system in Richmond. That wouldn’t last long, however.

By 1929, SR 21 south of Richmond that connects to OH SR 224, and SR 11 east of the city (was part of the National Old Trails Road to Dayton) were added to the three. 1932 would see SR 21 extending northwest of the city, and SR 227 and SR 121 to the northeast of Richmond, added to the ISHC sphere of maintenance. US 35 would replace SR 11 and multiplex with SR 22 through Richmond. SR 21 south of Richmond would be renumbered SR 227.

Unfortunately, with the climate of Indiana, a common occurrence around the state is flooding. This is usually in the spring, since Indiana tends to get a long of rain on top of snow melt. But 1937 was an extremely bad year for flooding…but this time it was in January. The state suffered quite a bit from this flooding, and the Indiana State Highway Commission would take quite a lot of damage in the disaster.

The preliminary damage estimates to the state highway system, reported in the Mitchell Tribune of 28 January 1937, ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The flooding that month “have been the worst in the history of the state highway commission.” Also, the cost of emergency repairs “will place a severe strain upon the limited funds available for highway operations.”

Damage survey crews for the ISHC started combing the state to get a grasp on the what was needed to at least get the highway system minimally functional. The source article lists preliminary reports, but it “is impossible to determine the full extent of damage until a complete survey is made.” The list is shorter than what would ultimately be reported. Here is the list from that newspaper:

Bridges were damaged or washed out on: SR 1 near the Randolph-Wayne County line, at Hagerstown and Pennville; SR 29 near Shelbyville; SR 42 near Terre Haute; SR 46 near Bowling Green and south of Spencer; SR 47 west of Sheridan; and SR 257 near Pikesville.

Damage to high fill and pavement had occurred in many places: north of Bedford on SR 37; US 50 west of Brownstown; SR 54 west of Bloomfield; SR 46 south of Spencer; US 41 near Hazelton; and other points. It is reported that the US 50 damage alone “will amount to many thousand dollars when the full extent of the destruction caused by the flood waters is learned.”

While most of the damage was done around the Ohio, Wabash and White Rivers in southern and southwestern parts of the state, there were streams all over the state that overflowed their banks during the heavy rains encountered that January.

A week earlier, in the Columbus Republic of 22 January 1937, reports state roads in that area affected by the flood waters. SR 9 between Columbus and Shelbyville had been reopened that day, having been detoured due to high water at the Clifty bridge south of Hope. It had been reported that the bridge had been washed away, but that was not the case. At Rockford and south of Columbus, high water blocked traffic on US 31, with traffic rerouted through North Vernon. Between Nashville and Columbus, SR 46 was detoured through Edinburgh due to high water covering that road west of Columbus. Six inches of water on US 31 between Taylorsville and Columbus did not close that road to Indianapolis.

It was also reported that the Second Street bridge, carrying US 31 and SR 46 across the White River at Columbus, had been closed. Many people assumed that this was due to the bridge unsafe. The actual reason was the shear number of people creating traffic congestion as they decided to cross the bridge to see the flood waters in action.

More damage would be reported in the weeks to follow. In addition to all of the non-highway damage, this would be the most expensive natural disaster in the state to that point.

A common misconception about both street car companies and electric traction (interurban) companies is that they had free reign to build whatever routes those companies felt was necessary to accomplish the task. This could not be further from the truth. Cities, especially Indianapolis with its extensive network of street car and interurban routes, decided fairly early that these companies should only build along approved routes.

Most cities and towns had franchise rights for street car and interurban access to that area. But Indianapolis had a large collection of both kinds of trackage…and a lot of maintenance that came with them.

In Indianapolis, the large collection of street car lines didn’t happen all at once. Nor did it all occur under the auspices of the same company. The first franchise in the city was issued to the Citizens Street Rail Road Company of Indianapolis in 1864. Mule cars were authorized by the city to operate from a barn on Louisiana Street to Military Park. This line used Louisiana, Illinois, Washington and West Streets. This was specifically laid out in the authorization to build. Two other lines, branching from this line, were authorized along Illinois Street to North Street, and from Illinois and Washington Streets to Virginia Avenue then southeast to Prospect Street.

The main purpose of these franchise rights was to lease the streets, or at least part of them, to the street car company for maintenance. The street car companies were privately owned entities, not public transportation by any means. Each line had to be negotiated with the city before it was put into place. This created a sprawling network of tracks through many streets in the city. As the lines were electrified, this created even more infrastructure that used more city property requiring even more maintenance by both the street car company and the city.

When the electric traction companies started to be formed, those companies could build toward the city, but were not allowed to enter Indianapolis proper without gaining franchise rights to operate. The first interurban to Indianapolis, which started operations in 1900, was actually only built to the Indianapolis Street Railways turntable just south of Troy Avenue on Shelby Street. The company then had to negotiate rights with both the street car company and the city to allow connections to downtown. The money spent by the interurban company to both entities would benefit those same entities.

This need for franchise rights was brought up in the Indianapolis News of 02 July 1901. The Union Traction Company, an electric railroad connecting Indianapolis to Anderson, found itself in an interesting situation. Because franchise rights in Indianapolis were still in question, Union Traction decided that the company would stop running cars inside the city. The Indianapolis Street Railway would, starting the next day, start running hourly trains along the College line to allow Union Traction passengers to transfer at 38th Street to interurban cars.

Mr. McCulloch, General Manager of the Union Traction Company, stated, in reference to this new arrangement, “I don’t believe it is right, and I don’t feel justified in assuming to operate our regular interurban equipment over the streets of the city of Indianapolis without permission and authority to do so. The present service was installed as a temporary makeshift, and when it ceases to be possible there is nothing further for our company to do but to await the pleasure of the city authorities.”

It is reported that part of this situation was necessary because the Indianapolis Street Railways had loaned four large street cars to Union Traction for use between Indianapolis and Anderson. Those cars were used while the line between the two cities was being ballasted for safe operation. Also, the Union needed eight cars to operate the line, to maintain service with at least five cars along the line. Four of those cars belonged to each company.

