Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System
Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System | |
City Beautiful | |
NRHP reference No. | 03000149[1] |
---|---|
Added to NRHP | March 28, 2003 |
The Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System is a group of parks, parkways, and boulevards in
Components
The Park and Boulevard System consists of a number of components comprising 3,474 acres (1,406 ha) in an area roughly bounded by 38th Street and Emerson, Southern, and Tibbs Avenues with extensions on Fall Creek and Pleasant Run Parkways to Shadeland Avenue.
Twelve parks within these boundaries with a total area of more than 1,118 acres (452 ha) are individually listed properties of the district.
Several other parks are included as components of a parkway: Spades Park as part of Brookside Parkway;
Six parkways extending for 34.8 miles (56.0 km) and containing 2,153.5 acres (871.5 ha) link the various parks and major city streets. The parkways are Fall Creek (from I-465 to White River), White River (from 38th Street to the confluence of Pleasant Run), Brookside (from Brookside Park to Fletcher Park at Brookside Avenue and 12th Street), Pleasant Run (from Shadeland Avenue to White River), Ellenberger, and Burdsal. Two boulevards are also part of the system: Maple Road (now named 38th Street) from Fall Creek to White River, and Kessler Boulevard from 38th to 56th Street and from Cooper Road to Fall Creek Parkway.[8][2]
The district contains several stone and stone-clad decorative bridges over Fall Creek, White River, and other streams. Some of these carry major streets, such as the Capitol Avenue, Meridian Street, and Illinois Street bridges over Fall Creek, and the 30th Street bridge over White River. Others span smaller streams within the parks, such as the Crooked Creek bridge in Riverside Park and the filled spandrel concrete foot bridge in Brookside Park over Pogue's Run.[9]
The historic district includes 29 contributing sites, 20 contributing buildings, 109 contributing structures (other than buildings), and 7 other contributing objects.[10] Most of the contributing buildings are within the parks, but some, such as the Heslar Naval Armory located on the White River just north of Riverside Park, are not.
History
Background
In its first 40 years, Indianapolis did not see much need for organized park land because the pastures and other open areas in and near the still small town were easily accessible by the inhabitants. As the city gained population during and after the
The land that would become Brookside Park was purchased by the City Council in 1870, and in 1873 Southern Park, later renamed Garfield Park, was acquired. However, neither site was developed until the 1880s, when citizens working at times privately and at other times in conjunction with the city, began to make improvements.[11]
Early plans
In 1894 the Commercial Club, which later became the Chamber of Commerce, hired Joseph Earnshaw, a landscape architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop a park plan for the city. He recommended construction of a boulevard lined with parks running along the White River and Fall Creek from Washington Street to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, but this plan was rejected as too extravagant.[12]
The next year (1895) the Parks Board, which had been established under auspices of state legislation initially drafted by the Commercial Club, hired John Charles Olmsted, stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., to develop a plan for future parks. His plan was similar to Earnshaw's, with a focus on the waterways and including boulevards, small parks, and several large regional parks.[11][13] However, opposition soon arose, especially from the south and east sides of the city because those areas would not benefit from the new park system even though they would be taxed for it. In 1897 the state law enabling the creation of the Parks Board was declared unconstitutional; a new law was enacted in 1899, but the controversy over the plan continued.[12]
Despite the opposition to the Olmsted plan, the city under Mayor Thomas Taggart purchased 1,100 acres (450 ha) of land during the early 1900s, including much of what became Riverside Park.[11] That park, however, had not been envisioned in Olmsted's plan.[12] Construction of boulevards along the streams was also begun, with sections of Fall Creek Boulevard between Capitol and Central Avenues and of Pleasant Run Boulevard between Raymond and Beecher Streets being completed by 1906; boulevards along the east side of White River north of Michigan Street and through Riverside Park were also being built.[14]
George Kessler's plan
By 1907 the Parks Board realized that it needed a new comprehensive plan, and from 1908 to 1915 it engaged
Kessler retained many of the elements of the Earnshaw and Olmsted plans, including the linear parks and boulevards along White River and Fall Creek. However, his plan was much more far-reaching in scope, encompassing all the open public land in the city. Parkways would follow the four major watercourses in the city - White River, Fall Creek, Pleasant Run, and Pogue's Run - taking advantage of the meandering streams, open vistas, and wooded areas that the city's geography afforded. Besides their aesthetic aspects, the parkways also helped prevent pollution of the waterways and provided flood control. Kessler's plan also linked the boulevards with major city streets, including Meridian Street, Washington Boulevard, and Maple Road (now 38th Street), with those streets also being beautified.[16][17]
Decorative stone-clad arched bridges spanning White River and Fall Creek are an important component of Kessler's plan. Several of these predate the plan, having been designed by City Engineer J. Clyde Power to replace existing iron bridges. Kessler himself designed a new bridge on Capitol Avenue over Fall Creek.[12]
By including all sections of the city in his plan, Kessler was able to overcome many of the objections raised by residents whose areas had been overlooked by the earlier plans. Moreover, the 1909 law which he had championed provided for differing tax rates for the various sections of city, depending on the scale of park improvements in each section.[18]
Kessler and his firm created designs for several of the existing and new parks within his plan, including
