Among other projects, the Indiana State Highway Commission, in an effort to make transportation on its highway even safer, had, very early on, decided that the numerous railroad crossings should be eliminated. Today, I would like to focus on 13 projects that were put in place in May 1937.

These projects, listed by ISHC Chairman Earl Crawford, included “six new overheads and underpasses will be built, a road will be relocated to eliminate three crossings and six more separations will be rebuilt.” These projects “were announced as the federal bureau of roads approved preliminary places. Federal funds allotted to the state will meet costs.”

The following projects, according to the Indianapolis News of 04 May 1937, “on which bids will be taken soon” are listed below.

Reconstruction of overhead on US 27 over the Baltimore & Ohio railroad southeast of Liberty in Union County. Some research is due on this project, as a quick look at a satellite photo of the area shows an old alignment of US 27 at that point.

SR 63, also over the B&O, at Hillside in Vermillion County.

Reconstruction of overhead on SR 2 over the Chicago & Erie railroad north of Hebron in Porter County.

Northeast of Gosport, on SR 67, construction of a bridge over the Monon in Owen County.

Bridge over the New York Central at Longnecker, in Dearborn County, on SR 46.

Another Dearborn County bridge over the New York Central on US 50 east of Greendale to be reconstructed.

South of Noblesville, in Hamilton County, on SR 13 (now old SR 37), reconstruction of underpass of Nickle Plate.

Construction of overhead over the Pennsylvania Railroad and relocated US 40 west of Dunreith. This is listed as “part of relocation of Road 40 from Knightstown to Dunreith eliminating present hazardous crossing at Dunreith.” This bridge was removed later, since the PRR, as part of Conrail, at this point was abandoned in the early 1980’s.

Construction of underpass in Lake County, southeast of Crown Point, under the Pennsylvania Railroad on SR 55. This is listed as “part of extension of Road (SR) 55 south of Road (US) 152.”

Construction of overhead on SR 64 over the Southern Railroad at Milltown in Crawford County.

Reconstruction of the SR 13 bridge over the Chicago & Erie railroad south of North Manchester in Wabash County.

Reconstruction of the bridge over the Chesapeake & Ohio south of Richmond, in Wayne County, on SR 21. The number of SR 21 would be completely removed from Indiana eventually. This section of SR 21 became SR 227.

Relocation of SR 60 at Pekin, in Washington County, “eliminating three grade crossings over Monon railroad.”

For the past several Saturdays, I have been reposting here a series that I did daily on the Facebook Indiana Transportation History group daily in March and April of 2018, the “Road Trip 1926.” That series only includes the roads that were added to the system on 01 October 1926. But the Indiana State Highway Commission had also planned other routes to be added to the system. These were “authorized additions.” These roads would fill in the numbers that some readers will notice are missing. It also allowed for connections of the same roads. It would also allow for the completion of US routes across Indiana. This list only includes those roads that were authorized in 1926. Many more roads would come (and go) later.

SR 1: A note of correction from the already published Road Trip 1926 entry on SR 1. The first several maps of SR 1 on that page, from Elrod to Batesville are actually an authorized addition. That authorized addition continued from Batesville to US 52 at Metamora. From there the road continued, as shown in the original post, from Brookville to Cambridge City, via Connersville and Milton.

SR 2: SR 2 covered the territory of much the original Lincoln Highway from Valparaiso, through Westville, and LaPorte to meet US 20 at Rolling Prairie (the current SR 2 from that point to South Bend was US 20 originally). It then picked back up in Elkhart, connecting Goshen, Ligonier, Merriam, and Churubusco to Fort Wayne. Again, this was the original Lincoln Highway. On the west, from Valparaiso, the road connected Hebron and Lowell, to end at US 41 west of Lowell. The authorized addition left US 41 from Belshaw, traveling southwest to the Illinois-Indiana State Line.

SR 6: Authorized addition was planned from Munster, through Griffith, Westville, Lapaz, and Nappanee to connect to the SR 6 that started south of Ligonier. SR 6 then connected to Kendallville, Waterloo and Butler to the Indiana-Ohio State Line. The whole route would later become US 6.

SR 16: There was no SR 16 as laid out in the original plan. The western section of the road connected the Illinois-Indiana State Line northwest of Enos, through Winamac to meet with US 31 at Rochester. The eastern section connected US 24 at Huntington almost due east through Decatur to the Indiana-Ohio State Line.

SR 19: A Nappanee to Elkhart authorized addition, without any commissioned section.

SR 21: A coming road that connects Marion to Peru through Sweetser, Converse, Amboy and Santa Fe.

SR 22: The authorized addition started at the Illinois-Indiana State Line at Ambia to end at Boswell and US 41. This connected to the in place road that connected to Oxford and ended at US 52 near Otterbein.

