100 INDIANAPOLIS REGIONAL CENTER PLAN 2020 PLANNING DOWNTOWN�fS FUTURE TODAY APPENDIX A: HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT Persistent pressure from both sides resulted in a political compromise (and a financial disaster) called the Mammoth Improvement Bill that was signed by Governor Noah Noble in 1836.  The bill unfortunately so totally ignored basic economic facts that it committed a state with annual revenues of $75,000 to a $10,000,000 bond over 25 years at five percent interest.  Work on Central Canal was halted in August 1839 when the General Assembly learned that it had already amassed a debt of $14 million set against a combined tax and revenue income of $106,000.   Already in the throes of the financial Panic 1837, the State was forced to declare bankruptcy and an abortive attempt was even made to abolish Indianapolis' town government due to its excessive cost of $3,000 a year. One bright spot on the local scene was the completion of the Madison-Indianapolis Rail Line, the construction of which had been turned over to a private company whose chief engineer was Thomas Armstrong Morris.  Its arrival presaged a new era of dramatic growth in the capital. The Governor James Brown Ray House (c. 1835), which has since been moved to 302 North Park Avenue, is a representative structure of this era. 1847-1860: THE RAILROAD ERA The railroads had arrived and Indianapolis' 7,000 citizens rejoiced in the promise of prosperity. In perspective, however, the results of the 1847 town election carried at least as much significance not because it elected the capital's first mayor (Samuel Henderson) or approved first town charter, but because it set the course education in the community until the present day. Whereas Indiana had been the first in the Union to ensure in its constitution that schools would be gratis and open to all, it failed to adopt a funding mechanism for the system and as noted by the Census of 1840, had the highest rate of illiteracy among the northern states.  The idea of tax-supported schools was strongly backed by the town's establishment including Samuel Merril, Calvin Fletcher, Dr. Isaac Coe, James Blake and Judge Isaac Blackford.  Opposition (particularly at the State level) was also strong.  When the votes were finally counted, Indianapolis adopted a tax-supported public school system with better than 95 percent of the vote.  The following year, the State also adopted a publicly- financed school system, but with only 56 percent voting in favor. Mayor Henderson completed his term in 1849 and immediately left the town for California's promise of gold, ridiculing the notion that Indianapolis would ever become a railroad center.  History proved him one of the community's worst prognosticators as seven lines had entered the capital by 1855, connecting it with all major population centers of the Midwest as well as the lucrative East Coast market.  The Union Depot on South Illinois Street, built by Thomas Morris, was unique in the country because all rail traffic entering or leaving Indianapolis passed through it. The railroads not only brought prosperity to Indianapolis, but were the threads that linked it with the nation's economic and society.  The population more than doubled between 1850 and 1860.  Prosperity was evident in the number and variety of retail establishments it supported.   Clemens Vonnegut's hardware store opened as did the H. Lieber Col, the New York Store, the Eagle Clothing Store, agencies for the Singer and Wheeler and the Wilson Sewing Machine companies and the Samuel Merrill Bookstore.   Indianapolis was fast becoming a wholesaling and manufacturing center.  Quickly recognizing the strategic importance of the town's situation as a rail hub connecting it to remove areas were wholesale grocers Little and Co. and Schnull and Col, wholesale druggists Henneman and Duzen and the Eagle Machine Works, makers of farm threshers and separators.  Over a dozen hotels thrived during the era, the most lavish of which was that of Hervey Bates on the corner of Washington and Illinois Streets.  (The Bates House was the setting for a memorable address by President Lincoln and was eventually sold to Henry Claypool for $106,000.)   Northwestern Christian University opened its doors in 1855 uniquely promising admission to all regardless of sex, race or color.  (Its principal backer was an outstanding leader in the community, Ovid Butler, for whom the University was later renamed.) By the mid-1850s most of the streets in the Mile Square had been improved.  After a false start abruptly ended with the Beer Riots of 1855, Indianapolis established a viable police force and by 1859, had effectively brought the town's strongly independent volunteer fire departments Tomlinson Hall and City Market, 1906 Indiana Historical Society, Bass Photo Collection