Irvington at 150: Street Names N-R

In part four of five in our series on Irvington street names, we continue to explore the history of various avenues throughout the neighborhood. When the city annexed Irvington in 1902 officials consolidated names to reflect the nearby matching street. However, there are several unique names that began in Irvington. A California city, a constellation, a popular tree, local families, and a beloved Hoosier poet all have a home on street signs in the historic suburb.  

New York Street: Formerly called Shank Street after a prominent local family, the city of Indianapolis changed the name in 1909 to coordinate with New York Street, which originates downtown. The Shanks owned several acres at the intersection of Arlington and Washington Streets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Norway Drive: William Alexander and Flora McDonald Ketcham, who founded the Irvington neighborhood of Pleasanton, named one of their streets "Norway." Mr. Ketcham, a Civil War veteran and leader in the Grand Army of the Republic, received front page news when he passed away suddenly in 1921. In none of his lengthy biographical profiles is there mentioned a connection to the nation of Norway. Mrs. Ketcham passed away in 1938. She also appears to have no connection to Scandinavia. Since they named the other two streets after trees, perhaps Norway refers to a spruce or maple. 

Oak Avenue: The beautiful winding street known as Oak Avenue was likely named after the majestic trees still present in the 1870s when the neighborhood was platted. Some of those specimen still exist in 2020. Generations of families have resided and played under these ancient trees. East of Arlington Avenue, the city renamed Third Street as Oak Avenue as well. 

Chuck Vogt posed with his sister, Jane, and his new bike under the giant oak tree near 5733 Oak Avenue in 1947.  Behind the siblings, you can also see the residence at  5728 Oak Avenue. (photo courtesy of Chuck and Joyce Vogt)

Ohmer Avenue: Nicholas Ohmer was a very early investor in Irvington. A resident of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Ohmer and possibly his brother George Ohmer, built 312 Downey Avenue in 1873. The beautiful Second-Empire style, a French design, was in vogue when the brothers built the elegant brick home. Mr. Ohmer was a horticulturalist and likely became involved in the neighborhood due his connection with Sylvester Johnson, a founder of Irvington. There is little evidence that Mr. Ohmer lived in the house and if he did then it was for a brief period of time. His primary residence was located at 1350 Creighton Avenue in Dayton. Both he and his brother George also operated a series of restaurants throughout the Midwest in or near train stations including one in Union Station in Indianapolis. When Ohmer's Irvington home was restored in 1966 the residents of the neighborhood decided to interpret the house from the Benton family's tenure in the home. A nearby street was named for Mr. Ohmer and local historian, Steve Barnett, has discovered that part of Julian Avenue was also named Ohmer. Both the house in Dayton and his creation in Irvington are on the National Register of Historic places. Not many Americans can claim that honor. Furthermore, Mr. Ohmer built his own suburb around his orchard in Dayton in the 1880s and it also bears his name as Ohmer Park. 

Nicholas and Susanna Spratt Ohmer of Dayton, Ohio: Mr. Ohmer built what would become known as the Benton House at 312 South Downey Avenue in Irvington in 1873. Mrs. Ohmer's brother, Thomas B. Spratt also became an early investor in Irvington. (photo courtesy of Ohmer family via Ancestry.com)

Nicholas Ohmer built this beautiful home for his very large family at 1350 Creighton Avenue in Dayton, Ohio in 1864. He also founded the suburb of Ohmer Park in Dayton. (Screenshot of home)

Some accounts note that George Ohmer, the brother to Nicholas, helped in the investment of 312 South Downey Avenue (the Benton House). He became quite wealthy as he operated numerous restaurants around train stations in the Midwest. He is given credit for helping both Thomas Taggart, an Indiana politician, and inventor Thomas Edison early in their careers. (photo courtesy of Ohmer descendants via Ancestry.com)

Named for the Benton family who dwelled here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the house was built by Nicholas and George Ohmer in 1873.  (photo by Wm. Gulde, spring 2020)

Orion Avenue: The Irvington Town Board reached for the stars in 1898 when they renamed Nora and Water Streets after the constellation. (Indianapolis News, November 8, 1898, 12)

Pasadena Street: At about the same time that the first residents started to build houses in Irvington in the early 1870s, a different group of Hoosiers moved to southern California and founded the city of Pasadena. They wanted to name their new home the Indiana Colony, but that name was rejected by the US Post Office so they settled on the Chippewa name that literally means "crown of the valley." Nearly fifty years later when developers east of Irvington needed a new street name, they chose "Pasadena." By the late 1920s, the Stradley, Thomas, and Goodnough families lived in charming bungalows and Tudor-Revival cottages along the new street just north of Washington Street. 