US 24: The section between New Haven, east of Fort Wayne, to the Indiana-Ohio State Line wasn’t added to the state highway system originally. The route connecting New Haven to Ohio SR 31 (US 24) was being determined when the Great Renumbering rook place.

SR 25: The entirety of this route is an authorized addition. Starting in Lafayette, the road is to connect to SR 29 (Historic Michigan Road) south of Logansport on the Carroll-Cass County Line via Delphi. From there, SR 25 was to follow the Historic Michigan Road from Logansport to Rochester. The last section took the road from Rochester to Warsaw.

SR 28: The original SR 28 was located in two different pieces. The first section was from US 31 west of Tipton, through Tipton to north of Alexandria. The other section started in Muncie, working its way east through Farmland and Winchester to Union City on the Indiana-Ohio State Line (where it became SR 29 in Ohio). The ISHC was authorized to add from the Illinois-Indiana west of Williamsport, through Williamsport, Attica, and Frankfort to connect to the then current SR 28 at US 31. Another authorized addition connected Alexandria to SR 3 north of Muncie.

SR 34: Originally, this road only ran from the Illinois-Indiana State Line west of Covington, through Covington and Veedersburg to Crawfordsville. The state was already planning to continue the road from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis, taking over one of the routes of the original Dixie Highway.

SR 35: The southern section of this road was a coming addition, connecting the Palmyra to Vallonia road to Corydon.

US 36: Basically, US 36 started at SR 63 at Hillsdale, going east to Indianapolis. The road also started at the Illinois-Indiana State Line and worked its way west. So the ISHC was authorized to connect the two sections of this state, errr, US route. (US highways are actually state highways with the same number crossing a state line. That is covered here.)

SR 38: A new ISHC road connecting New Castle to Richmond, via Hagerstown, Green Fork and Chester.

SR 43: The defined SR 43 on the day of the Great Renumbering started at Spencer, working its way through Cloverdale, Greencastle, Crawfordsville, to Lafayette. From there, the plan was to continue the road through Chalmers, Reynolds, Monon, San Pierre, Lacrosse, Wanatah, Westville to end at Michigan City.

SR 44: The original path of SR 44 was a rather circuitous route from Connersville to Liberty, ending at US 27. Plans were already in place to expand the road from Connersville to Rushville.

SR 45: Starting at Rockport on the Ohio River, SR 45 traveled north, multiplexing with SR 62 near Gentryville, then through Dale, Huntingburg, Jasper ending at Haysville at SR 56. Two additions were authorized at the time: one, connecting Haysville to Loogootee on US 50/US 150; and two, from (authorized) SR 54 at Cincinnati northeasterly to Bloomington.

SR 46: The original SR 46 after the Great Renumbering consisted of two sections: one) the Bloomington-Nashville-Columbus road and two) connecting Greensburg via Batesville, Penntown, Sunman, Manchester to Lawrenceburg. The section from Columbus to Greensburg was authorized to be added to the state inventory.

SR 48: A future state road starting at US 50 in Aurora, ending at SR 46. This road is now SR 148, and the end is at SR 48, which was originally SR 46.

SR 49: The ISHC was going to add SR 49 from Valparaiso to US 12/20 north of Porter.

SR 54: The authorized additions to this state road outnumber, and out distance, the original designated part of the road. The first addition was to connect Merom, on the Wabash River, to US 41 south of Sullivan. At that point, the original designated road commenced. The original route connected to Dugger, Linton, Switz City and Bloomfield. From there, another authorized addition started, connecting to (what was to become) SR 45 at Cincinnati (IN), Springville and ending at SR 37 at Oolitic.

SR 56: Originally commissioned from US 41 at Princeton, through Oakland City, Winslow, Jasper, Haysville, French Lick, West Baden, to SR 37 and US 150 at Paoli. It also connected Scottsburg to Blocher, Madison, Vevay, Rising Sun to US 50 at Aurora. With authorized additions, the completed SR 56 would connect the Wabash River opposite Mount Carmel, Illinois, to Princeton, and from Paoli through Salem to Scottsburg. This would make the total SR 56 span the entire state.

SR 58: A new road running along the Ohio River from SR 56 in Vevay to SR 56 near Rising Sun. Later, SR 58 would be located some place else, with this route becoming a daughter of SR 56, SR 156.

SR 59: This road started at SR 54 northwest of Linton, traveling north through Clay City to Brazil. The ISHC was authorized to add from Brazil to Rockville, where it would connect to the northern section of SR 59.

SR 61: Another short state road with more authorized addition miles than commissioned miles. The route connect SR 56, south of Winslow, to Petersburg and SR 57. The ISHC was adding, at the time, sections from SR 56 south to Boonville, and from Petersburg to Vincennes.

