Greenfield is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Indiana, United States It lies in Center Township and is part of the Indianapolis metropolitan area. The population was 23,488 at the 2020 census.
James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His poems tend to be humorous or sentimental. Of the approximately 1,000 poems Riley wrote, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man".
Garfield Park is a 128-acre (52 ha) regional city park in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Established in the late 19th century, it is the oldest city park in Indianapolis and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The park is located at the confluence of Pleasant Run and Bean Creeks on the near Southside of Indianapolis. The 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) Conservatory and Sunken Gardens are located in the eastern portion of the park. The noted landscape architect George Edward Kessler designed the Sunken Gardens along with many of the other features of the park as part of his Park and Boulevard Plan for the city.
Fort Harrison, sometimes called Fort Ben, is an Indiana state park located in Lawrence, Indiana, United States, and occupies part of the former site of Fort Benjamin Harrison. The park features a former Citizen's Military Training Camp, Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and World War II prisoner of war camp. There are also picnicking and walking/jogging trails including a connection to the Fall Creek Greenway. The park receives nearly 900,000 visitors annually.
Downtown Indianapolis is a neighborhood area and the central business district of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Downtown is bordered by Interstate 65, Interstate 70, and the White River, and is situated near the geographic center of Marion County. Downtown has grown from the original 1821 town plat—often referred to as the Mile Square—to encompass a broader geographic area of central Indianapolis, containing several smaller historic neighborhoods.
The Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL), formerly known as the Indianapolis–Marion County Public Library, is the public library system serving the citizens of Marion County, Indiana, United States and its largest city, Indianapolis. The library was founded in 1873 and has grown to include a Central Library building, located adjacent to the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, and 24 branch libraries spread throughout the county. In 2021, the public library system circulated 7.1 million items and hosted more than 2,500 programs for its 282,000 cardholders.
The Riley Birthplace and Museum, one of two homes called the James Whitcomb Riley House on the National Register of Historic Places, is located at 250 West Main Street in Greenfield, Indiana, twenty miles (32 km) east of downtown Indianapolis.
Lockerbie Square Historic District is a national historic district on the National Register of Historic Places within Indianapolis, Indiana, listed on February 23, 1973, with a boundary increase on July 28, 1987. It is noted for its Federal, Italianate, and Queen Anne style architecture. The original platting of Lockerbie Square, done by Jannett Smith Lockerbie McOuat and named for her father, Scottish immigrant George Murray Lockerbie, was between 1847 and 1850. The 1960s saw an immense effort to save the buildings within the district, becoming the first historic district in Indianapolis. Many of the buildings date from 1855 to 1930. James Whitcomb Riley, famed Hoosier poet, lived in the district for over two decades. He was known to give candy to local children on his regular walks.
Military Park is the oldest public park in Indianapolis, Indiana, covering 14 acres (6 ha). It is located in western downtown Indianapolis. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1969.
Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis. Christ Church parish was formally organized in 1837. The present-day church building was erected in 1857 on Monument Circle at the center of downtown Indianapolis to replace the parish's first church built on the same site. Designed by architect William Tinsley, the English Gothic Revival-style structure is the oldest church building in Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, that has remained in continuous use. It is also the oldest building on Monument Circle. Christ Church is known for its music, especially its pipe organs, one of which was donated by Ruth Lilly, and its professional Choir of Men and Boys and Girls' Choir. The parish is also known for its community service, including an annual strawberry festival fundraiser and other charitable work. Christ Church Cathedral was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 1973. It is located in the Washington Street-Monument Circle Historic District.
The Eugene V. Debs House, on the campus of Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, was a home of union leader Eugene V. Debs. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The museum is maintained by the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation.
St. Mary Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
The Riley Children's Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1921 as the Riley Memorial Association with the intentions of constructing a children's hospital. The Foundation's fundraising efforts have allowed for the hospital to flourish and for Indiana families to receive the benefits of free medical care.
