The Highs and Lows of an Irvington Family on Lowell Avenue

    Editor's Note: This post contains mention of self harm.  

     In the spring of 1895, Daniel and Edith Lesley along with their two children, Royden and Mary, moved into a two-story frame home located at 5716 Lowell Avenue. Their lovely property with a wrap-around front porch was featured in a publication called The Indiana Woman in 1897. Their biggest legacy to the community is the nearby street named for them. 

A very early photo of the Lesley home at 5716 Lowell Avenue (photo courtesy of Ron Flick and Charlotte Ottinger)

     Daniel Lesley was a relentless entrepreneur. He had his hand in several ventures. He was part owner of a coal mine near Edwardsport, Indiana and he helped to develop an electric rail line from Indianapolis to Martinsville. The state of Indiana employed him as an accountant. He also bought and sold real estate. He became one of the most important people in the community when he agreed to serve on the Irvington School Board in 1895. He was first elected secretary of the board and then treasurer. In the wee hours of December 16, 1898, he was likely awakened with the surprising news that the beautiful Second Empire style school located across the street from the Irving Circle Park had burned to the ground. Mr. Lesley and other members had to deal with finding temporary classrooms for the children and then hiring an architect for a new school. 

Daniel Lesley (upper right) posed with his brothers Amos, Jacob, and Reuben for this photograph in the late nineteenth century. (photo courtesy of the Lesley family descendants via Ancestry.com)

      Edith Lesley was a society woman. She involved herself in numerous clubs. For instance, on March 17, 1899, she invited members of the Shakespeare Coterie to her residence for a buffet luncheon. She decorated the dining room in red and green colors. She also employed a local artist named Florine Williams to paint various watercolor sketches representing the principal characters from The Merchant of Venice. After visiting France in the summer of 1899, she formed a local French club. She sang in the church choir at the Downey Avenue Christian Church. As a Butler alum, she hosted the Catherine Merrill Club. She knew all of the powerful women in the neighborhood. And then something happened that still needs clarification. As Mrs. Lesley was getting ready for another social event at the home on April 9, 1900, she got into some kind of altercation with a servant named Ellen Thaldorf. In a lawsuit that made the Indianapolis newspapers, Ms. Thaldorf alleged that Edith Lesley threw hot coffee on her causing extensive burns on her neck. She demanded $500 from the Lesleys for her injuries. What really happened in the kitchen on that spring morning? So far, I have been unable to find out how the judge ruled on the case. 

Edith Lesley as she appeared in the Indiana Woman, August 7, 1897, Page 10

     Mrs. Lesley put the scandal behind her and kept up her relentless club schedule. Scarcely a month went by in the early twentieth century that she wasn't hosting or attending meetings. Ever the businessman, Daniel Lesley placed an ad in the Indianapolis Journal on October 26, 1902, announcing that he had formed a new company called Pine Mountain Mica and Asbestos Company. He listed himself as the president. Five days later, the couple threw a huge masquerade Halloween Party at their home. Soon, Mr. Lesley turned his business interests to the West. He started investing in gold mining in both Arizona and Oregon. The family kept their Lowell Avenue home, but started to spend more time away from Irvington. While they were gone, the couple leased their pretty house to various people including the Marshall family. 

1908: A Year of Shocking Tragedies for the Lesleys 

     On February 2, 1908, Edith Lesley announced via the Indianapolis Star that she and her daughter Mary would be joining her husband and son who were living in Oregon.  Nearly four months after they arrived in the small village of Jacksonville, Edith and Mary received the shocking news on May 26 that Daniel Lesley had died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 59 near the gold mine forty miles from the nearest town. An employee had to bring his body back to the village via horseback. Edith Lesley buried her husband in a cemetery in the nearby village. Then, she had to figure out her next step. Meanwhile, more horrifying news awaited her back in Irvington. 

     First, she learned that on September 10, 1908, a rubbish fire burned out of control and spread to the Lesley family barn. The Irvington Fire Department was able to save the structure. Then, a more horrifying event took place inside the house on Lowell Avenue on December 3, 1908. Her boarder, Harlan P. Marshall, age 42, waited for his kids to go to school and for his wife to go shopping in downtown Indianapolis. He had been struggling with tuberculosis and likely from depression. He cut down a clothes line and hanged himself inside the house. Carrie Marshall found her husband and enlisted a neighbor to try to save him, but it was too late. 

