South Ritter Avenue in the Late 1970s

   Jimmy Carter was President of the United States and Otis Bowen was the Governor of Indiana. Disco dominated the airwaves in the late 1970s in Indianapolis. With cable TV still on the horizon, Hoosiers consumed TV shows like The Jeffersons, Happy Days, M.A.S.H, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Saturday Night Live on five or six channels on their TVs. 

     Living at 128 South Ritter Avenue, teen-aged Doreen McGuire, the daughter of James and Ann McGuire, grabbed her camera and photographed her friends and family. Her collection of snapshots evoke an era and documents a small section of historic Irvington. Her images are now nearly 50 years old. Below is just a small sample from her scrapbooks. Her photos remind us that we need to save photos from this era of our lives. Doreen has done a good job of identifying individuals on the back of the snapshots and you should too!    

Doug McKain, Pete Boulais, Dave Arnold, and Phil Keough played basketball in the backyard of the McGuire home at 128 South Ritter Avenue in 1979. All of the young men also lived along South Ritter Avenue. Behind the kids, you can see the historic barn built for the Goe family in 1890. The large structure had been converted into a garage most likely by the Leamon family who lived in the house from 1957-1967. (photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw)

Before the invention of drones or the creation of Google Earth, there were trees. Doreen McGuire climbed this tall tulip poplar in her backyard and snapped the rear of her home at 128 South Ritter Avenue in 1977. (Photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw)

In one of her earlier images, young Doreen snapped a photo of a friend. Of course, without the ability to zoom in, she inadvertently documented houses across the street c1975. The double at 133-35 and the home at 139 South Ritter Ave are the most visible. The young boy in the photo is most likely a Boulais family family, who resided at 130 South Ritter Avenue. (photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw)

With a better camera Doreen McGuire stood on her front porch and snapped an image of 111, 115, 127, and 129 South Ritter Avenue in 1979. Mid-twentieth century residents of Irvington were practical people and clad many of the beautiful residences with aluminum siding. Three of the four homes in this photo have now been restored to their original early twentieth century look without the aluminum siding. (photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw) 

Ann McGuire, known as "Mrs. McGuire" to her students, taught at IPS #37 for many years. Her daughter Doreen captured her Mom relaxing on their long couch at 128 South Ritter Avenue in December of 1980. I had the privilege of meeting Ann McGuire (later Ann Brown), and she loaned me some incredible photos from her childhood along St. Clair Street. You can see those images by clicking on the "Schmidt" link below. (photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw)

Doreen McGuire, our young photographer, posed in her dining room at 128 South Ritter Avenue in 1976 or 1977. Behind her you can see the buffet and a Naugahyde chair given to them by a family friend, Dr. Harold Fahrbach, an optometrist. He knew Dr. Schmidt, a fellow optometrist and the father of Ann McGuire. On the dining room table you can see the equipment that Doreen needed for her photojournalism class at Howe High School. (photo courtesy of Doreen McGuire Crenshaw)

     I wish to thank Doreen McGuire Crenshaw for these images and for her incredible kindness and support over the years.