SR 62: This state route started in Mount Vernon, working its way across the state through Evansville, Boonville, Lincoln City, Leavenworth, Corydon, to New Albany. The ISHC was authorized to add from Mount Vernon west to the Wabash River to its inventory as SR 62.

SR 65: Connecting Mount Vernon to New Harmony, Poseyville, Cynthiana, ending at Owensville. The road was authorized to continue north to a junction with the authorized addition to SR 56 between Mount Carmel, Illinois, and Princeton.

SR 66: This road only appeared on the October 1926 map as an authorized addition, connecting US 41 at Evansville to SR 45 at Rockport.

SR 67: The ultimate goal for SR 67 was to connect Vincennes to a state road in Ohio aiming for, most probably, Cleveland. And it made it as far as Muncie. Authorized addition, in 1926, would bring the road from Muncie to Portland, then up US 27 to Bryant, then due east to the Indiana-Ohio State Line, where it connected to Ohio SR 32 west of Celina.

Early in the history of Indiana, what is now called Fall Creek was a very important landmark for many that came after. (The name Fall Creek comes from, according to some sources, an interpretation of the Native American name “Soo-sooc-pa-ha-loc,” or “Split Waters.” Other sources state that it comes from a Native American word meaning “makes a noisy place.”) Indianapolis, for instance, was platted to be one mile east of the mouth of Fall Creek at White River (Fall Creek’s mouth was originally just northwest of what would become the Washington Street crossing of the White River). But 28 miles upstream, where the stream acquired its name, became a meeting point for several early state roads. That location became the town of Pendleton.

The town of Pendleton was platted in 1830. It was named after its founder, Thomas Pendleton. The location of the town, in addition to the “Falls of Fall Creek,” was also the junction point of several major state roads. These roads were located to connect to a point near those Falls.

The first of these roads was identified in the “Laws of the State of Indiana, Passed and Published at the Thirteenth Session of the General Assembly,” from here on referenced as the 1829 Indiana Laws, in Chapter LXVIII. That act was “an act to locate a State Road from New Castle to Crawfordville.” This act was approved on 9 January 1829.

The act stated that “William Dickson of the county of Henry, Daniel Heaton of the county of Hamilton, and David Vance of the county of Montgomery, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and lay out a state road from New Castle in the county of Henry, thence the nearest and best route to Crawfordsville in Montgomery county, by way of the Falls of Fall Creek in Madison county, and Noblesville in Hamilton county.”

The commissioners were to meet in New Castle “on the first Monday of April next,” that being 6 April 1829. They were then charged with the task to “view, locate and mark said road.” After laying out the path of the road, they were to file their reports with the each of the counties where the road is to be located.

The section of this road from Noblesville west to Crawfordsville became part of SR 32 in 1926. The section from Noblesville to New Castle was an authorized addition to the state highway system in 1930. From New Castle to Pendleton was added as SR 38 in 1932, with the remaining road added in 1933.

Another law in the 1829 Indiana Laws, approved 23 January 1829, appeared as Chapter LXXXII. This was “an act to establish a State Road from Shelbyville, by way of Marion in the county of Shelby, Greenfield in the county of Hancock, to Andersontown in the county of Madison, and for other purposes.” Other purposes that affect this entry is a relocation of the state road that connected New Castle to Lafayette, which from five miles west of New Castle to Noblesville used the same route as the road mentioned above. West of Noblesville was covered by me earlier here.

Section two of this act states “that William Hawkins of Shelby county, Henry Watts of Hancock county, and Thomas Bell of Madison county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to mark and locate a state road, leading from Shelbyville to Marion in Shelby county, thence to Greenfield in Hancock county, thence to the falls of Fall Creek, thence to Andersontown in Madison county, from thence in a direction to Fort Wayne, until it intersects the state road leading from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne, in Allen county.”

This state road was mostly be accepted into the state highway system in 1926, at least from Greenfield to just south of Pendleton, and from just north of Pendleton to Anderson and further, as SR 9. Pendleton itself would be bypassed by the ISHC in their laying out of the new state road plan. (SR 9, and SR 67, bypasses Pendleton to the east, through Huntsville.) The Indianapolis-Fort Wayne state road mentioned connected to Noblesville (and is now Allisonville Road).

Later, in 1833, listed in the 1833 Laws of Indiana as Chapter CLXIV, Pendleton was mentioned again as a junction point of state roads. The act, approved 2 February 1833, was “an act to re-locate so much of the Knightstown State Road as lies between Pendleton in Madison county and Strawtown in Hamilton county.” The section from Knightstown to Pendleton, as with most early state roads, is hard to nail down most of the route. Leaving Pendleton to the north, part of it became SR 132 to Lapel. Again, however, from Lapel to Strawtown the original route gets hard to nail down.