     Mrs. Marshall and her children moved out of the home. Edith then had to face her next issue. Could she move back into that house? The answer arrived the following year when her daughter Mary Lesley married James Melville Abbett. He took out a building permit and remodeled the Lesley home. The young couple along with Edith moved back into the Lowell Avenue house where they remained for two years. They sold the home to the Parker family for $10,000 on April 4, 1911. The Lesley era in Irvington had come to an end. Edith and the Abbetts moved to California. 

Harlan Marshall sat for this portrait as a young man long before he married and started a family. He worked as a manager for the Remington Typewriter Company in Indianapolis while living at 5716 Lowell Avenue. One can almost see the sadness in his eyes. (Photo courtesy of the Marshall family descendants via Ancestry.com) 

Carrie Marshall outlived her husband by decades. She had to pick up the pieces after his untimely death and raise their two children. (photo courtesy of the Marshall family descendants via Ancestry.com) 

5716 Lowell Avenue, Summer, 2026

Sources:  Daniel Lesley's Business Ventures--Edwardsport Coal--Vincennes Sun-Commercial, June 15, 1899, p. 1;  "The New Electric Road," Indianapolis News, July 19, 1899, p. 7; Asbestos Company--Indianapolis Journal, November 2, 1902, p. 17; Oregon--"Indiana Men Back Oregon Canal Building, Indianapolis News, October 2, 1905, p. 17; Arizona--"Incorporations," Indianapolis Star, November 2, 1907, p. 7; Daniel Lesley on Irvington School Board--Indianapolis News, June 11, 1895, p. 2; Edith Lesley Club Meetings--Indianapolis News, May 30, 1895 p. 10; Indianapolis Journal, September 6, 1896, p. 16; Shakespeare Club--Indianapolis News, March 18, 1899, p. 8; France and French Club--Indianapolis News, July 1, 1899, p. 8 and Indianapolis Journal, August 13, 1899, p. 11; School Issues/Fire--Indianapolis News,  March 25, 1899, p. 3; Lawsuit by Ellen Thaldorf--"Mrs. Lesley Sued," Indianapolis Journal, April 15, 1900, p. 8; Halloween Party--Indianapolis Journal, November 2, 1902; Daniel Lesley death--"D.W. Lesley's Death," Indianapolis News, June 4, 1908, p. 11; Harlan Marshall Suicide--Indianapolis Star, December 10, 1908, p. 5 and The Star Press (Muncie, IN), December 9, 1908, p. 2; Building permit to remodel house--Indianapolis Star, April 6, 1909, p. 4; Sale of the home--"Real Estate Transfers," Indianapolis Star, April 4, 1911, p. 11; Federal Census Records for 1900 and 1910.

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)

Kids Gathered on Emerson Heights Porch in 1946

      On May 13, 1946, three kids stopped playing at 862 North Bosart Avenue and posed for a photographer who might have been a family member or neighbor. Otto D. and Mary Schrum had only recently moved from the Little Flower neighborhood and into the Emerson Heights residence with their six children. Mr. Schrum earned a steady living as railway mail clerk for the U.S. Post Office. 

     Indianapolis is filled with American Foursquare homes like this one. The boxy house could easily fit on narrow urban lots. Several families had already lived in this Bosart Avenue home. An ad in 1936 in the Indianapolis Star for 862 North Bosart Avenue described it as: 

     Attractive home with three large cross ventilated bedrooms, long living room and dining room; bright and cheerful kitchen with cabinets and breakfast room. Full basement, lovely lot. 2-car garage. 

     Part of the Arts and Crafts movement, Foursquares usually had a hipped roof with a dormer or two in the attic. They are also characterized with long front porches, a perfect place to gather on warm spring days like the kids did in the photo below. 

     The Schrum family resided in the house for decades. The Irvington Historical Society obtained the photo from EBay and added it to their photography archive. 

Kids posed on the porch at the Otto and Mary Schrum residence at 862 North Bosart Avenue on May 13, 1946. 

