Irvington at 150: Street Names S-Z

In part five of five in our series on Irvington streets, three military generals hang out with at least one poet and one lexicographer along with several local families on various street signs throughout the neighborhood. A few street names still elude us. If you happen to have an original abstract of your home and you live along one of these streets, check it out and let us know if more is revealed about your street in that document. We will update and amend information for all of the posts as we get more information. I am especially indebted to Steve Barnett and Larry Muncie for their assistance on this project. I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to find information for some of the streets. 

Sheridan Avenue: Irvington residents of the early twentieth century knew Sheridan Avenue as the last stop on the street car line. In 1903, the Indianapolis City Council officially changed the name from East Street to Sheridan Avenue. Likely named for General Philip Sheridan (1831-1888), a popular Civil War leader. Sheridan helped Grant bring the war to a conclusion with his pursuit of Lee in Virginia. After the war, he participated in various brutal campaigns against the Sioux and other Native American groups. 

General Philip Sheridan (public domain)

Shimer Avenue: Nearly two hundred years ago, Elias and Mahala Dunn Shimer purchased 240 acres of land along the Brookville Road in 1829. The Shimers had four sons and all of them went into farming with two remaining nearby. The couple built a beautiful brick Italianate home that was later bulldozed for the International Harvester plant. Two sons, Corydon and William, continued to farm into the twentieth century and Shimer descendants eventually platted the area that now bears the street named for them. 

Elias Shimer purchased 240 acres along the Brookville Road in 1829 (photo courtesy of the Geiser family via Ancestry.com) 

Mahala Shimer lived long enough to see the brand new community called Irvington rise to the north of her home on Brookville Road. (photo courtesy of the Geiser family via Ancestry.com) 

Corydon, Isaac, William, and Caleb Shimer gathered for a reunion (c1914) at William Shimer's home at 4905 Brookville Road. The brothers grew up along the highway and Corydon still lived in the family home just east of William. (photo courtesy of David Bailey) 

Spencer Avenue: Sarah J. Pattison, a widow, platted a small section of Irvington south of Washington Street, east of Emerson Avenue, west of Butler Avenue, and north of the Pennsylvania Rail Line. Newspaper accounts indicate that she started to sell lots for future homes as early as 1892. She and her deceased husband, Coleman Pattison, hailed from Rushville, Indiana and had gone into the wholesale business with some of their relatives--the Hibben family. It unclear as to where either Mrs. Pattison or the Irvington Town Board came up with the name of Spencer for her new avenue. Steve Barnett, the director of the Irvington Historical Society, believes that the strongest candidate is Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher popular in the late nineteenth-century for his unfortunate and now-debunked theory on social Darwinism. More research on the origin of this street name is needed. 

St. Clair Street: General Arthur St. Clair, a former Revolutionary War commander, was the first governor of the Northwest Territory of what would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. It is interesting that the city of Indianapolis would choose to name a street after him due to the fact that his punitive raid against Native Americans ended in utter failure for the Americans at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791. 

General Arthur St. Clair (public domain) 

St. Joseph Street: When Ethel Shearer filed a plat for her new neighborhood north of the Pleasant Run Golf Course in 1924, she originally called what is today St. Joseph Street as Pratt Street. At some point, a city official must have intervened as Pratt Street is the former name of Ninth Street and this street more closely matched in longitude with St. Joseph Street. Historic nineteenth-century maps of Indianapolis reveal that north of St. Joseph Street was St. Mary's Street (now Tenth St.) so there was likely a theme when early developers named those two streets. 

An 1855 map of the city of Indianapolis reveals that St. Joseph Street was just a block south of St. Mary's Street. (courtesy of Indiana State Library online)

Hoyt Fulk designed and built this Tudor-Revival home in Shearer's Pleasant Run Plaza subdivision in 1931. (Indianapolis Star, November 1, 1931)

Wilbur Washburn erected this Tudor cottage in Shearer's Pleasant Run Plaza subdivision in 1932. (Indianapolis Star, June 12, 1932)

Stratford Avenue: In 1934, Arthur and Kathleen McKay moved into the first residence constructed along a new street called Stratford Avenue. Mr. McKay was a carpenter so it is possible that he built the home or at least worked on the finishing touches. On the evening of March 21, fire trucks raced to the home at 4645 Stratford Avenue just as Mr. McKay managed to rescue his wife and children. Thankfully, the McKays were able to make it out of the house and rebuild. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, dozens of young families moved into brand new homes along the street likely named for William Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon. 

