Irvington Intersection Then and Now

     Renowned artist, William Forsyth, and his family used to live on the southeast corner of East Washington Street and Emerson Avenue with an address of 15 South Emerson Avenue. Over the many decades that the family lived there, they created a beautiful oasis with tall trees and gorgeous flower gardens. Mr. Forsyth often painted in his studio at the house. A few months after his death in 1935, Frank Hohenberger, a highly respected photographer, visited Alice Forsyth, the widow of Mr. Forsyth. He or perhaps the family likely wanted to document the place just as the great artist would have known it. He snapped at least twelve images soon after an early summer rain. In the top photo, you can see puddles on the shimmering sun-lit bricks. You can also see the streetcar line. Members of the Forsyth family continued to live on in the rambling house for over 30 years. After Dorothy Forsyth, a retired English teacher died, the two living sisters, Constance and Evelyn, who had made lives elsewhere, held an auction of the remaining paintings and sold the property. In a decision that still shocks, a developer snapped up the property along with the neighboring house at 5115 East Washington and razed both residences to put in a filling station. In 1967, ads appeared in Indianapolis newspapers that a new service station was open on the corner of East Washington Street and Emerson Avenue. A beautiful corner of Irvington was gone. 

Intersection of East Washington Street and South Emerson Avenue showing the Forsyth family property at 15 South Emerson Avenue in 1935. Photo by Frank Hohenberger (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

The Speedway Gas Station located at 5103 East Washington Street on August 17, 2026; This service station replaced the Forsyth home and a nearby house in 1967.

Other Hohenberger Images of the Forsyth Property--1935

Photographer by Frank Hohenberger captured a path leading to the East Washington Street front porch at the Forsyth home on the southeast corner of East Washington Street and South Emerson Avenue, 1935 (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

Lush gardens in the backyard of the Forsyth property as documented by photographer Frank Hohenberger in the early summer of 1935. (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

Studio and house of William Forsyth snapped by Frank Hohenberger in the early summer of 1935 (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

Small porch facing South Emerson Avenue at the William and Alice Forsyth home on the southeast corner of East Washington Street and South Emerson Avenue. Photo by Frank Hohenberger, 1935 (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

Side yard respite complete with an arbor and many flowers at the Forsyth home at 15 South Emerson Avenue, 1935. Photo by Frank Hohenberger (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar) 

Earlier Images of the Forsyth Home and Studio

The multi-gabled Forsyth family home c1910 at 15 South Emerson Avenue; The girls in the photo are Dorothy, Constance, and Evelyn Forsyth. (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

William Forsyth often painted at home in his studio attached to the house located at 15 South Emerson Avenue. (courtesy of Susan Selby Sklar)

The House Lost Next Door--5115 East Washington Street

The neighboring house at 5115 East Washington Street was also razed by a developer to put in a gas station on the southeast corner of East Washington Street and Emerson Avenue. 

     I wish to thank Susan Selby Sklar, the granddaughter of William and Alice Forsyth, who donated these photos to the Irvington Historical Society. For more information on the great artist be sure to read a biography written by Rachel Berenson Perry called William J. Forsyth: The Life and Work of an Indiana Artist (Indiana University Press, 2014)