The Polis Center is a research unit of the Indiana University and Purdue University (IUPUI.) One of the things they've done is to create an encyclopedia of Indianapolis and thereby help communities create meaningful change.
One of the ways they do this is by creating a narrative history of an area. A few months ago my brother sent me a narrative history that Polis has done of our old neighborhood, Brightwood.
We lived on an outer edge of Brightwood. This part of Indianapolis began around 1872 with a growing population of working class, foreign born European Americans. Skilled and unskilled workers.
During the late 1940s, when I was a child, Station Street was the business hub of the neighborhood. We lived about two miles from Station Street in a lower class section of homes and factories. Our house was about 50 feet from the railroad tracks.
We lived there with our dad. He was almost totally clueless as to what to do with us so, from about the ages of 5 and 7, every weekend, my little brother and I walked to Station Street to the movie theater. We were each given a quarter. That was fifteen cents to get into the movies, plus a nickel for a bag of popcorn. One for each feature. The theater was called "The Dream." The photo above, that came from Polis, looks exactly like I remember it.
When we were a little older our dad (when the dry cleaning truck was available) drove us to the theater at night. And some of those times he would forget to pick us up so we two little kids would stand on Station Street until the wee hours of the morning waiting for our ride.
All this to say we spent a lot of time on Station Street when we were growing up. I liked the street and we loved our second home, The Dream.
Polis confirms what we already knew. Brightwood, which was a blue collar community to begin with, continued downhill. Many of the areas, including ours, were infiltrated by gangs and drugs and became very scary, unsafe places. Then the interstate came through in the 60s and 70s and obliterated much of Brightwood.
Things have gotten better over the years, however Brightwood is still a neighborhood in transition. This second photo, taken in the same place as the first, is of Station Street today. No more retail but it has morphed back into a productive area. About a block south of Station Street is Martin University, a private, nonprofit college, created to serve low-income, minority and older students.
As I said in a magazine article a few years ago, the place where our house was has improved too. The last time I was there the house was gone and a junk yard was there in its place. It was an improvement.
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One of the ways they do this is by creating a narrative history of an area. A few months ago my brother sent me a narrative history that Polis has done of our old neighborhood, Brightwood.
We lived on an outer edge of Brightwood. This part of Indianapolis began around 1872 with a growing population of working class, foreign born European Americans. Skilled and unskilled workers.During the late 1940s, when I was a child, Station Street was the business hub of the neighborhood. We lived about two miles from Station Street in a lower class section of homes and factories. Our house was about 50 feet from the railroad tracks.
We lived there with our dad. He was almost totally clueless as to what to do with us so, from about the ages of 5 and 7, every weekend, my little brother and I walked to Station Street to the movie theater. We were each given a quarter. That was fifteen cents to get into the movies, plus a nickel for a bag of popcorn. One for each feature. The theater was called "The Dream." The photo above, that came from Polis, looks exactly like I remember it.
When we were a little older our dad (when the dry cleaning truck was available) drove us to the theater at night. And some of those times he would forget to pick us up so we two little kids would stand on Station Street until the wee hours of the morning waiting for our ride.
All this to say we spent a lot of time on Station Street when we were growing up. I liked the street and we loved our second home, The Dream.
Polis confirms what we already knew. Brightwood, which was a blue collar community to begin with, continued downhill. Many of the areas, including ours, were infiltrated by gangs and drugs and became very scary, unsafe places. Then the interstate came through in the 60s and 70s and obliterated much of Brightwood. Things have gotten better over the years, however Brightwood is still a neighborhood in transition. This second photo, taken in the same place as the first, is of Station Street today. No more retail but it has morphed back into a productive area. About a block south of Station Street is Martin University, a private, nonprofit college, created to serve low-income, minority and older students.
As I said in a magazine article a few years ago, the place where our house was has improved too. The last time I was there the house was gone and a junk yard was there in its place. It was an improvement.
***