Also mentioned in 1833, as part of Chapter CLXXIX (“an Act to locate a State Road from Andersontown in Madison county, to Logansport in Cass county”), section five states that the commissioners appointed for the road mentioned in the act “continue the location of said road from Andersontown in Madison county on the most direct and practible route, to the town of Huntsville in the county aforesaid, and from there the nearest and best way to a point where the Knightstown and Pendleton state road intersects the Newcastle (sic) and Crawfordsville state road.” This was an amendment to the original act, approved 2 February 1833. This amendment would be approved on 1 February 1834. This section would become part of SR 9 in 1926.

The one road to Pendleton that I, so far, can not find in any of my sources is the one that is still named for the purpose for which it was designed: Pendleton Pike. This was the Indianapolis-Pendleton state road. About half of the original route was incorporated into SR 67 in 1926, with US 36 following later. From Alfont to Pendleton, the original route ended up north of the railroad, known as the “Bee Line,” and is known as Reformatory Road, since it connects to the Indiana State Reformatory at Pendleton.

Now, Pendleton is still located along all of these original state roads. But the town itself has been completely removed from INDOT maintenance. SR 132 had been completely removed from INDOT inventory. SR 38 was moved to bypass the town using I-69 and SR 9/SR 67 through Huntsville.

A topic that I don’t cover very often is the history of air transport in Indiana. While looking for something else, I found some interesting stuff around the current Indianapolis International Airport. But, before it was Indianapolis International, before it was Weir Cook, it was Indianapolis Municipal Airport.

The year is 1928. Indianapolis is served by three airports at the time. Air travel was really beginning to catch on in the United States. At the time, airports were privately owned facilities. Capitol Airport, listed on West 30th Street, was bordered on the east by the Big Four Railway that runs along the east edge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was located north of 30th Street. The property on the west was bordered by a line drawn north from the middle of the Speedway property. Mars Hill Airport is now Stout Field, about two miles east of the current Indianapolis International Airport. Hoosier Airport was located between Tibbs and Kessler south of Lafayette Road. The City of Indianapolis decided to get into the airport ownership business. Investment got underway with a $693,000 bond issue by the City of Indianapolis in May 1929. The airport opened for business on 24 September 1931.

1938 saw the Municipal Airport expanded by the Federal Air Bureau of Commerce. With the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of the runways was to be expanded to 6 thousand feet long and 150 feet wide. This was part of a radio experimental unit at the airport. At the time, the airport covered 1,016 acres. (Source: Indianapolis Star, 17 October 1938, pp 3). The same report mentions the fact that, with the then current expansion, the total investment in Indianapolis Municipal Airport was listed at $4 million.

The 1938 investment by the Federal Government was to create the longest (at the time) runways in the United States. The goal was to make Indianapolis the center of aviation experimentation. This would also create a radio station for airport use with the call letters WIMA, standing for Indianapolis Municipal Airport. At the time of the article mentioned above, the northwest runway was being extended a total of 2000 feet, and would be available for use with the next two weeks. This would allow it to open before November 1938. The experimental unit would be considered a separate field, although it would connect to the rest of the airport using new runways. The new 6000 foot runway would go from southwest to northeast.

In 1939, there was a proposed idea to create a new road to the airport. The airport had already been accessible from US 40 along High School Road. The airport superintendent at the time, I. J. Dienhart, recommended that the right-of-way of the Terre Haute traction line be turned into a highway connecting the airport to downtown. The receiver of the traction line, after it filed for bankruptcy protection, was seeking to discontinue operation of the line. That would require the approval of the Public Service Commission to abandon the service completely. It was reported that should it be approved, the right of way would be donated to the Board of Works and Sanitation for the City of Indianapolis. Construction would be, hopefully, be assisted by the WPA. (Source: Indianapolis Star, 17 May 1939, pp 8)

The traction line idea fell through. However, the State of Indiana decided to create a new state road to connect the airport to US 40/Washington Street. That new road would be called SR 100. I covered the history of SR 100 here.

Another change to the airport was started in late 1943, but this time it was the name of the facility. Colonel Harvey Weir Cook, a World War I ace from Indiana, was killed in action in the South Pacific theater of World War II. He was killed when his P-39 fighter failed to come out of a spin on 21 March 1943. According to the Indianapolis News of 20 December 1943, the Indianapolis Board of Public Works and Sanitation “deem it appropriate that the memory of Colonel Harvey Weir Cook be honored by renaming the Indianapolis municipal airport as Weir Cook Airport.” It was resolved that it be “fitting dedication ceremonies be held at Weir Cook Airport on Tuesday, March 21, 1944.” The Board of Public Works and Sanitation voted unanimously that this honor be bestowed upon Colonel Cook.