Pleasant Run Parkway: Noted landscape architect, George Kessler, began his tenure with the city of Indianapolis in 1907 and worked with officials through 1915. He had already designed boulevard systems in Kansas City and Cincinnati. In 1909, he presented a bold plan to the city that linked green spaces with winding boulevards that followed streams or rivers. Irvington became part of that plan when Mr. Kessler proposed Pleasant Run Parkway along the Pleasant Run stream. Although his vision was not completed until the late 1920s, boulevards like Fall Creek Parkway, Brookside Parkway, Kessler Boulevard, and Pleasant Run Parkway are some of the most beautiful in the city of Indianapolis. 

Poplar Road: When William Alexander Ketcham and his wife Flora McDonald Ketcham platted Pleasanton in 1915, they named one of the streets after a genus containing 25-30 species--Poplar. By the early 1920s, middle class families began building along the beautifully planned street. Reflecting the modern era in which the residences were built, several of the families along Poplar had a portre cochere attached to the side of their homes. 

Evelyn Schneider posed with her doll in 1925 in front of her home at 327 Poplar Road. The Schneiders were among many families who moved into new homes in the Pleasanton neighborhood of Irvington. To see more images of this street, click on the "Poplar Road" tab below. (Photo courtesy of Bill Ferling)

Rawles Avenue: Lycurgus Rawles joined Jacob Julian and several other investors in developing southern Irvington in 1873. His death at age 38 in that year ended his brief tenure in the venture. His father, John Rawles, stepped in and served as the administrator of his estate by selling off lots. More research is needed on this family, who seemed to have more connections to Lafayette than they do to Irvington. To honor the Rawles family, early developers named a street for them connecting South Arlington Avenue to Audubon Road.  In 1903, the city renamed Trislar Avenue west of Audubon Road and east of South Ritter Avenue as Rawles Avenue as well.

John Rawles, the father of Lycurgus Rawles, sold off his son's remaining real estate after Lycurgus passed away in 1873. (Ad in The Indiana Sentinel, March 22, 1876) 

Ridgeview Drive: When the Buckeye Realty Company under the leadership of John Chilcote developed the Irvington Terrace neighborhood in 1913, they originally named this street as Kensington presumably after the palace in England. Several families sought to build their own modest "palaces" along the street. R.L. Castle erected many of the residences. In October of 1916, the city of Indianapolis changed the name to the generic Ridgeview Drive. They also changed nearby Eldridge to Kenmore Road. 

An ad in the Indianapolis News, November 15, 1914, (39) for 319 North Ridgeview Drive, formerly addressed as 95 Kensington Avenue. 

Riley Avenue: Beloved Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley, would have still been alive when the Irvington Town Board honored him by naming a street Riley Avenue sometime around the turn of the century.  While the avenue today is most associated with the Emerson Heights neighborhood, it originated north of Washington Street and began life as Summit Avenue. In 1898, the Irvington Town Board considered calling it Appian Way after the famous the Roman road, but eventually Riley Avenue won the day. We do not know if Mr. Riley ever visited the stretch named for him. Further research is needed! 

James Whitcomb Riley (public domain)

Ritter Avenue: When Levi Ritter purchased over 80 acres of land in Warren Township in 1869 he had the idea of owning a Jersey cattle farm. His vision changed once he heard that Jacob Julian and Sylvester Johnson were planning to develop a suburb next to his acreage. Mr. Ritter built a large home for his family on the southwest corner of East Washington Street and what was to become "Ritter Avenue." According to a 1903 Indianapolis Journal article, old growth trees, iron weed, and "red-topped" thistle dominated the landscape around the family. On September 16, 1871, Mr. Ritter platted the first addition to the new suburb of Irvington. He kept the original plan in place with winding streets. Although it is difficult to imagine today, Mr. Ritter, Mr. Julian, and Mr. Johnson kept a fully-stocked horse stagecoach barn on the northeast corner of East Washington Street and Ritter Avenue. After Mr. Ritter's death in 1893, his widow, Caroline Ritter continued to live on the site until she sold the property to the Indianapolis Public Schools in 1903. IPS #57 has operated continuously on the Ritter land since 1904. 