The Union Traction would also, due to the truncation of service, have to drop their fares collected for each trip. The fares, to that point, were 65 cents from Muncie and 35 cents from Anderson. This included a five cent fare that was collected to be given to the Indianapolis Street Railways for the portion traveled on those tracks. That five cents would have to be removed from the Union fare, because it was included for service “to the center of the business district of this (Indianapolis) city.”

Also at stake with this arrangement came the realization that passengers using the Union from the Indiana State Fairgrounds to downtown for the same five cent fair. The Fairgrounds was served by both the street railways and Union Traction. And both carried passengers to downtown for the five cent fare. With the new arrangement, with Union Traction transferring passengers at the end of the line, that five cent fare only got passengers less than half a mile before having to pay another five cents to Indianapolis Street Railways to get downtown.

Reported in the Indianapolis News of 06 August 1902, franchise rights for all of the traction companies were all renegotiated. This came with the lease of Indianapolis Street Railways by the Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Company, making the interurban station owner of the street car company, later that year. As part of the new franchise rights requirements, “all cars must stop at street intersections to take on or let off passengers, on signal from the passenger; but freight, express or baggage, other than hand baggage, must not be loaded or discharged in the street.” Also, interurban cars must, to the best of their ability, use a track loop in the city installed on New York, West, East and South Streets. The traction companies could change their routes in the city, as long as it was approved by the Board of Works.

Union Traction, in this new deal, found itself with a bad deal. “Each company, with the exception of the Union Traction Company, binds itself to pay 1 cent for each round trip made by any of its cars during the life of the franchise, and the city can not charge more.” Union Traction, however, paid “five cents for each round trip during the first seven years, fifteen cents a round trip for the next ten years, and twenty-five cents a round trip during the remainder of the life of the franchise.” This had been agreed to by the Union Traction after the above mentioned suspension of service was resolved.

The mentioned lines, with the routes allowed, are as follows:

The Indianapolis Northern. This line would become the Indiana Union Traction Company, different than the Union Traction Company of Indiana. But these two lines would ultimately become one company. This line used the same route as the Union Traction: College Avenue; Massachusetts Avenue; Pennsylvania Street; Washington Street; Meridian Street; Georgia Street and Illinois Street.

Indianapolis, Lebanon & Frankfort. Northwestern Avenue, 21st Street, Senate Avenue, Indiana Avenue, Illinois Street, and Maryland Street.

Indianapolis & Martinsville. Kentucky Avenue, Morris Street, West Street, and Kentucky Avenue.

Indianapolis & Plainfield “received permission to use Oliver, River and Kentucky Avenues to get to Kentucky Avenue and Illinois Street, from the Union Stockyards. This company is also granted the right to lay it own it own tracks across Belmont avenue and the streets and alleys crossing its right-of-way between Belmont and the Union railway or Belt tracks, where it will connect with the Indianapolis street railway company’s stock yard line tracks.”

Shelbyville & Southeastern. Prospect Street, Virginia Avenue, Washington Street, Meridian Street, Georgia Street and Illinois Street.

Indianapolis & Eastern. East Washington Street from Irvington to Illinois Street.

Greenfield & Franklin Line. Shelby Street to Virginia Avenue.

Part of the 1902 franchise rights contract allowed for the purchase any or all of these companies by the City of Indianapolis. While this contract was set to expire on 7 April 1933, it wasn’t until 1957 when the city would exercise this right, buying the bus lines that replaced the street railways. This created the public transportation entity now known as IndyGo.

Anyone traveling up Interstate 69 towards Muncie can tell you about exit 234. This exit connects the “almost” interstate (a name I have given it since it almost reaches Indianapolis, Anderson, Muncie, Marion and Fort Wayne!) back to Anderson and to Muncie. This happens because the exit dumps users off onto both SR 32 and SR 67, both of which (used to) reach both cities. SR 67 had been bypassed along I-69 for years. But, also, SR 67 now bypasses to the east of Muncie. It wasn’t always that way. But, it almost was built in different direction in 1935.

Until the time that it was decided to build that original bypass of Muncie, both SR 32 and SR 67 shared the same roadway between Anderson and Muncie. This was one of the longest multiplexes in the state (a longer one was US 50/US 150 in southern Indiana). SR 32 connected, and still does, Muncie to western central Indiana at Crawfordsville and beyond, bypassing Indianapolis. SR 67 connected to Indianapolis, via Anderson, and then to points southwest on its way to Vincennes. Both roads were heavily used, but SR 67 more so.

The Muncie Evening Press of 02 August 1935 reported that “there was a definate possibility that the proposed by-pass of State Road 67 around Muncie will not be constructed.” Again, at that time, there was only one state road, with two numbers, entering Muncie from the west. The original plan was have SR 67 leave the multiplex of SR 32 near Elm Grove Cemetery (along what is now Kilgore Avenue near Delaware County Road 325W), run north to Andersonville, then east along the Muncie corporation line to the then current SR 67. While many supported this plan, just as many didn’t. Those against the plan believed that this would suck business out of the city of Muncie.

One of the other things brought up when the bypass plan was being floated that SR 67 had 50% more traffic west of Muncie than it did east of the city. To those that opposed the plan, this meant that most traffic originated or ended in Muncie, making the east end of the bypass both expensive and unnecessary. It would be assumed that the state saw the same thing when they ran the numbers.

Somewhere along the way, it was decided that SR 67 would be moved south of the railroad tracks of the Big Four Bee Line/Nickle Plate, connecting to Anderson (along a new SR 232) there as opposed to north of the tracks as it did at the time. SR 67 would separate from SR 9 south of Anderson at 53rd Street, then turn north on Rangeline Road. It would then run along Union Township Pike. SR 32/67 used what is now Mounds Road from Anderson, crossing what is now the Anderson Municipal Airport. This new road, completely new construction, would cost in upwards of $1 million at that time.