Fast forward to the early 1950s. Indianapolis Municipal Airport, by this time also called Weir Cook Municipal Airport, was feeling its age. And its crowding. Stout Field, practically in the flight path to Weir Cook, was being considered for phasing out of its use by the Indiana Air National Guard (IANG). In 1953, the IANG was considering moving from Stout Field to Weir Cook. This did not go over very well. From the Indianapolis Star, 20 January 1954, Louis Schwitzer (Chairman of the Board of the Schwitzer-Cummings Company) paid for a half page ad discussing the possibility of moving the IANG to the Indianapolis Airport. “About twenty years ago when Weir Cook was not a busy airport, in fact had barely traffic at all, the National Guard did not want to use that field, but insisted on operating their squadron from its own field, so not to be interfered with. They built and equipped at the taxpayers’ expense Stout Field. Therefore, it would be assumed it would be more essential today for the Guard to operate from its own field in view of the heavy traffic on Weir Cook field, which increases every day.” He further states “the Aviation Board and the Mayor, as well as the Council, ought to be congratulated on putting up a fight to save Weir Cook airport as a commercial traffic center for the citizens and business of Indianapolis, and I hope that the board will win out.”

Another problem at the time was the shortness of the runways. 6000 feet, which at the time there were two runways of that length, weren’t long enough for safely landing the new jet aircraft. A runways of 8000 feet were recommended for the airport to increase the safety of takeoffs and landings of these new aircraft. The plans called for the main runway, running southwest to northeast, to be expanded from 7300 to 8000 feet for this reason. The estimated cost of this expansion was $800,000. This after the $1.5 million expansion of the northwest to southeast runway to 6000 feet to be completed in 1962.

By the time of its 30th anniversary, the Weir Cook Municipal Airport boasted more than 850,000 passengers a year passing through the terminal.

By 1973, local officials were working on getting the U. S. Treasury Department to expand and upgrade customs facilities to allow for Weir Cook Municipal Airport to Weir Cook International Airport. Tom E. Blanchard, U.S. Customs port director at the airport, according to the Indianapolis News of 07 June 1973, warned that, while that could be a step up for Indianapolis, it may not be the panacea that local businesses might think it is. “If the airport is given the international status, warned Blanchard, ‘you would have to accept any flight of any international airlines, anytime, and in any volume.’ He speculated that Weir Cook could be swamped with airplanes and passengers it really didn’t want and wasn’t equipped to handle.”

On 23 July 1976, Weir Cook Airport was officially renamed Indianapolis International Airport. This, according to the Indianapolis Star of 27 July 1976, was “because it now is an international facility with a customs building, it was explained yesterday in response to queries.” It had been renamed the previous Friday from when the article was published (that being on a Tuesday).

Today, the only reference to Weir Cook is the road that leads to the new airport terminal. It is called “Colonel H. Weir Cook Memorial Drive.”

In 1865, a new railroad was proposed to serve the state of Indiana. The face of the project was Major General A. E. Burnside, an Army officer during the Civil War. The project was to start by connecting Indianapolis to Vincennes. But this was only part of the pitch. Ultimately, the goal was to connect Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico, with extensions to the line through Cairo, Illinois, and points further south. Unfortunately, that goal was never realized.

When the Indianapolis & Vincennes (I&V) began construction in 1867, it obtained financial help from the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette (IC&L) Railroad. That road offered that financing in return for a lease of the line. This would have created a route that branched from Indianapolis in three directions under one company – Cincinnati, Chicago and Vincennes. This lease would not last long.

In 1868, two companies associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad would also had financial help, being added as guarantors of the line. This would help complete the line between Indianapolis and Vincennes in 1869. The Pennsylvania Railroad interests would take control of the line in 1871. This ended the proposed lease by the IC&L. This would come into play later.

Due to the limited scope of the railroad as planned, the I&V was constantly on the verge of failure. It wasn’t a very profitable property. But, with the exploitation of coal reserves near the line, the management decided to build a branch line from Bushrod to Dugger in 1884. This branch was completed in 1885. This helped a bit with the lines finances.

At Vincennes, the road would connect to several routes. What would become the Baltimore & Ohio line across Indiana from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, Missouri, was directly connected to the I&V. A line to the southwest, to St. Francisville, Illinois, would come to be owned by the Big Four. The other line, stretching from Evansville to Terre Haute would also traverse Vincennes. This would become part of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.

On 01 January 1905, the Pennsylvania Company, a holding company that maintained the properties of the Pennsylvania Lines West of Pittsburgh and Erie (PL), consolidated the I&V, the Terre Haute & Indianapolis, the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute, the Terre Haute & Logansport, and the Logansport & Toledo into one overarching company: the Vandalia Railroad Company. This would help the survival of what was the I&V, given the, again, constant financial dire straits of the railroad.

12 years later, on 01 January 1917, the PL consummated further consolidations with the combination of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway and the Vandalia to form the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (Panhandle). This made the I&V part of a system, under one corporate title, that connected the title cities, along with many other locations across Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This further helped hide the questionable financial health of the I&V.

