While digging a trench for redeveloping the northwest corner of South Audubon Road and Bonna Avenue, excavators have unearthed the former foundation and brick basement wall for Moore's Hall. Built in the 1892, the three-story building housed a grocery store, a drug store, a fraternity chapter, the Knights of Pythias, a ballroom, and a few apartments. Developed by Robert E. Moore, who dwelled next door at 116 South Audubon Road, the structure was torn down in 1937.
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| Moore's Hall at 130-32 South Audubon Road in 1898 (Courtesy of the Indiana Woman Supplement via the Irvington Historical Society) It was the tallest building in Irvington. |
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| The brick foundation to Moore's Hall under a parking lot in 2016 |
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| In 1972, the site was redeveloped into a laundromat and other shops. In 2016, the strip is being remodeled for a farm to table restaurant, a market, and a pub. The house (116 South Audubon Road) in the photo belonged to Robert and Mary Moore. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
City directories and an aerial photo revealed that Moore's Hall was gone by 1937. To see the aerial photo, click on the following link: http://maps.indy.gov/MapIndy/
Any idea what was there between 1938 (why? why?) and 72?
ReplyDeleteThe city directories do no list it by 1939 and there is an aerial photo of the area taken in 1938 that shows a fresh pile of dirt on the site. It was a vacant lot for years. The property remerges in the city directories in 1973.
ReplyDeleteThe aerial photo actually shows it gone by 1937. I have provided a link in the post so you can see it.
ReplyDelete