Near what is now Madison County Road 1000W, the new SR 67 would aim due east, in a straight line with where SR 32 is now west of the railroad tracks. This ran the new state road construction through Daleville, where the Interstate 69 exit is now. It ran due east until it encountered Honey Creek Road. Here, the road would turn northeast, gently curving again to the east on what is now Fuson Road. Again it would gently curve north onto Madison Street. This is important. The plan was, with the new SR 67 road, that SR 3, SR 21 and SR 32 would be rerouted to use Madison Street, as well. Of the roads that were included, only SR 21 would be moved to Madison Street. Although, by the time this was completed, SR 21 had also become part of US 35 through the state of Indiana.

It was reported in the mentioned newspaper that the “change in plans not only is a possibility, but a ‘definite probability’.” This was stated by an unnamed city official. The state decided that with the building of this new road, Madison Street would be widened and repaved to handle the increased amount of traffic. “Obtaining the right-of-way for this widening is thought to be one of the greatest obstacles.” It was then up to the state and federal highway officials whether the cost was worth it or not. The plan also included an underpass of the railroad tracks, allowing better traffic flow into the city.

SR 67 left Anderson proper around 1966, having been rerouted along the new Interstate 67 from south of Pendleton to Daleville. Ultimately, a bypass of Muncie was built. Not along the original 1935 plans, but continuing east from the then current SR 67 to the east of the city of Muncie. It started in the early-1970s as a US 35 bypass. SR 67 and SR 3 still continued their way into the city. SR 67 would, by 1974, be continued along what had been US 35 from Madison Street to the new US 35 bypass, rerouting both SR 67 and SR 3 to that new bypass.

In 1900, the first interurban route in the state was completed and started running trains. Incorporated in 1894, the Indianapolis, Greenwood and Franklin (IG&F) Railroad Company was created by Grafton Johnson, John A. Polk, J. T. Polk (all of Greenwood) “and others.” Not much work was done on the route in the beginning, since money to finish the route had been hard to come by. By 1912, this line would become part of the syndicate owned by Samuel Insull, ultimately owner of a collection of electric utility companies and basically every interurban route leaving the city of Indianapolis.

As the IG&F was starting, the town of Greenwood voted on and approved a $34,000 subsidy to the creators of the company. The company started working on building the route to Indianapolis. The grading and nearly all of the bridges were completed before the company ran out of money, and nothing was done for two years to complete the line.

The next step in the company came when Joseph I. Irwin and William G. Irwin purchased the interests of the IG&F. These two men had been owners of the National Tin Plate Company, located in both Anderson, Indiana, and Monessen, Pennsylvania. They sold that company to the United States Steel Corporation, giving them money to invest. William Irwin traveled to Ohio to look at the new form of transportation then being created there, He came back to Indianapolis enthusiastic about the potential of electric traction lines. Their investing in the IG&F got the “Greenwood” line finished to a point where trains could start running on 1 January 1900. This completion had been completed after the construction restarted in July 1899.

Eighteen months later, on 6 June 1901, the line opened traffic to Franklin. Just over a year later, in September 1902, construction began extending the line further south to Columbus. At that point, the name of the line was change to Indianapolis, Columbus & Southern (IC&S) Traction Company. It took a year to complete this section, put into operation on 20 September 1903. Further extension allowed the first train along the line to arrive in Seymour on 25 October 1907.

A traction company, started at Louisville, Kentucky, called the Indianapolis & Louisville (I&L) Traction Company had connected to Seymour, starting operation on 1 May 1908, and limited service between Indianapolis and Louisville was commenced. This allowed the IC&S to become very successful, mainly due to a) the through service and b) the large population that was accessible by the line.

Fast forward to 5 September 1912. A company, called Interstate Public Service Company (IPSCo), was incorporated to control interests of Samuel Insull. Mr. Insull, at the time, was the President of the Commonwealth-Edison Company of Chicago. This company was a controlling factor in all public utilities using electricity in Chicago and northern Illinois. His interests also included being President of the Louisville & Northern Railway and Lighting Company, which controlled all public utilities in Jeffersonville and New Albany, and ran a traction line between Sellersburg and Louisville. The new lease would give Insull control of all traction lines, with the exception of the section between Seymour and Sellersburg, between Indianapolis and Louisville.

The new lease to IPSCo not only included the IC&S traction line, it also allowed IPSCo to take control of the electric plants owned by the Central Indiana Lighting Company. Central Indiana owned the street railway of Columbus, Indiana, heating gas works and electric light plants at Bloomington, and a public electric utility at Lebanon. In addition, electric plants at Greenwood, Franklin and Seymour were included in the lease.

Terms of the lease, which was taken out for 999 years, put the valuation of the IC&S at $3 million. Capital stock issued was doubled from $920 thousand to $1.8 million. The lease paid $92,000 a year, five percent on the new capital stock, in addition to corporation taxes, income tax, all other taxes and any future tax levied for the duration of the lease. No personnel changes were to occur, either in management or in operations, with the consummation of the lease.

According to the Indianapolis News of 5 September 1912, in addition to the then current profitability of the line, the other contributing factor making it interesting to the Insull syndicate was the safety of the line. Between starting of operation on 1 January 1900 and 5 September 1912, 13.75 million people had been carried on the IC&S. Of those 13.75 million, not one person had been killed or seriously injured. “This record, the management of the road believes, it due to the men who operate the cars; to their loyalty, carefulness and obedience to orders.”

On the same day the lease was announced, it was also reported that IPSCo was issuing $3 million of capital stock, $2 million in common stock and the rest in preferred. IPSCo’s official purpose was “to finance and operate in Indiana and elsewhere street and interurban railroads, electric light and power plants and other similar public utilities.” All of the directors of the company, at that time, lived in Chicago.

It was also decided, on that date, that the company would officially be changed, under Indiana law, to a street and interurban railway and utility company. Up to this point, the IC&S had been officially operating under the general railroad laws of the state of Indiana. There were, apparently, benefits this switch.