The Panhandle would be affected by the late 1910s-early 1920s elevation of the railroads in downtown Indianapolis. Due to this elevation, the connection of the I&V to Indianapolis Union Station would become a potentially expensive undertaking, since the elevation would require a lot of work at the location where the I&V entered the Indianapolis Union Railway tracks west of the station. This would lead to the construction of the Eagle Creek Connector, a track leading between the I&V near Maywood to the Panhandle St. Louis mainline just north of what is now the I-70 interchange with Holt Road. The original line was relegated to a branch line from the Indianapolis Belt Railroad to downtown Indianapolis.

In 1958, all of the leases that became the Panhandle were assigned, by the Pennsylvania Railroad, to the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington, part of the PRR mainline between New York City and Washington, DC. This would have no effect on the lines involved, as it was just a lease reassignment.

The major change would occur on 01 February 1968 with the merger of two major rival railroads: the Pennsylvania and the New York Central. This would make the I&V a corporate sibling to the railroad that first offered to help build the line, the IC&L. The IC&L had become part of the Big Four (the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway) on 30 June 1889. The Big Four would be aligned, and later absorbed, by the New York Central.

The I&V would ultimately make into the Conrail days in 1976. After that, Conrail would abandon sections of the original line at both the Indianapolis and Vincennes. What is left of the I&V is now part of the Indiana Southern Railroad.

On of the last state roads owned by the Indiana State Highway Commission to be added to the Indianapolis area would cover what was created as the Indianapolis-Fort Wayne State Road in Marion and Hamilton Counties. This road, now known as Allisonville Road, became an authorized addition to the state system in 1930. The following year, the road was given a number: SR 13.

The history of the road goes back to the early days of the state. The original road started at North and Pennsylvania Streets, to this day called Fort Wayne Avenue. The road then followed what is now Central Avenue north from town. There were even articles in the newspaper that Central Avenue be renamed Fort Wayne Road in the late 19th, early 20th century. Eventually, the road branched from Fall Creek where Keystone Avenue now crossed the creek. The road then headed north-northeast towards Noblesville.

With the creation of the State Highway Commission, state roads were to connect every county seat. To connect Indianapolis to Noblesville, the route originally would require a traveler to use SR 32 west to US 31 at Westfield, then south to Indianapolis. The direct route, Allisonville Road, had been a toll pike, then a county road.

With the authorized addition of the route into the state highway system, the ISHC started working on upgrading the future highway. The original path of the new state road through Hamilton County took a circuitous route from Noblesville north to Strawtown. Part of this circuitous crossed White River twice. One of these crossings is in a park north of Noblesville, and known as Potter’s Bridge. The other crossing is at what is now 211th Street. That bridge is now gone, but its location can still be seen.

Out of Indianapolis, SR 13 started at the corner of Fall Creek Parkway and Meridian Street (US 31). SR 13 then followed Fall Creek Parkway to its intersection with Allisonville Road/Keystone Avenue. It then followed Allisonville Road out to Noblesville. The Fall Creek Parkway route would change, routing along 38th Street along with other state roads (SR 67 and US 36).

Some of you might be asking “SR 13?” Yes. This route would have this designation until 1940, when it was renumbered SR 37. SR 13 would be moved to where it is now, with it being extended to Greenfield.

This route of SR 37 was used until the SR 37 bypass through Castleton was built in 1957. Noblesville argued that the original SR 37 should be maintained, even though the bypass was built. The original was redesignated SR 37A. It would remain that way into the early 1980s.

On 29 January, 1830, a law passed the General Assembly creating a turnpike, or toll road, from the Ohio State line to a convenient point on the National Road. The law specified that said road would connect the “college township” along the state line through Liberty, Brownsville, and Milton to the National Road. The “college township” was known, for many years, was known as College Corners. It is now called Cottage Grove, located on what is now US 27 on the Indiana-Ohio State Line.

The commissioners for the road were designated as Robert Long, Aaron Stanton, Thomas Cully, Ira Grover, Thomas R. Chunn, and William Youse of Union County, and Jesse Willits, Asa M. Sherman and Samuel Pierce of Wayne County. This was listed in the section one of the law. This section also listed that the road would commence “at the north west corner of the college township, on the line between the states of Ohio and Indiana, thence via Liberty and Brownsville in Union county, Milton, in Wayne county, to some convenient point on the National Road.”

The new corporation would, according to section two, be able to sell subscriptions, or stock, for the price of $25 a share. The law went on to state about how the shareholders were to elect a board of directors, establish by-laws, and how elections were to be held. It was even stated that no shareholder could not vote in the elections unless said shareholder had paid 10% of the value of the stock.

Section 11 stated that, if found convenient, that the new company could use any state or county road to locate the road.