The Indiana Album has more Schrum family photos. To see those images click on the link below:

Schrum Family

Sources:  Obituary for Otto D. Schrum--Indianapolis News, June 21, 1961, p. 24; Obit for Mary Schrum--Indianapolis News, October 24, 1984, p. 50; Ad for sale--Indianapolis Star, May 31, 1936, p. 40: 1950 Federal Census and Polk's Indianapolis City Directories 1925-1989.

Electric Streetcar Serviced Irvington Until 1953

      As workers for the new Blue Line (a bus route) work on infrastructure along Washington Street in 2026, they are likely finding remnants of prior transportation systems including the rail lines for electric streetcars. Their tenure in the city lasted for sixty-two years and ended in 1953 in favor of city buses. For decades east side residents could catch a streetcar as far east as Sheridan Avenue and head downtown. Many people who worked in downtown offices rode cars in the morning and in the evening. Trains were also available on the weekends. As more people purchased automobiles after World War II, fewer people rode the streetcars. 

     In the photo below, an electric streetcar passed in front of the beautiful home located at 6202 East Washington Street in the Irvington Terrace neighborhood. You can also see some of the businesses in the 6100 block. The car went as far as Sheridan Avenue before it turned around and went back to downtown Indianapolis. Several cars came to Irvington throughout the day. 

The Washington Street-Sheridan Avenue Streetcar passed by 6202 East Washington Street in the Irvington Terrace neighborhood most likely in the 1940s when this photo was snapped by the Indianapolis Railways Co. If you look closely on the front of the streetcar you will see an ad for CV (Champaign Velvet) Beer brewed in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Irvington Historical Society)

Sources: Last electric streetcar: "A Streetcar named Expire," Indianapolis News, January 10, 1953, page 11; Charles Johnson Taggart, "Streetcars," Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Revised March 2021 (online) I wish to thank Don Flick for his research on CV Beer. 

Methodists Dedicated New Wing in 1957

      On a chilly but sunny Sunday morning in November hundreds of members of the Irvington Methodist Church gathered along North Audubon Road for the groundbreaking of a new education wing. The church had been on this site since 1926, but had been in Irvington since 1879 in a variety of locations. Dr. Henry L. White, the pastor of the church in 1957 conducted the special outdoor ceremony. 

     The Garns and Moore Firm designed the new three-story brick wing. Glenroy Construction won the bid for the construction of the edifice. You can see their truck in the top photo. The new wing included numerous classrooms, a chapel, and an administrative area and would be completed in 1958. Officials placed the wing east of what was formerly the Forrest-Howe home.

     Behind the crowd that morning neighbors who resided in 23, 25, 53, and the double at 59-61 might have peeked out their windows to watch the formal event. So who lived in those residences in 1957? Wellise and Rose Hui along with Cornelia Hui resided at 23 Audubon Road. Mr. Hui operated the Irvington Importing Company while his wife Rose worked at the N & R Laundry. Cornelia taught at the McKinley Elementary School. Next door Dorothy White lived in the corner home at 25 North Audubon Road. The Dufour family resided at 53 North Audubon Road. They might not have been home that morning as they usually attended mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. In the large double next door Frank and Ella Wallace leased 59 North Audubon Road while Henry W. and Carol Ross leased 61 North Audubon Road.      

     Throughout the winter of 1957 and 1958 construction workers built the new wing changing the look of the Irvington Methodist Church. 

Members of the Irvington Methodist Church gathered for the groundbreaking of a new education wing on November 10, 1957. The most visible homes in the photo include 23, 25, 53, and 59-61 North Audubon Road. (photo courtesy of the Irvington Historical Society)

Officials from the Irvington Methodist Church participated in the groundbreaking of the new education wing on November 10, 1957. Left to right: Reverend C. Kenneth Powell, Firman Sims, Glendon Hackney, Delbert Meyer, and Dr. Henry L. White. (photo courtesy of the Irvington Historical Society)

Throughout the winter in 1957 and 1958, workers for Glenroy Construction erected the new education wing at the Irvington Methodist Church. This image also shows the rear of the businesses along East Washington Street and the tower of the Irvington Presbyterian Church. (photo courtesy of the Irvington Historical Society)

Workers neared completion of the new education wing at the Irvington Methodist Church in the spring of 1958. The addition housed numerous classrooms for the church. (photo courtesy of the Irvington Historical Society)

Editor's Note: The Irvington Methodist Church will turn 150 years old this September. 

Sources: Polk's Indianapolis City Directories, 1957 and 1958; Sources: "Irvington to Break Ground For Addition," Indianapolis Star, November 9, 1957, p. 12. 

The Zaisers Built a Beautiful Bungalow on Downey Avenue

     Sophia and Lenoir Zaiser had been residents of Indianapolis for decades, but clearly they still loved visiting their childhood home in Cincinnati. Mr. Zaiser owned a stamp and stencil business for many years on South Meridian Street in Indianapolis. After retiring from that line of work, he began to invest in real estate. In the spring of 1916, he took out a building permit to erect a two-story bungalow at 345 South Downey Avenue in Irvington for $2800. He was 65 and she was 61. 

     Several months after moving into their new residence Mrs. Zaiser sent a postcard of her beautiful new home to her cousin, Mary Dickmeier, who lived in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati. She announced that they would be visiting soon. Blurbs in the society pages noted that the Zaisers often visited Cincinnati. In 1918, they stayed with the Dickmeiers for three weeks. 

      Their Irvington home appears to have been an investment as they did not stay long. By 1919, they had sold the property to the McCormick family and moved out of Irvington to 3945 North College Avenue. Some of their children remained in the area and both of the Zaisers died in their son William's home at 6102 East Washington Street in the early 1930s. 

     Someone in the Dickmeier family kept the postcard. Eventually, it ended up on Ebay and thankfully, the photo is now back at home where it will be protected by the Irvington Historical Society. 

Lenoir and Sophia Zaiser built the bungalow located at 345 South Downey Avenue in 1916.

Sophia Zaiser wrote a postcard with the image of their Downey Avenue home on it to a cousin in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1917. 

Lenoir and Sophia Zaiser frequently visited the Dickmeiers who lived in the Clifton neighborhood in Cincinnati. In 1917, Sophia Zaiser sent a postcard to her cousin Mary Dickmeier, who lived in this double at 348 Howell Avenue in Cincinnati. (Google Streetview, 2024)

     I wish to thank Deedee Davis who rescued this wonderful photograph from Ebay. 

Sources:  Polk's Indianapolis City Directories, 1916-1919; Building Permit for 345 South Downey Avenue:  "Building Permits," Indianapolis Star, May 2, 1916, p. 15; Visit to Cincinnati--Indianapolis Star,  October 31, 1918, p. 7; Obituary for Mrs. Zaiser--"Mrs. Sophia G. Zaiser," Indianapolis Star, September 20, 1931, p. 2: Obituary for Mr. Zaiser--"Lenoir Zaiser, Age 82, Is Dead," Indianapolis News, October 31, 1933, p. 7.

Car Crashed into Haag's Drugstore in 1961

Haag's Drugstore operated in the Irvington Plaza at 6401 East Washington Street. Besides serving as a pharmacy for the neighborhood since 1955, it provided a popular soda fountain. In the summer of 1961, a local woman driving a beautiful Ford Fairlane accidentally hit the accelerator when she meant to pump the brakes and crashed through the plate glass window. Thankfully, it was nearly closing time around 9:00PM so most of the employees were not in the front of the building. One of those workers was a very young Bill Ferling, who heard the loud crash and ran out to see what had just occurred. He also had the presence of mind to grab his camera to document the damage. In the top photo you can see the soda fountain and in the bottom image you can see the mess left behind from the crash. Mr. Ferling remembers that his boss Ron Leeds grabbed a baseball bat to guard the store after the car was towed out of the building. The driver did not damage the structural integrity of the store so Haag's Drugstore resumed operations within a day or two. 

In 1961, a woman accidentally crashed into Haag's Drugstore at 6401 East Washington Street. (photo courtesy of Bill Ferling)

Employees at Haag's Drugstore at 6401 East Washington Street had to clean up a big mess after a car crashed into the building in the summer of 1961. (photo courtesy of Bill Ferling)

    I wish to thank Bill Ferling who provided the photos and the information for this post.