Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Changes in Fountain Square Neighborhood, Indianapolis, IN

Fountain Square has been the news a lot lately due to their big fountain makeover. Whenever we hear about changes in a classic neighborhood, we want to make sure we've documented the "before" for no other reason than we are history buffs. Despite the less than stellar photo conditions(we took some black and whites because the sky made things look black and white anyway), we took some pictures over the weekend and will add them to our collection of Fountain Square images.


This is the "Pioneer Family" fountain as it has looked from the 1980s to the present:


If memory serves us correctly, the building in the background here (Deano's Vino) was where...
...this mural was, circa about 1994 (photo from our collection) and shows the original fountain that it sounds like it will be made to look like again.
This photo is Virginia Avenue, looking northwest form Shelby Street in the 1880s or 1890s. You can just barely see the edges of the original fountain at the right. According to Indianapolis: A Pictorial History by Edward Leary, the fountain also served as a trough for horses.
This is what that street looks like today (we love the Murphy Building):



2 comments:

Adam said...

We went to see Fountain Square this morning because of your post. We're new to the area and thought it'd be neat.

Unfortunately, we were greeted with this when we got there. http://www.flickr.com/photos/adambassador/3903636741/

WYA! said...

Whoa- they are making quick work of it, aren't they?