Ultimately, most of this turnpike would revert to county responsibility. The ISHC would, in the end, only take the sections from the state line to Liberty, and the section from Milton to the National Road, into the state highway system. From Milton north, it became part of the original route of SR 1 in October 1926.

Several laws passed by the 1829-1830 legislature in January 1830 involved what would become the first major north-south road in the state. The idea of the legislation was this: “An act to establish a state road from Lake Michigan, by way of Indianapolis, to some convenient point on the Ohio river.” That act created the Michigan Road, although with just a bit of vagueness in description.

The first section of the law mentions that the northern part of the Michigan Road was actually approved by the legislature on 24 January 1828. Section 1 approves the route surveyed by John I. Neely, Chester Elliott and John McDonald. That route was planned from the new town of Michigan City, on Lake Michigan, to Indianapolis. This section also mentions the treaty “made and concluded near the mouth of the Mississinewa upon the Wabash, in the state of Indiana, on the sixteenth day of October, 1828.” This was the treaty where the US Government, and the State of Indiana, purchased a 100 foot right-of-way through Potawatamie territory for the purpose of building a road. It is also mentioned in this section that 1) the approved survey is the second such done for the placement of the road and 2) on 2 March 1827, the road was extended from Indianapolis to Madison, via Greensburgh. (Before you ask, prior to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, and his spelling reforms, most “burg”s were spelled with an “h” on the end. The spelling reformed removed the “h” from all of these names, among other things. In some cases, the “h” was put back.)

The next section would spell out the commissioners of the road between Madison and Greensburg, and they are to examine the surveyed section of the road to see if they feel it needs to be changed in any way. This led to the old road connecting Bryantsburg and Napoleon directly, where the “modern” Michigan Road connects through Versailles. The commissioners chosen by law were from locations that had no vested interest in the Michigan Road (Wayne, Knox and Sullivan Counties, to be specific).

There are seven more sections for this act, which are shared below. The source for these images is the book “Laws of the State of Indiana,” available on Google Books.

The following chapter in said book reports a law that was approved 29 January 1830. It stated “that so much of said Michigan road as lies between the Wabash river, and the Ohio river, at the town of Madison, shall be, and the same is hereby directed to be cut and opened, one hundred feet wide, between the first day of August 1830, and the last day of November 1831.”

Indiana is crossed by many trails and roads that not only connect local areas to each other, but the state to the country as a whole. Many of them were famous in their day, the best known of these being the Michigan Road and the National Road. But one of the most important of the early trails in what would become Indiana predates the state, the territory, and even European settlement in the United States: the Buffalo Trace.

The Buffalo Trace stretched across Indiana from the Falls of the Ohio, opposite Louisville, to Vincennes. When French settlers migrated into what would become Indiana, they picked a location along the Wabash River where a hard packed trail entered from the east. That trail varied between 12 and 20 feet wide. But to say that this trail was man made is very wrong. The engineers that designed the path were actually buffalo.

While the destinations of this trace are Louisville and Vincennes in modern days, when the path started, it was the path of least resistance between grazing lands in Illinois to salt springs in Kentucky. According to the Indianapolis News of 03 October 1903, “wild buffalo were engineers by nature. In their migrations between two distant points they did not always seek the most direct route, but the route over which they could travel with the greatest ease.” As such, while not in a straight line between the two points, it was relatively level. Or at least as close to level as it can be in that area of the state.

Since the buffalo used the route so much, so did the Native Americans that would hunt these animals. As such, it had been used by people long before Europeans even knew of the “new world.” Several native settlements appeared along the trace. Hunting was good, apparently.

When the first Europeans came to that section of the state, a settlement was started by the French at a point on the Ouabache (Wabash) at the old trail. That settlement would come to be known as Vincennes. As the United States expanded to the west, settlers would use the Buffalo Trace as a major thoroughfare. When the first areas of what would become Indiana started coming into the hands of the US Government by treaty, it was specifically mentioned that the entirety of the Buffalo Trace would be given up by the Native Americans.

The first post road across Indiana would be set up along this route. The posting of soldiers along the road was necessary during the War of 1812, to protect residents of the Indiana Territory from both Native Americans and British spies that might be wandering around the area. Many taverns were established, and many fortunes won and lost. Towns sprung up to serve the large numbers of travelers that would use the Buffalo Trace to connect to the Illinois Trace that would take them to St. Louis, Missouri.

The Buffalo Trace would remain an important part of Indiana transportation even into the days of the Indiana State Highway Commission. Most of the original path became parts of the original State Roads 4 and 5. The section from Paoli to New Albany was also part of the Dixie Highway. Original State Road 42 covered the Dixie Highway section in 1920. With the Great Renumbering, most of the original Trace would become parts of US 50 and US 150. But not all of it.