Interstate Public Service would continue in operation until 1930, when more Insull interests were consolidated into what became the Indiana Railroad Company. That company was a consolidation of the traction lines owned by Midland Utilities. The Great Depression hit the traction companies very hard. Then the Federal Government ordered separation of traction companies and the electric utilities supplying them. This, ultimately, created the company Public Service Indiana, the electric utility that is now part of Duke Energy. In addition to being the first interurban line in the state, IPSCo ended up being that last to service Indianapolis. A crash along the line took out the last of the rolling stock of the railroad on 8 September 1941. I covered that in a blog called “The First and Last Interurban Out of Indianapolis.” Removal of the line began shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor plunging the United States into World War II.

As state roads were added to the Indiana State Highway Commission’s sphere of responsibility, the roads taken into the system were in place for many years. These old roads had been used by locals for a, sometimes, over a century. Such a road was the trail that led from Vincennes to Terre Haute. But as the ISHC grew, it was decided that some of these routes should be relocated for safety and distance reasons. Again, such a route was the trail that led from Vincennes to Terre Haute.

Accepted into the state highway system in 1920, original state road (OSR) 10 connected Evansville to near Chicago. OSR 10, north of Vincennes, used a very curved route on its way to Oaktown. By 1925, the ISHC started looking at moving this section of the road closer to the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. The Indianapolis Star of 09 March 1925 gave a small space to the prospect of a change in the route.

As shown in the image to the left, from the same issue of the Indianapolis Star mentioned above, the “established road” of OSR 10 was fairly curvy route through northern Knox County. Brick pavement was already in place for the first three miles out of Vincennes. The proposed new route would require the road change before the end of that brickwork.

Coming out of Vincennes, what is now Terre Haute Street, which has been removed in many section, and Old Terre Haute Road were originally part of OSR 10. It then turned north…but the route has been since removed with the building of the US 50 bypass. N. Old Highway 41/Camp Arthur Road was the original route. The new proposed route would turn north at what is now US 41/150. This lasts for .7 miles, where the replacement route becomes North Old 41. The current US 41/150 is a bypass of the original bypass. The current highway spends its time between the original OSR 10 and the replacement version of the same. The Camp Arthur Road version turns north on what is now SR 550, following that for .4 mile, where it turns onto Emison Mills Road. It stays on this road until it connects to North Old 41 after crossing the current US 41/150.

In this area, the original route was not replaced by this proposed change. More or less, actually. The road crosses over the railroad on an overpass now, but it was at grade originally. The old road can be seen on this 1875 map of Knox County. And the afterwards is available on this 1933 road map of Knox County.

For this week’s Bicycling Thursday, I will be covering the return trip from the journey that I posted on 26 September 2019 (“Bicycling the National Road West from Indianapolis“). This return to Indianapolis starts at Danville along what is now US 36, known in Marion County as Rockville Road.

The Indianapolis News of 11 April 1896 (source for this post) reports that “Danville is due west of Indianapolis; some say twenty and others twenty-two miles. To the wheelmen making their first trip over this route the latter distance would probably seem more accurate.”

The view of what the Rockville Turnpike actually was at the time is interesting. Today, if asked, one would automatically say that the extension of Washington Street is just that, Washington Street. But in the late 19th Century, due to its location along roughly the same line as Washington Street downtown, the Rockville Road was seen as this extension. (“The Rockville turnpike…is in reality a continuation of Washington street.”) The News muses that “the people of Danville seem to derive some little pride from this fact, for the rider asking his way back to the city will be told that by taking the street along the north side of the square you will run right into Washington street, and that the principal square in one town serves the same purpose in the other.”

Running due east from Danville, the first challenge for bicyclists is a long downhill grade. Along the way, the old road crossed a stream. It is noted that the view of the town, dotting the hills to the west, will cause some riders to look back at the wonderful view. On the east side of the stream, across the bridge, is “a country home, which is one of the most pleasing spots on the road.”

Two miles from Danville is a cross road, and a school. There is also an “excellent well.” In Hendricks County, the road is “not nearly so level as the National, however, and is now in excellent condition for riding.” Four miles east into the ride, a dirt road runs south to connect to the old road that connects Danville directly to Plainfield. Another dirt road south leaves the road one mile later. Here, a steep hill down begins. This hill will test most riders.

At the eight mile point east of Danville, the Rockville Pike runs parallel to the Big Four Railway (old Indianapolis & St. Louis). The old pike gently descends into a heavily timbered deep valley, while the railroad rides along a high embankment. From here, the Pike is undulating then climbs a long hill. This is ten miles east of Danville.

Starting at this point, the Rockville Road is “freshly graveled for about three miles.” That makes this new gravel stretch roughly from one mile west of the county line between Hendricks and Marion Counties to what is now Girls School Road. This would put the rider near the Sabine post office.

Within a mile, two roads cross the old road, the first connecting to the Wall Street Pike (now 21st Street), and the next connecting all of the east-west pikes (National Road, Rockville Road, Wall Street Pike and Crawfordsville Pike). The Rockville Road turns southeast at a point five miles from downtown Indianapolis. This turn is what is now Rockville Avenue. It crossed the Big Four railroad (at that time, at grade), and connected to the National Road at a point where Holt Road now crosses Washington Street.

It is noted that the county line is ten miles west of the city, and that with the exception of the section that is freshly graveled, the road is level and “is in about the best condition of any road in the county.”

The entire trip, including the National Road to Cartersburg, then to Danville and back on the Rockville Road is listed as roughly 45 miles. In terms of the day, this is a medium length trip, as quite a few riders would try to become part of the “Century Club,” which is riding 100 miles in a day.

The answer to this question would seem pretty straight forward. The river is the border between Kentucky and Indiana. Each side is half responsible for any state owned transportation facility across the mighty river. Right? Well, not really.