William Shakespeare was possibly born in this house in the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon (public domain) 

Tenth Street: On September 23, 1895, the Indianapolis City Council passed an ordinance whereby east-west streets in the city north of Washington Street would now be numbered. However, those streets in the original Mile Square, like Market Street, would retain the original name. Beginning with Pratt Street (Ninth) and north, all streets would receive a number. An editorial in the Indianapolis News on April 11, 1896 (4) blasted city leaders for this decision: "To our way of thinking, numbered streets are briefly--detestable. We have not very many of them in Indianapolis, and we should abolish them before they increase." Tenth Street had a variety of names prior to 1895, but in the Irvington area it had been called Clifford Avenue. 

University Avenue: This long and winding street has had multiple names in several sections. In 1898, the Irvington Town Board decided to clear up the confusing avenue by renaming it University Avenue for the nearby Butler University campus. The stretch between Audubon Road and Butler Avenue used to be called Spratt Avenue. Thomas B. Spratt was the brother to Susanna Spratt Ohmer. Mr. Spratt and Nicholas Ohmer were both early investors in the new town. Ohmer Avenue remains. Spratt does not. The stretch between Audubon Road and Arlington Avenue used to be called  Grand Avenue prior to 1898. The small stretch west of Emerson Avenue used to be called Lena Street. Who was Lena?! More work is needed. 

Walnut Street: Charming bungalows and early twentieth-century cottages now line Walnut Street in Irvington. The 1910 city directory indicates that the Chasteen, White, Stevenson, Stone, Wilson, Dorsey, and Taylor families were the first to call the street "home." The origin of the name does not originate in Irvington as the historic stretch actually started north of downtown Indianapolis. Many streets in America are named for the majestic walnut trees that grow in abundance in places like Indiana. 

An ad in the Indianapolis Star, June 13, 1909

Washington Street:When Jacob Julian and Sylvester Johnson founded Irvington in 1870, they deliberately located their new town near two rail lines and along the National Road, the first federally-funded highway in the United States. At that time, the great road stretched from Cumberland, Maryland (thus, the name for Cumberland, Indiana) to the former Illinois capital at Vandalia. Both Julian and Johnson lived near the road when they resided in Centerville, Indiana. In Marion County, the stretch is named for George Washington. Later, it also became known as Route 40 and it eventually stretched to California. 

Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington (public domain)

Wallace Avenue/Lane: Although often associated with the Emerson Heights neighborhood, Wallace Avenue has its origins in Irvington. The politically prominent Wallace family, who owned many acres along Washington Street, built the beautiful home at 4704 East Washington Street in the early 1860s. By the 1880s, the family had lost almost everything. They sold the house and the land to the Bosart family in 1882. An 1886 map shown below reveals that Rachel Wallace, the sister-in-law to William John Wallace, still possessed 18 acres although news accounts in the Indianapolis newspapers reported that creditors eventually sought this land as well. Wallace Street, as it was called in those days, can be seen on the map. What can not be seen was the troubled financial story of a nineteenth-century family. 

This 1886 map shows "Wallace Street" in pink and next to the Bosart land. Rachel Wallace, the sister-in-law to William John Wallace, still possessed some of the Wallace land although creditors were already knocking on the door. 