In 1936, Governor Paul V. McNutt created the Buffalo Trace Commission, an organization that “established the exact course of the trace as far as was possible.” (Source: Indianapolis Star, 27 November 1940, pp 21) This helped lead to more of the original path added to the state highway system.

Today, the old Buffalo Trace has been bypassed in several sections in its travel across Indiana. But very few transportation facilities in Indiana as so little known, but so important to the State of Indiana.

Many early state roads in Indiana were built to connect, usually, one county seat to another. These early roads, as mentioned before, were authorized by laws passed in the state legislature and paid for by the state, but then became the responsibility of the county afterwards. The only exception to this, as far as state roads go, is the Michigan Road. Most of these roads were named for their destinations. Occasionally, they would also acquire another, more common, name. One such route was the Fort Wayne-Richmond State Road. It was known locally as the Quaker Trace.

What became the Quaker Trace was started in 1817, named after the religion of the people that volunteered to build a market road between the two official title cities. At the time, Wayne County extended to the point of the treaty line that came southwest out of Fort Recovery, Ohio. At the time, Wayne County included parts of Fayette, Union, Randolph and Jay Counties. (Historic side note: The current Wayne County is the second such named county in the Indiana Territory/State of Indiana. The first Wayne County covered most of the northern section of the Indiana Territory. That Wayne County would be removed from the Indiana Territory to become the new Michigan Territory. Yes, the first Wayne County in the one that contains Detroit.) The road was built by private parties then turned over to the county. Later, the state would pay to improve the road, then turned it back over to the county.

Unlike the future route of US 27, connecting Richmond and Fort Wayne, the Quaker Trace ran closer to the Indiana-Ohio State. Out of Richmond, it travelled north along what is now Arba Pike. It follows that rough line up to, and through Jay County. At the Jay County line, there was a town called Salem, also known as Jordan Post Office. The old road continued north from there to a point near New Corydon, where it crossed the Wabash River. In Adams County, CR 450E roughly follows the old trail. North of Adams CR 700S, Salem Road becomes the rough route to Decatur.

In the Richmond Weekly Palladium of 02 July 1836, references to the Quaker Trace were made in an advertisement for the sale of lots in the new county seat of Adams County, Decatur. The location of the new town is on “the state road from Fort Wayne to Richmond (commonly called the Quaker trace) passes directly through this place.” The ad also mentions that “the State road to Winchester also intersects the Quaker trace near this place.” The Winchester State Road would become, roughly, US 27 in the 20th Century.

Out of Fort Wayne, the Quaker Trace followed the old Wayne Trace south out of town. The Winchester State Road ran west of the St. Mary’s River, with the Quaker Trace being on the east side of the river.

When the state highway system was created, the old Quaker Trace was left out of the state system in favor of the route that is now US 27 between Richmond and Fort Wayne. Most of the old route was very rural, while the Winchester State Road connected the county seat towns of Richmond, Winchester, Portland, Decatur and Fort Wayne. This was more in line with the laws that created the State Highway Commission (connecting county seats). Today, only two small sections of the Quaker Trace is part of the state highway system: a section of US 27/US 33 from the town on Monmouth to the county road known as Minnich Road; and US 27 from downtown Richmond to Arba Pike.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All over Indiana, there are roads that at one time or another had been a state road. Most of these are from roads that were rerouted for safety or economic reasons. Some were just abandoned by the state. Rural Hancock County has two such roads. One, which I will cover at a later date, was the Greenfield-Noblesville Road, which had been SR 13 and SR 238 in its time. The other is a short stretch of road connecting US 40 to SR 234 through Willow Branch. That one was SR 209.

Hancock County Road 600E was the path for SR 209. The road started appearing on Indiana Official maps in 1941. I would have to assume that it was created to make an alternate route to driving through downtown Greenfield, and its tight turns at SR 9. Or, at least for northbound SR 9. As mentioned before, the road only connected from US 40 north to SR 234. SR 234 would connect to both SR 9 and SR 13, allowing westbound traffic on US 40 to go around Greenfield to get to Noblesville, Pendleton or Anderson.

SR 9’s daughter routes, both SR 109 and 209, were added to the state road system at the same time. The southern section of SR 109 eventually connected Knightstown to Anderson. On the 1941 map, this section only exists in Hancock and Henry Counties. At that time, the planned northward turn of SR 109 was due north of the route that SR 209 occupied ending at SR 234. SR 109 ended abruptly at the Hancock-Madison County line after adding Nashville (Hancock County) and Warrington to the connected state road system.

By 1942, SR 109 was rerouted and extended. Nashville (Hancock County) had been bypassed when the road was turned north at Warrington.

SR 209 was removed from the state highway system in 1973. It reverted to Hancock County maintenance at that time. SR 109 is still in place, although north of I-69, it has become the route of SR 9 through the east side of Anderson.