The actual answer stems back to prior to the creation of the Northwest Territory that would eventually create the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin (and part of Minnesota). Historically, the Virginia colony believed that, basically, everything west of the other twelve colonies belonged to them. For instance, what is now Indiana was originally considered part of Illinois County, Virginia. This belief would cause problems for all of the Northwest Territories and for the state of Pennsylvania. The part of Pennsylvania where my family comes from was contested between Virginia and Pennsylvania. To the point where Virginia sent a Lt. Colonel to the area of what is now Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties to assert their interests in the territory. That Lt. Colonel was George Washington.

The area around what is now Clarksville was originally put in place by the Commonwealth of Virginia as payment to Revolutionary War veterans, most famously George Rogers Clark.

When Kentucky County, Virginia, sought entrance into the Union, the border was located not at the mid point of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, but at the low water point opposite Kentucky’s territory. This would later be confirmed by the US Supreme Court when Indiana argued the point, and lost. This would create an area south of Evansville that belongs to Kentucky, but is north of the Ohio River, as shown in the below Google Map image. As an aside, for those wondering why the riverboat casinos in southern Indiana never left the pier, it had everything to do with this border. Those boats could hardly turn around before entering Kentucky…a state that, ironically, banned gambling (or, at least casino gambling…horse racing was not included in this ban).

Today, there are mutual agreements when it comes to paying for crossing the Ohio River. Most of the time, it is mostly an even split between Indiana and Kentucky when it comes to finances. Now, one most also include the Federal funding (usually around 80%) that goes into such projects. For instance, with the new Louisville crossings, one was paid for by Indiana, the other by Kentucky. This is in contrast to the fact that the state line is very close to the Indiana side of the river. Tolls collected on these new crossings go to a joint fund to maintain these new bridges. It doesn’t directly benefit either state…just the bridges.

Why does Indiana agree to paying for half a bridge that is only roughly 10% (or even less) in Indiana? It comes down to mutual benefit. Both sides of the river benefit to the building of a crossing. As such crossings become more and more expensive, the shared cost becomes a matter of necessity. So, the next time you cross the Ohio River, remember that you will be in Kentucky a lot sooner than you would think. The other states that border the rivers and Kentucky also deal with the same situation.

The other river border in Indiana, that of the Wabash between Indiana and Illinois, is less contentious. The state line runs down the center of the old channel of the Wabash. Due to the river moving over the years, it leads to some parts of each state on the wrong side of the current river.

One of the important things in studying the transportation history of an area is studying the history of an area. The history of Indianapolis, originally a planned city, is one of those areas that takes extra study. Why? Looking at a map of the city shows a pretty organized collection of streets in straight lines. But nothing could be further from the truth. Subdivisions in the city were added as if they were going to be separate suburban towns. The only constant in the additions were the survey lines, since that was how property was sold early in the history of the town, and later the city.

One of things that this haphazard layout planning caused was streets that were sometimes not continuous from one mile to the next. Especially those streets that weren’t along those survey lines. In the early 1920’s, with the amount of automobile traffic booming, it was becoming clear that there were places that would need expansion to accommodate that increasing number of cars and trucks.

Enter the Hoosier Motor Club (HMC). According to an article published in the Indianapolis Star on 31 December 1923, the HMC was making a recommendation to the city of Indianapolis about a collection of streets that should be expanded and straightened. The point was helped along by the (then) recent expansion of streets in Chicago. It was argued, most correctly, that the city of Chicago spent $10 million to expand streets in the 1920s that would have been much cheaper to complete had it be done a decade earlier.

The first two projects that the HMC had been working on, at that point, were two bridges in the city. One over the White River at Kentucky Avenue, and the other being Delaware Street over Fall Creek. The crossing of White River at that time had been a bridge roughly where Oliver Street is now. Kentucky Avenue ended, at that time, at this crossing point. After crossing the river, River Avenue was the “major” road connecting the river to points southwest through what was West Indianapolis. By 1931, the Kentucky Avenue bridge was put into place.

Attacking the HMC plan pictured above, let’s start with the New York Street arterial. As shown in the above 1931 map of the city, the line of New York Street, which today is a relatively straight line from downtown east, was anything but continuous. Again, this goes back to the way additions were made to the city. The street was a straight line from Keystone to Emerson Avenues at the time. (Survey lines are located at Keystone, Sherman and Emerson in this section.) It is also in a straight line from west of White River to Pogues Run. The HMC recommended that New York Street be reconstructed from Belmont Avenue to Emerson Avenue. While the route was straightened, relatively, from White River to Emerson Avenue, it would never reach, directly, Belmont Avenue.

Link: The Lafayette State Road In Downtown Indianapolis
Link: The Crawfordsville Pike, and Its Change in Marion County
Link: 1963: Indianapolis Traffic Changes That Weren’t
Link: Bicycling the Crawfordsville Pike

Speaking of Belmont Avenue, the HMC plan included widening that street from White River at the Crawfordsville Road/Lafayette Road/Emrichsville Bridge (what is now 16th Street, although the old bridge has been replaced by the Indiana State Highway Commission – as part of US 52 and US 136/SR 34 – within three decades of this plan) south to Raymond Street. While this street is mostly a two lane road to this day, it would be considered, into the 1960’s, to become part of the state highway system as SR 37.

Link: The Shelbyville State Road
Link: US 31 In Johnson and Marion Counties
Link: Bicycling the Madison Road

The expansion of Shelby Street on the south side would be one project that was accomplished early into the plan. One of the reasons from this had to do with the State Highway Commission. The “major” road through the area south of downtown was Madison Avenue. That street was, at the time of this map, a state route with the number SR 1. While the state didn’t have the power to maintain the road because it was in the city, the city was hesitant to expand that road because it carried a state route. Shelby Street was chosen to connect SR 1, later US 31, south of the city to the Michigan and National Roads one mile east of downtown. The less than arterial status of US 31 would continue until two points in history: 1) 1941 with the Greenwood/Southport bypass built starting at what is now East Street at Madison Avenue south to Smith Valley Road south of Greenwood, and 2) the 1958-1959 expansion and moving of Madison Avenue creating the Madison Avenue Expressway. The section from the new US 31 bypass southeast to Shelby Avenue would remain a two lane state highway, SR 431, until 1986, when it was expanded to five lanes before INDOT relinquished control of the road to the city.