Bohlen, Meyer, Gibson and Associates, or BMG, is an architectural firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was founded in Indianapolis on April 10, 1853, as D. A. Bohlen, Architect by Diedrich A. Bohlen, German immigrant. In 1884, after Diedrich's son, Oscar D. Bohlen, joined the firm it was renamed D. A. Bohlen and Son. Four successive generations of Bohlen architects have worked at the firm: Diedrich A. Bohlen, Oscar D. Bohlen, August C. Bohlen, and Robert L. Bohlen. The firm specialized in institutional projects, especially civic, religious, and educational buildings. In 1971 Melvin B. G. Meyer acquired majority interest in the firm, which adopted its name in reference to its founder and its two principal architects, Meyer and John M. Gibson. The architectural firm is among the oldest still operating in the United States. More than twenty of its projects are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bethel A.M.E. Church, known in its early years as Indianapolis Station or the Vermont Street Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized in 1836, it is the city's oldest African-American congregation. The three-story church on West Vermont Street dates to 1869 and was added to the National Register in 1991. The surrounding neighborhood, once the heart of downtown Indianapolis's African American community, significantly changed with post-World War II urban development that included new hotels, apartments, office space, museums, and the Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis campus. In 2016 the congregation sold their deteriorating church, which will be used in a future commercial development. The congregation built a new worship center at 6417 Zionsville Road in Pike Township, Marion County, Indiana.
Diedrich Augustus Bohlen a native of Cadenberge, Kingdom of Hanover, immigrated to the United States around 1851 and founded D. A. Bohlen, Architect, in 1853 at Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1971 it became Bohlen, Meyer, Gibson and Associates, and is among the oldest architectural firms in the United States still in operation. Bohlen is best known for introducing the German Neo-Gothic architecture style to Indiana. Bohlen and his firm specialized in institutional projects, especially civic, religious, and educational buildings. More than forty of the firm's projects are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including several of D. A. Bohlen's designs: Morris-Butler House (1864); Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church (1871), its rectory (1863), and bishop's residence (1878); Indianapolis's Roberts Park Methodist Church (1876) and Crown Hill Cemetery's Gothic Chapel (1877); and in collaboration with his son, Oscar D. Bohlen, the Indianapolis City Market (1886). The combined campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods make up the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Historic District, the largest cohesive collection of Bohlen buildings. The District is of statewide significance on the National Register of Historic Places, for its contribution to architectural, educational and religious history.
Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church, whose present-day name is Roberts Park United Methodist Church, was dedicated on August 27, 1876, making it one of the oldest church remaining in downtown Indianapolis. Diedrich A. Bohlen, a German-born architect who immigrated to Indianapolis in the 1850s, designed this early example of Romanesque Revival architecture. The church is considered one of Bohlen's major works. Constructed of Indiana limestone at Delaware and Vermont Streets, it has a rectangular plan and includes a bell tower on the southwest corner. The church is known for its interior woodwork, especially a pair of black-walnut staircases leading to galleries (balconies) surrounding the interior of three sides of its large sanctuary. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1982. It is home to one of several Homeless Jesus statues around the world, this one located behind the church on Alabama Street.
Mount Pisgah Lutheran Church, also known in its early years as the First Lutheran Church and First English Lutheran Church and more recently as The Sanctuary on Penn, is located at 701 North Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The historic church was built by the city's first Lutheran congregation, which organized in 1837, and was its third house of worship. The former church, whose present-day name is The Sanctuary on Penn, is operated as a for-profit event venue.
William Fortune was a wealthy American businessman, journalist, and civic leader who was a prominent figure in the development of Indianapolis, Indiana, for more than five decades. Fortune is best known for his support of paved city and state roads as part of the Good Roads Movement and leading a thirty-year effort to elevate railroad tracks in Indianapolis, in addition to leadership in several civic organizations. In 1890 he helped establish the Commercial Club, the forerunner to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; in 1916 he was a founder of the Indianapolis chapter of the American Red Cross; and in 1918 he led a local War Chest fundraising effort, which was a forerunner to the city's present-day United Way campaigns. In 1920 Fortune purchased the home where Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley once lived in Indianapolis in order to preserve it. Fortune retained the property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, until the nonprofit James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association was formed in 1922. Fortune also acquired and donated a 30-acre (12-hectare) site in Indianapolis in 1930 for a U.S. Veterans Health Administration hospital that was completed in 1931.