William John Wallace placed his beautiful country home at 4704 East Washington Street on the market in 1881. (Indianapolis News. March 31, 1881)

Financial problems plagued the Wallace family and played out in local newspapers. (Indianapolis News, July 31, 1886)

Webster Avenue: Irvington has had several women who have developed sections of the neighborhood including Sarah J. Pattison and Ethel Shearer. One of the earliest female entrepreneurs was Mrs. Elizabeth A. Cain who platted Cain's addition south of Washington Street and east of Arlington Avenue in 1872. Mrs. Cain was very traditional with her street names. One of her streets was called "Orchard Street." In 1903, the city of Indianapolis changed it to Webster Avenue. To complicate matters, the street kept changing names as it stretched south. Below the Pennsylvania Railroad and north of Oak Avenue, it used to be called Prescott Street. South of Ivanhoe and north of the Brookville Road it was called Jones Street. All of that was consolidated into one name--Webster Avenue. In 1908, the Creighton Realty Company announced that over thirty new lots along North Webster Avenue would be for sale as soon as the city could place a sewer line north of Washington Street. The avenue is presumably named after Noah Webster, who compiled an early dictionary and was responsible for authoring the Copyright Act of 1831. 

An ad for Elizabeth Cain's new addition to Irvington (Indianapolis News, October 22, 1872)

James Herring painted this portrait of Noah Webster in 1833 (public domain)

Wentworth Boulevard: Although it appears that the city of Indianapolis paved the street in 1928, it took another ten years before contractors erected the first homes along Wentworth Boulevard. Arthur and Hilda Eubank were the first residents to be listed in the 1939 Indianapolis city directory. Dozens of homes were added in the 1940s. Ads from the time period touted that the new homes were near Christian Park, Thomas Carr Howe High School, and IPS #82. The origin of the name is unclear. Were the developers keeping an English theme with Stratford Avenue nearby? Wentworth is a small medieval village in England. There was already an apartment building along Meridian Street named Wentworth so clearly it was a popular name. There appear to be no Wentworth families living in the area so more research will be needed. 

Indianapolis News, January 31, 1941

Indianapolis News, February 7, 1941

Whittier Place: In 1898 the Irvington Town Board renamed Hunter Street as Whittier Place. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was an admired American poet who lived in New England. He submitted some of his work to James Russell Lowell, (also a nearby street) who edited the Atlantic Monthly, so when you walk or ride by the intersection of Whittier and Lowell in Irvington, you can tell your friends about the connection. 

John Greenleaf Whittier, an American poet (public domain)

Worcester Avenue: When James Downey and Charles Brouse platted their new addition in the southwestern Irvington in the mid-1870s, they named one of their streets "Worcester" presumably after the city in England. They also named a nearby street "Auvergne" after a region in France. Thousands of Irvington school children became familiar with Worcester Avenue after the Indianapolis Public School Commissioners approved the construction of IPS #82 near the street in 1930. 

Worcester, England Cathedral (public domain)

Young Avenue: In the 1870s, John and Clarrissa Young platted at least two subdivisions in southwestern Irvington. The Youngs hailed from Belfast Ireland and Mr. Young had a storied career as a Butler University professor and acting president, real estate developer, and as an attorney. During the Civil War, he served as a consul to Ireland for the Lincoln administration. In Mr. Young's Second Addition to Irvington, you can drive down the street named for him. In some early newspapers articles, the addition is also referred to as University Place. 

Sources: Larry Muncie, Three Windows on Irvington's History, 1989; Spencer Avenue--"Petition for New Loop," Indianapolis News, January 29, 1904, 2; St. Clair Street--"Stamp Would Honor Revolutionary Patriot," Indianapolis Star, September 24, 1933, 49; St. Joseph Street--Abstract from Shearer's Pleasant Run Plaza courtesy of Anne Hardwick; Stratford Avenue--"Wife and Babies Rescued," Indianapolis News, March 21, 1934, 2; Tenth Street--"The Numbered Streets," Indianapolis News, September 25, 1895, 8; Webster Avenue--"New Addition to Irvington," Indianapolis News, May 23, 1908, 23; Wentworth Blvd--"Awards Contracts for Street Work," Indianapolis Star, September 23, 1928, 27; Young Avenue--Indiana Sentinel, February 20, 1878 and George Waller, Butler University: A Sesquicentennial History, 2006;