Rural Street, so named due to the fact that, for the longest time, was outside the city limits and hence Rural, would be another recommended addition to the arterial program. The plan was to add to Rural Street from Brightwood north to 38th Street. At the time, and basically still in place today, Rural Street ended at the Big Four Railroad in Brightwood. There, a road to the northwest would connect to the survey line (Keystone Avenue) at 21st Street. With the construction of I-70 through the area, the road was moved to become Keystone Way connecting Keystone Avenue at 25th Street to Rural Street at I-70.

Link: Survey Lines and the Addressing Center of Marion County
Link: Survey Lines and County Roads

Two other streets that were part of the plan on the south side were Morris/Prospect Street and Raymond Street. The separation of Morris and Prospect Streets had more to do with survey correction lines than anything else. Every six miles, the survey would be “corrected” to conform with the system as a whole. Such a correction line was Shelby Street. Looking at any map of the city, one will notice that, most of the time, the streets on either side of that line don’t line up correctly. Raymond Street would be curved to make it one street on both sides of the correction. Morris Street would continue to Shelby Street, Prospect would start at that point going east. All three of these streets would be expanded to at least four lanes, creating roads crossing west to east across the south side.

The 10th Street corridor that was recommended would actually never be completed. After East Street/Central Avenue, 10th Street fell of the face of the map. The name is continued in fits and starts between Delaware Street and Central Avenue. The plan was for 10th Street to be connected between these two points, connecting the Lafayette/Crawfordsville Road (at Indiana Avenue) east to the border separating Center and Warren Townships (Emerson Avenue).

The 16th Street corridor would connect small streets to the arterial system recommended. For the longest time, 16th Street was incomplete between Indiana Avenue and Northwestern Avenue (now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street). This section would not be connected until much later, and in this case as part of the state highway system (again, US 52 and US 136/SR 34).

Link: White River on Indianapolis’ South Side, and its Effects
Link: Bicycling the Michigan Road

The last section I want to cover is the West Street/Northwestern Avenue corridor. The corridor started at Morris Street in the south. This was mainly due to the fact that West Street south of that was not yet built, since the White River got in the way. Going north, the idea would be to connect to 30th Street. At one point, the state road that would follow the Michigan Road northwest out of the city would actually end state responsibility at 30th Street, with the state road being routed across 30th to Meridian Street.

Looking at a map of the city today, it’s not hard to see that quite a bit of this arterial plan was put into place, even if it seemed accidental. There were some changes in the plan with the creation of the one way street program in the city (especially with New York Street being shadowed by Michigan Street from White River to Emerson Avenue and beyond). As an aside, Michigan Street is a half-survey line, being halfway between two survey lines (1/2 mile south of 10th Street, a survey line). Some of these streets still, to this day, see a lot of traffic, even with the creation and completion of the interstate system in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

In the early days of the state of Indiana, when state roads were being created, a road leading to the southeast from what was, at the time, the south edge of the town of Indianapolis would go on to be one of the most important roads in Indiana. The state road that was built would be used for the road to Louisville, Kentucky, via Franklin, Columbus, Seymour and New Albany. It would also take travelers to Mauckport on the Ohio River, again via Franklin. But its name came from its original destination: Madison.

Unlike most of the posts of this series up to this point, this “Bicycling Thursday” will start away from the downtown area. The reason for this is really quite simple…that’s how the Indianapolis News article about it did it. This was because the Madison Road was the way back to the city after chasing the Three Notch Road (covered last week) away from Indianapolis.

This trip starts, then, at Southport. Before tackling the road, the News reports that “the Pennsylvania railway runs through the town, and in case of a break-down which is beyond the skill of the village blacksmith, the unfortunate can return to the city by rail.” In 1896, the village of Southport did not venture far from those railroad tracks and/or Union Street (now Southport Road). Most of the residential area of the town was actually east of Market Street, that being one block east of Southport’s East Street (which is basically the alley on the south side of Southport Road across from Derbyshire Road).

Going back to the Madison Road, on the southeast corner of Union Street (aka Southport Free Gravel Road) is the Perry Township School #12…later to become Southport High School. From here, it is a seven mile journey back to the city. (In survey terms, Southport Road is seven miles from the Circle…so the trip along Madison Avenue [nee Road] is a bit longer than that.) The Madison Road runs parallel to the railroad tracks, traveling northwest towards Indianapolis. “It is one of the levelest roads in the county.” The west side of the road from Southport north is “heavy timber.”

If the seven mile trip “seems too short a ride for the ambitious wheelman, he can turn southeast on this road to Greenwood, but he would stand a chance of walking most of the way, as the road is badly cut up, and will not be in fit condition for a month or so.”

The first crossroad is one mile north of Southport. That road is now Edgewood Avenue (or, as it was called within three years of the News article source, Stop Eight Road). “To the east, it is graveled for some distance, but to the west it just now presents a sorry spectacle.” North from here, “for the next mile the Madison road is pretty badly cut up, and should be ridden with caution.” A half mile later, is “another unsatisfactory dirt road,” which is now Epler Avenue. “Half a mile further on the Madison road crosses another east-and-west road, which is much more encouraging. This road run into the Shelbyville Pike, a mile to the east, and will soon be fit for riding.” This road, as shown in the map from last week, is now called Thompson Road.

Heading more along the road, a “good bridge” crosses Like Creek (now where Madison Avenue crosses I-465). After that, the rider will pass District (Perry Township) School #4, which was one building south of Hanna Avenue (or where Hanna Avenue will be eventually). Hanna Avenue is named after the property owner listed on maps at the time. The lone house shown on this map snippet below on the east side of the old road is mentioned as “a big brick house well back from the pike and surrounded by a heavy grove of evergreen trees. There is also a big orchard just south of the house.”