The effect of Kessler's plan began to be seen immediately. For example, Dr. Henry Johnson, who became chairman of the Park Board in 1908, persuaded the leaders of St. Vincent Hospital to move the location of the proposed new hospital building several hundred yards from the banks of Fall Creek to allow space for the boulevard and improvements on the creek's banks.[14]
The success of Kessler's plan for Indianapolis led several other cities in Indiana to engage his services. His plans for
In 1922 the Board of Park Commissioners again hired Kessler to design extensions to the boulevard system in what was then the far northern reaches of the city. He recommended that Fort Benjamin Harrison on the northeast side be connected to the northwest side of town via a 100-foot (30 m)-wide boulevard encompassing portions of Cooper Road and 56th and 59th Streets. Construction had just begun on the project when Kessler died in March 1923 in Indianapolis. In recognition of the impact and value of his plan, the city named the new parkway Kessler Boulevard in his honor.[18]
After Kessler
By the time of Kessler's death in 1923 a large portion of the plan had been constructed. Lawrence Sheridan, who had graduated from Purdue University and attended the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture, took over as city planner for Indianapolis. He continued the implementation of Kessler's plan over the next decades. In 1928 he presented an expanded version of the plan that proposed parks and parkways throughout Marion County.[15] Sheridan's plan envisioned parkways along most of the smaller streams within the county not already included in Kessler's plan,[21] but those additions were generally never implemented.
Several lengthy stretches of the parkways in Kessler's plan were not completed until the 1930s. At that time projects under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration completed Fall Creek Parkway, Pleasant Run Parkway, Riverside Drive, and Kessler Boulevard.[14]
Recent years
The passage of time saw the aging and deterioration of the parks and other components of the system. In the 1970s, for example, the city transferred ownership of one of the small parks along Pogue's Run, Fletcher Park, to the nearby Switzer Corporation; after that company closed, the park became neglected and fell into disrepair. In 2013 ownership was transferred to the Windsor Park Neighborhood Association, which plans to restore the park using historical elements, including a central fountain, in phases through 2015.[22]
In the 1990s a major rehabilitation of the sunken gardens in Garfield Park was undertaken. The Indy Greenways plan has brought renewed attention to the parkways by creating trails such as the Fall Creek Greenway and Pleasant Run Greenway. In 2003 the city officially recognized the importance of the Kessler System and worked with the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology to document the entire 3,400-acre (1,400 ha) system and place it on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.[15]
Kessler's plan has influenced the development of Indianapolis to the present day. The system of parkways and boulevards reinforced the perception that the northern and eastern sides of town were the most desirable places to live. One of Kessler's recommendations in 1909 was for a court of public buildings and green space leading west from the
Notes
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, p. 6.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, p. 6.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, p. 13.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, p. 35.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, pp. 40–41.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, pp. 46–47.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, p. 5.
- ^ The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, pp. 20–22, 25, 31, 34.
- ^ NRHP Registration Form, p. 57.
- ^ a b c d Hale 1994, p. 1077.
- ^ a b c d e Diebold 1994, p. 868.
- ^ The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, p. 13.
- ^ a b c Greiff 1994, p. 1081.
- ^ a b c d NPS & George Edward Kessler and the Park System.
- ^ Diebold 1994, pp. 868–869.
- ^ The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, p. 17.
- ^ a b c d Diebold 1994, p. 869.
- ^ NPS & Garfield Park.
- ^ George E. Kessler Park and Boulevard System.
- ^ The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System, p. 19.
- ^ "Historic Fletcher Park Reclaimed by Neighborhood". The Weekly View Community Newspaper. Eastside Voice Community News Media, Inc. June 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
References
- Diebold, Paul C. (1994). "Kessler's Boulevard and Park System". In Bodenhamer, David J.; Barrows, Robert G. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
- Greiff, Glory-June (1994). "Parkways and Boulevards". In Bodenhamer, David J.; Barrows, Robert G. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 1080–1081. ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
- Hale, Michelle D. (1994). "Parks". In Bodenhamer, David J.; Barrows, Robert G. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 1076–1080. ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
- "Garfield Park". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
- "George Edward Kessler and the Park System". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
- "George E. Kessler Park and Boulevard System". City of Indianapolis. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
- "The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System: Momentum for today, a legacy for the future" (PDF). Indianapolis Department of Parks & Storrow Kinsella Associates. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
- "The Indianapolis Historic Park and Boulevard System: A legacy for the future" (PDF). Indianapolis Department of Parks & Storrow Kinsella Associates. March 10, 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- Storrow Kinsella Group (September 18, 2002). "NRHP Registration Form for Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System" (PDF). Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
External links
- George E. Kessler Park and Boulevard System
- George Edward Kessler and the Park System
- Indianapolis Boulevards and Parks Photographs, 1908-1932, Collection at Indianapolis, Indiana
- Indianapolis Parks Department Collection, Drawings and Documents Archive at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana