Bittle's Tourist Court East of Irvington Along the National Road

With the advent of the automobile and the paving of state and federal highways, thousands of Americans began to travel across the country. Many of them pulled into roadside cabins on their way through the state of Indiana. A recent Smithsonian magazine article, penned by Andrew Wood, noted that entrepreneurs constructed many of these sites along busy routes with 1964 as the peak year with 61,000 tourist camps or courts in the United States. Travelers merely had to pull into the court and they could park next to their cabin. The demise of the roadside inn came with the construction of the interstate system along with the rise of the corporate hotel chain. Many mom and pop places like Bittle's Court at 7628 East Washington Street did not survive those movements.

Located two miles east of Irvington along the National Road, Bittle's Court opened sometime in the mid or late 1930s. James E. and Cora Bittle built the cabins near a tourist trailer camp along the busy National Road. Mr. Bittle's obituary indicates that he might have opened the court as early as 1935. An ad in a 1938 Indianapolis Star, touted Bittle's Cabin-Trailer Court, Sandwich, candies, soft drinks. 

The tourist camp was a family affair as Mr. Bittle sons, Keith and James, Jr., eventually operated the site. In an obituary, reporter Bess Watson described James E. Bittle, Sr. as an "active man" and a "smart dresser" who had a "dynamic personality." He died in 1955 at the age of 89.

In 1953, Henry Wood, a journalist for the Indianapolis Star Magazine, interviewed Keith Bittle for a story on the roadside attraction. Mr. Bittle told the reporter many stories that had occurred on the site including the birth of a few babies, the desertion of a bride, and of a suicide by a local nurse. He also noted that many young honeymooners paid a visit to Bittle's Court.  In 1939, bandits arrived in the middle of the night and forced the manager at gun point to open the cash register. The thieves fled the scene with twelve more dollars.  In 1961, the FBI tracked down a woman from Erie, Pennsylvania to the court. She had rented a car for the day in that town but kept it for several months and put nearly 8,000 miles on the car!

Th 7500-7800 block of East Washington Street saw a lot of development in the 1940s. Next door to the Bittle Court, at 7712 E. Washington Street, investors opened a bowling alley designed by R.C. Lennox and J. C. Matthews. Across the street, Frank Andrews opened the Golden Pheasant Restaurant in 1946. (see link)

Much of the area changed dramatically when the federal government decided to build a segment of Interstate 465 in eastern Marion County in 1965.  The Bittles sold their property to the federal government. A public notice placed in the Indianapolis Star on December 31, 1964, described each structure to be removed.  Tourist court consisting of brick veneer house, garage, stucco apartment building, frame apartment building, concrete block boiler building, and 22 frame tourist cabins. Formerly known as Bittle's Tourist Court... 

Aerial photo of Bittle's Court at 7628 East Washington Street along with the Pritchett-Hunt-O'Grady Bowling Alley at 7712 East Washington Street c1947. Across the street, you can see the recently constructed Golden Pheasant Restaurant. (postcard courtesy of Don Flick) 

Rear of the postcard for Bittle's Tourist Court at 7628 East Washington Street (Postcard courtesy of Don Flick)

Bittle's Tourist Cabins at 7623 East Washington Street (formerly 7608 East Washington Street) c1940 (postcard courtesy of Evan Finch and the Indiana Album) 

I wish to thank Don Flick for the use of the postcard and for the information for this post.

Sources: Bess Watson, "James Bittle Opened First Motel Here," Indianapolis News, July 8, 1955, 18; "James W. Bittle Dies; Former Owner of Motel," Indianapolis Star, May 18, 1972, 37; Henry Wood, "Anything Can Happen," Indianapolis Star Magazine, February 22, 1953, 6-7; Andrew Wood, "Rise and Fall of the Great American Motel," Smithsonian Magazine, June 30, 2017; "Kidnapped, Robbed By Masked Bandits," Indianapolis Star, November 20, 1939, 13; "Woman Held in Theft," Indianapolis News, September 18, 1961, 1; "Public Notices," Indianapolis Star, December 31, 1964, 28.