A quarter mile north of this brick house, now known as the Hanna House, is another dirt road (Sumner Avenue) running east-west. A giant elm tree stands nearly in the middle of the road. Another half mile brings the rider to the line separating Center and Perry Townships (Troy Avenue), allowing the first view of the city. “The road from here to Pleasant run is monotonous. Before reaching the run the road has turned north and becomes a continuation of Madison avenue (now at Southern Avenue).” Fresh gravel, at the time of this article, had been placed along the road. A groove, it is reported, is being pushed down in the middle of the road to allow better riding.

After this point, the Belt Railway is crossed, and Madison Avenue (and the ride thereon) continues for another two miles through residential and business areas before reaching the downtown area. The trip down the Three Notch Road (from last week), the Southport Road, and the Madison Road creates a short, relatively flat 16 mile ride.

In the early days of the Indiana State Highway Commission, the agency would put out a detour bulletin to all the newspapers in the state. This bulletin would list all of the roads under construction that were the responsibility of the ISHC. But sometimes, the newspapers questioned the bulletin, and its accuracy. Today, I am going back to the Brazil Daily Times of 5 May 1923. Trust me, it’s not pretty.

“The Indiana Highway Commission which is supposed to be authority on condition of the state roads, is completely up in the air on the National road, and, if its weekly bulletins on other roads are as unreliable as on the National road, there is little use of newspapers publishing the bulletin.” Wow. Just, wow.

This comment stems from the fact that the bulletin reports that work has started on a number of gaps in the road between Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Well, sort of. The newspaper points out that all the gaps where work is being done is between Brazil and Indianapolis. The one section that claims to have work being done west of Brazil “at Glenn seems liable to remain a gap for some time to come as nothing is being done toward building this proposed viaduct.”

The one thing that caught the ire of the Brazil Daily Times in this particular issue is a detour from Harmony to Stilesville. The bulletin that week reports “detour to north four miles west of Stilesville, thence west to Greencastle, thence southwest over county road and back to National road at Manhattan. Road closed again at Reelsville.” The bulletin then states that east bound traffic turn, two miles east of Harmony, south two miles, then east 4,5 miles, then north three miles to come up at Reelsville. “West bound traffic detour south at Reelsville and follow the same route.”

The Daily Times takes exception to that, stating that by only going 9/10 mile south at the same point east of Harmony (which is the county line), coming through the curves and the bottoms of Walnut Creek, one could come back to the National Road at Pleasant Gardens. And, instead of going though Greencastle, one can simply follow the old road to Mount Meridian, detour north and east, and pop out at Stilesville again. It is pointed out that the last section of this newspaper recommended detour is only if the “section between Deer Creek and Mt. Meridian is open.” Half that section was already paved with brick, with the other half being given a concrete base for the brick paving to Mount Meridian.

Reelsville was a special case. I want to cover the National Road there, but don’t feel I can do it justice compared to Jim Grey’s blog post about the same subject. Let’s just say that the ISHC was trying to put the National Road back to close to its original route…one that hadn’t been used since a bridge washout in 1875.

But the Daily Times’ ire with the ISHC bulletins is best described by the last paragraph of the story. “The unreliability of the Highway commission reports is also shown in another instance earlier this spring when the bulletin reported that No. 9 road, between Brazil and Linton were under water near Clay City and advised traffic to detour by way of Veedersburg. It happens that Veedersburg is over 50 miles north of where the road was under water.”

Indiana was a big time player in the interurban era. In the early 20th century, one could go almost anywhere in the state using “electric traction.” A common misconception is that the interurbans were public transportation, much like the trolley street cars (and later buses). This is not entirely accurate. Interurbans, while using the same infrastructure inside towns, were more light rail competition to the steam railroads. While I have covered the electric traction out of Indianapolis, it’s time to cover an interurban railroad that had managed to survive the Great Depression…and still does today.

The Chicago & Indiana Air Line (C&IAL) Railway was founded in 1901 as basically a street car line from Indiana Harbor to Chicago. It was moved over to become an electric traction company in 1904 when it was reorganized as the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend (CSS) Railway. The route was extended to Michigan City. By 1908, the line was completed from Michigan City to South Bend. As with other interurban railroads, the route started as a passenger line, with traffic between the endpoints starting in 1909. Freight traffic didn’t start until 1916.

And, as with other interurban lines, the CSS fell on hard times. In the case of the CSS, it fell into the hands of Samuel Insull, of Midland Utilities, in 1925. This was also the time when the Railway became the Railroad. The purchase made the “South Shore” one of the first routes that fell into the Insull empire that would ultimately created the Indiana Railroad (1930) around Indianapolis. And, like the rest of the Insull properties, bankruptcies weren’t over for the CSS. The company went through two more, one in 1933 and the other in 1938.

While the railroad did fairly well during World War II, after that conflict things started a decline. It survived, but barely, until 1967. That year, the CSS was purchased by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. The C&O maintained both freight and passenger service along the route. But it would work to shed itself of the passenger service in the 1970’s. This led to the creation of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) to first subsidize, then directly own, passenger service in 1977. Passenger service became the responsibility of NICTD when the CSS went bankrupt again in 1989. On December 29 of that year, passenger service was moved over to NICTD.

Changes on the line were also occurring with all of the passenger declines. Street running in East Chicago was removed in September 1956 by moving the CSS trackage to a location beside the Indiana Toll Road. In South Bend, service ended at South Bend’s airport when the street tracks were removed east of that point on 1 July 1970.

The CSS Freight side would go through one more owner before the current time. In 1984, a company called Venango River Corporation bought the CSS from the C&O. Unfortunately, Venango would not last too terribly long. 1989 saw Venango file for bankruptcy. 1990 saw the final change of ownership in this long lasting railroad company. The freight service became the property of the Anacostia & Pacific and the passenger assets were finally purchased by NICTD. In 1996, the CSS finally purchased a former Illinois Central line that it had been leasing since 1904…the Kensington & Eastern Railroad. The K&E actually allowed the CSS entry into Chicago.

