103 INDIANAPOLIS REGIONAL CENTER PLAN 2020 PLANNING DOWNTOWN’S FUTURE TODAY APPENDIX A: HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT 1889-1916: THE FLOWERING OF INDIANAPOLIS Older residents looking back at the 1880s and 1890s could view them as golden years in the city's history.  In an atmosphere of relative social, economic and political calm, the city prospered.  The capital was virtually rebuilt with new and sometimes controversial brick and stone buildings rising one after the other in all areas of the Regional Center.  Amid the growth, however, chroniclers reported that Indianapolis maintained a small-town atmosphere where people for the most part knew and respected each other. The city grew beyond the Mile Square to encompass an area of 20 square miles and was home to 175 places of worship, 500 grocery stores and 1,100 factories.  Sixteen railroads entered the city providing 150 arrivals and departures a day.  Seven daily newspapers were published (two in German).  As more German, Irish and Eastern Europeans arrived, accompanied by a steady influx of African Americans from the South, its population grew to 233,650 by 1910.  The railroads and a plentiful supply of gas (although short-lived) and coal continued to attract new industry such as the Thomas J. Madden Co., the Indianapolis Manufacturing Co. and the Parry Manufacturing Co. The Commercial Club (the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce) was founded in 1890 by William Fortune and Col. Eli Lilly.  Its officers were David M. Parry, A.C. Ayres, Evans Woolen and A.B. Gates.  Created to promote business in the community, it set and important precedent when it launched a joint effort with government to modernize the city charter, improve streets and the sewage system and establish a University of Indianapolis and a park system.  The public- private approach to the city’s growth and vitality has served the Indianapolis community well over the years. Indianapolis' own Benjamin Harrison became the 23rd president (actually having lost the popular vote and being elected on the basis of an electoral vote majority) and was present at the dedication of the 284-foot Soldiers and Sailors Monument dedicated to the common soldier.  A spectacular new post office was opened in 1905 on Ohio Street.  In 1912, the 17 story Merchants Bank Building rose as the city's first skyscraper at the corner of Washington and Meridian Streets. (It remained the state's tallest building for 50 years until the new City-County Building was built in 1962.) In 1881 the City Council had grudgingly granted a franchise to the Indianapolis Light and Power Company for what it termed their so-called electric lights, thus effectively ending the gaslight era Downtown.  By 1898, 340 electric trolleys banged and ricocheted over 100 miles of tracks adding to the general confusion of pedestrians, trains, horses, carriages and the newly-arrived interurban and horseless carriages. Hoosiers fell in love with the motorcar.  At one point Indiana produced 71 different cars such as the Marmon, Stutz, Duesenberg, Empire, Premier and Waverly.  The rise of the interurban electric car was more spectacular in Indiana than anywhere in the country.  By 1908, 2,300 miles of interurban track had been laid and over 400 Windsplitters arrived and departed each day from the world's largest traction terminal on West Market Street. The city not only worked hard it played hard.   The times gave rise to an entertainment district called The Levee that extended from Union Depot north on Illinois Street where it spilled over onto Market Street.  It was a gaudy, bawdy strip of night clubs, gambling houses, honky tonks and bars that never seemed to close.  The 1890 Census takers noted that the town contained almost as many brothels as New York City.  It was axiomatic that The Levee became the bane of politicians, clergymen and editors alike for almost 50 years. Indiana writers of the time dominated American popular literature.  The works of James Whitcomb Riley, Kin Hubbard, Mary Hartwell Washington Street east from Illinois Street, 1902 Indiana Historical Society, Bass Photo Collection