Photos Show East Tenth Street Before Linwood Square

      On May 12, 1950, patrolman Millard Swain guided his motorcycle westbound on East Tenth Street near Linwood Avenue. It was a beautiful morning and he was just conducting his rounds when he slammed into a 1946 Dodge sedan driven by 74-year-old George Grist of Greenfield, Indiana just as the elderly man exited Linwood Avenue. The impact threw the police officer from his bike and he broke his wrist. A crowd gathered as a few police officers and an ambulance arrived. One of those officers was a police photographer named Wehman Hiner who documented the scene. While Mr. Hiner was there to record the accident of one his fellow officers, he inadvertently captured a vanished world. No one was charged that day, but Mr. Hiner's photographs show us what the Linwood Square area looked like before the shopping center arrived in 1963. 

     For decades the Madinger and Neuerburg families owned 23 acres of land south of Tenth Street, north of St. Clair Street, west of Linwood Avenue, and east of Gladstone Avenue. It remained undeveloped through much of the 20th century. Leonard Neuerburg built a two-story brick home on Tenth Street in the nineteenth century. Another family member built a grocery store visible in the photos below. That store was located on the southwest corner of Tenth Street and Linwood Avenue. In 1950, Mrs. Delia Spillman ran an antique shop out of the former store at 4425 East 10th Street. She might be the lady leaning up against a light pole in the second photo. If you look closely, you can see the Rosario Romano Fruit Stand just beyond the antique shop and the rooftop of the Neuerburg home. Over the years, Albert Neuerburg had allowed various Little League teams to play on multiple diamonds on his land just south of Tenth Street. As president of the Sherman-Emerson League he also permitted a Mardi Gras celebration each year on the property as a fundraiser for that civic organization. Across the street, you can see the tidy bungalows, many of which still exist in the 4400 block of East Tenth Street. 

   After Albert Neuerburg died, his estate sold the entire property including the structures to the Kimco Corporation in the spring of 1963. The developers immediately knocked down Mrs. Spillman's antique shop, the fruit stand, and the historic Neuerburg home. A new day had arrived, but on May 12, 1950, as officer Swain went to the hospital to reset his wrist, residents along East Tenth Street returned to their lives on that busy Friday morning. 

Police photographer Wehman Hiner aimed his camera west on East Tenth Street at the Linwood Avenue intersection on May 12, 1950. The larger building on the left started as a general store operated by the Neuerburg family at 4425 East Tenth Street. By 1950, Delia Spillman sold antiques out of the building. On the north side of the street beyond the crowd, you can see bungalows in the 4400 block of East Tenth Street. (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Collection, Digital Indy)

Officer Millard Swain crashed into a sedan at East Tenth Street and Linwood Avenue on May 12, 1950. Behind the cars you can see a woman leaning next to a light pole by the antique shop. Might this be Mrs. Spillman? (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Collection, Digital Indy)

Police photographer Wehman Hiner documented the crash from several angles. In this view, he snapped the rear of the motorcycle while looking east. The group of onlookers stood in the parking lot of a filling station run by James E. McDowell at 4502 East Tenth Street. (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Collection, Digital Indy)

Baist map, 1941; Tenth Street is at the top of the map. The Neuerburgs owned most of what would later be known as Linwood Square. The Madinger (misspelled as Maddinger) family married into the Neuerburg (misspelled as Neuerberg) family. 

     To see more of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police photos, click on the link below:

Police Photos (Digital Indy)

     I wish to thank Patrick Pearsey, the historian for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for his assistance particularly on identifying Wehman Hiner, and for all of the work he is doing preserving what might be the largest photo collection of the city of Indianapolis.  

Sources:  Accident scene:  "Cycle Patrolman Hurt," Indianapolis Star, May 13, p. 3; "Cycle Patrolman Breaks Wrist in Crash," Indianapolis News, May 13, 1950, p. 9; Linwood Square--"Shopping Center Gets Final Ok," Indianapolis News, April 9, 1963, p. 25; Little League--"Dedication of Neuerburg Field to Climax East Side Drive to 'Get Kids Off Street'," Indianapolis Star, June 19, 1954, p. 2; East side Mardi Gras--"Leslie to Speak at Mardi Gras," Indianapolis Star, July 21, 1929, p. 21. 

Tough Times on Linwood Avenue During the Great Depression

Harold Wilkens (1904-1976) and Ellen Smolley (1908-1964) eloped in 1930 and kept their marriage a secret for two years. They lived separately, but eventually in 1932 they formally announced to their families that they had wed. Mr. Wilkens found a job as a pharmacist with Henry Silver, who ran a drug store along Michigan Street near Bosart Avenue. In 1934, the couple had a daughter, Diana. With little money and in the middle of the Great Depression, the couple leased a double at 727 North Linwood Avenue. It was a small one-bed apartment and became even smaller when Carrie Gardner, the mother of Ellen Wilkens, moved in with them. Mrs. Gardner and the baby shared the bedroom while Harold and Ellen moved the dining room table each night and pulled down the Murphy Bed built into the wall. They remained in the small double for thirteen years before moving into a larger place in Irvington.

Young Diana had many friends along Linwood Avenue and attended School #58 nearby. She used to play in the woods and meadow in what would later become the Linwood Square shopping area. She recalled a fruit stand along East 10th Street near Linwood Avenue.  Diana remembered that times were tough for her family during those days.  In 1947, their landlord asked them to leave so that he could move in family members of his own. While initially this caused chaos in their lives, they would soon lease a beautiful double at 5120 East Washington Street.  

Diana Wilkens posed for her mother in front of 727-29 North Linwood Avenue in 1938.

Diana Wilkens in the front and backyard of 727 North Linwood Avenue in 1938

Christmas in 1940:  Diana Wilkens enjoyed Christmas Day in her home at 727 North Linwood Avenue. In the upper right photo, you can see Ed and Thelma Sheets who stopped by for a visit. Snowball the cat is visible in some photos.

Diana Wilkens and a friend posed for this shot in 1940 in her yard at 727 North Linwood Avenue. Behind the girls, you can see the tree-lined street and the homes in the 700 block of that street.  

The small double at 727-29 North Linwood Avenue looks much the same as it did when the Wilkens family dwelled here from 1934 to 1947. (Photo taken in the summer of 2015)