The freight side today operates using diesel locomotives. It also operates two parts of the old Nickel Plate: the Indianapolis, LaPorte and Michigan City, and the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroads. The passenger side of the CSS, which is now simply called “South Shore Line,” with reporting marks of NICD, operates using 82 electric and non-powered rail cars. This makes the NICD one of the last interurban lines in the United States.

When railroads started migrating their way into Indianapolis, all the tracks were laid at grade level. In the 1850’s, this wasn’t a big problem. At that time, there were maybe a couple dozen trains per day. By the late 1860’s, there were thirteen routes out of the Hoosier capital and 200+ trains a day arriving at Union Station. Indianapolis had earned the name “Crossroads of America,” and it was basking in its glow. Unless you lived on the south side of the city. If you did, it was a dangerous waiting game, or a long out of the way trip to get home. Something had to be done.

And it was. Well, sort of. As was typical of the era, the railroad companies were very adamant about not spending a lot of money for little things like the ability of the citizens of Indianapolis to get to their homes. That was a city government concern, not theirs. Since the railroads did have a charter allowing for them rights to the property they were occupying, there was little that could be done. The only options left to the city were to tunnel under and bridge over the tracks. Both were tried…and were, well, barely workable is the word I am looking for.

It started with a tunnel under the railroad tracks. This tunnel was built at Illinois Street. One might question the logic of an Illinois Street tunnel. After all, it was not the major street through the city at the time. It was, however, the closest street to Union Station that wasn’t trying to dig completely through a swamp. At this point, it is important to remember the major reason Union Station was located where it is: Pogues Run. What was then the south end of the city was nothing more than a mosquito-ridden, malaria causing swamp that basically ran through the town, then south between Pennsylvania and Illinois Streets. Meridian Street, honestly, was an afterthought. That’s one of the reasons that it skews to the southwest to connect to itself.

The Illinois Street Tunnel, as it was called, was a steep inclined, narrow passage under the tracks when it was originally built. The purpose in the early days (the early 1870’s) was to allow passenger and carriage traffic to negotiate the tracks in a “safer” way. The tunnel was dark, dingy, and could be dangerous. It really got more so with the coming of the street car. By 1887, contracts were being let to make the Illinois Street Tunnel wider, deeper, brighter and not as steep to enter. This made it so that street cars could actually use the tunnel without getting stuck or losing control on the steep hill.

The first bridge over the tracks was placed at Delaware Street. This was not very popular. First, the bridge was, apparently, not well built. Second, the rumbling of trains beneath the bridge, with the smoke and steam coming from below. The bridge would be completed in May 1873, but there were already bets in August 1872 that five out of every six person would rather take their chances with trying to cross the tracks at grade level. By March 1878, a man named Peter Ivory was paid $494 to tear the bridge down.

But that would not deter the city of Indianapolis. In 1892, another attempt at crossing over the Indianapolis Union tracks was built…this time at Virginia Avenue. While it did last longer than the first attempt, it wasn’t without its detractors and disasters. Again, the “Viaduct,” as it was called, would be built on the cheap. People local to the bridge would be out of luck when it came to access to their property. And it would be the scene of one of the worst interurban crashes in the city in 1914. An Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction two car train lost control trying to climb the steep hill that accessed the Virginia Viaduct, smashing into a city street car. In the less than 30 years it existed, the Viaduct would have to be closed at least twice for emergency maintenance. It was becoming unacceptable.

The City of Indianapolis had finally had enough. The city worked with the state to make a law that would allow the elevation of railroad tracks in different parts of the city. One of the biggest arguments, at that time, against elevation was simply the cost. There was more that just the tracks to consider in this evolution. Elevating the tracks would make using freight houses almost impossible. For instance, the Pennsylvania Railroad freight house was located between Pennsylvania and Delaware just south of South Street. It stretched south past Merrill Street. The other railroads also had their freight houses within sight of Union Station. Elevation of the tracks would require major work at these freight stations. It was not something that the railroad companies wanted to even consider. The costs and the disruptions were not worth it, especially with Indianapolis being a most vital link on the railroad system.

But in 1903, things started changing. It got really contentious during the legislative session of 1905, when the General Assembly was working on a bill to make track elevation a reality. The railroad companies broke out their big lobbyists to try to get this bill shot down. The biggest of those lobbyists went so far as to say that the people of Indianapolis didn’t WANT track elevation, and that the issue was just being pushed by local newspapers against the people’s wishes. Of course, the fact that the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade, and the Merchant’s Association, along with “other civic, commercial and public-spirited organizations,” were working to pass the bill had no bearing on that particular mouthpiece.

After the law passed, one would think that the first track elevated would have been around Union Station. It wasn’t. The first section completed was over Massachusetts Avenue near 10th Street. The picture below is from the Indianapolis News of 27 April 1918, almost a decade after the overpass was built. It shows the overpass from the north side, looking south. This bridge would be removed with the building of the interstate between 1972 and 1976.

The major elevation project in Indianapolis would take half a decade, starting in 1916. The time came to raise the Indianapolis Union tracks through the station. For those that don’t know, the tracks through Union Station were actually owned by the same company that owned the station itself. The companies that originally built the tracks gave them to the station’s operators. At the time of the start of elevation, the owners of Union Station, the Indianapolis Union Railway and the Indianapolis Belt Railway – all actually under one company umbrella, were really the Pennsylvania Company (a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 60%) and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (Big Four, 40%).

Elevation started from the White River, working its way to the east. The Illinois Street Tunnel would go away by 1919, partially turned into a freight tunnel beneath the replacement Illinois Street and the Union Station. That same year, the Virginia Viaduct would be the subject of discussions about when it would come down to allow the elevation to continue even more to the east. The track elevation east of Meridian Street was easier since, in 1914 and 1915, Pogues Run was buried from just north of New York Street to the White River. The elevation from White River to 1) Washington Street on the Monon, Big Four and Nickel Plate and 2) Shelby Street on the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio was completed in 1921.