Sources:  Larry Muncie, Three Windows on Irvington History, 1989; George Kessler--Paul Diebold, Greater Irvington II, 2020; Rawles--"Administrator's Sale, Indianapolis News, March 22, 1876, 2; Ridgview Drive--""Taxi Men Oppose Rate Ordinance," Indianapolis News, October 3, 1916, 11; Riley Avenue--"Call it Audubon Road," Indianapolis News, January 17, 1903, 2; Ritter Avenue--"Old Ritter Homestead: First House Built After Establishment of Irvington," Indianapolis Journal, June 28, 1903, 8.

A Young Attorney Defends D.C. Stephenson

George O. Cowan grew up in Decatur County, Indiana and graduated from Greensburg High School in 1915. In May of 1917, he became one of the first young men in that county to enlist in the U.S. army for service in World War I. He was likely wounded in the war as he joined the Disabled Veterans of America shortly after his return.

After Cowan mustered out of the military in 1919, he enrolled and graduated from Butler University and then the Indiana Law School in 1924. The timing of his admittance to the Marion County Bar landed at an ominous time in Indiana history. Just as he was starting his law career, David Curtis Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana and Ohio, was a rising force within Indiana politics. Stephenson had become a millionaire by selling Klan memberships, robes, and paraphernalia as thousands of Hoosiers joined the "pro-American" organization. Stephenson helped to get many politicians elected including Governor Ed Jackson and Indianapolis Mayor John Duvall. With his flush bank account, the Grand Dragon purchased the Graham home at 5432 University Avenue.

In a story now well-told and well-known, Stephenson kidnapped and brutally raped and attacked Madge Oberholtzer in the spring of 1925 on a train ride to Hammond, Indiana. Miss Oberholtzer, who dwelled nearby with her parents at 5802 University Avenue attempted suicide shortly after the attack by swallowing poison. The next morning Stephenson sobered up and brought the now dying Miss Oberholtzer back to Irvington. Unsure of what to do with her, his bodyguards eventually dropped her off at her home. She lived long enough to give a deathbed confession to authorities although she warned the police that Stephenson had bragged to her that he was "the law in Indiana."

Two local Irvington men served as attorneys for D.C. Stephenson including Robert I. Marsh of 28 Downey Avenue and George O. Cowan, who rented a duplex at 5020 Orion Avenue When detectives came to question Stephenson about Miss Oberholtzer at the Hotel Washington on April 2, 1925, it was Cowan who was alone with the Grand Dragon. When Stephenson needed $10,000 to post bail for him, it was Cowan who scraped together the money.

Neither lawyer was able to save Stephenson from his fate after Miss Oberholtzer's death. The sensational trial of the Klansman brought down the Governor of Indiana and numerous other politicians. It also ended the reign of power for the racist and anti-semitic organization. Ordinary Americans finally realized what they had been a part of and most no longer wanted anything to do with the Klan.  While his client headed to prison, George O. Cowan married Ella McClure on January 23, 1926.  He was 30 years old. For the first several years, they rented a small double at 5020 Orion Avenue in western Irvington. Perhaps he struggled to get back on his feet after being associated with one of the most infamous men in America. Did George Cowan subscribe to the ideology of the Klan? Did he attend the notorious Bacchanalias at the Stephenson home in the months before the Grand Dragon's arrest? He was obviously close to Stephenson, but how close?  His obituary in his hometown newspaper in 1955 spoke of none of this. The residents of Decatur County were clearly proud of their hometown boy as they spoke of him as being "prominent" and involved with lawsuits related to the trucking industry.

Cowan graduated from the Indiana Law School in 1924

Mr. Cowan lists 325 North Ritter Avenue in Fellow Citizens of Indianapolis, but there is no such address, nor is there a 325 South Ritter Avenue. City directories reveal that he rented a duplex at 5020 East Orion Avenue in 1926.  

5020-22 Orion Avenue on snowy January day in 2016

Sources:

William Lutholtz. Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue Press. 1991, pp.190,191, 197,198.

Greensburg Daily News, February 9, 1955.

An Orion Avenue Cottage

Orion Avenue is a quiet street located south of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, west of Emerson Avenue, and north of Brookville Road. It is a short street that most Irvingtonians have not likely driven down. While most of the housing stock along the avenue dates from the 1920s and later, there is at least one very old cottage located at 5014.

The 1889 map of Irvington shows a structure on the site. Orion used to be called Nora and South Bancroft was formerly known as Parker. Irvington founder, Levi Ritter owned the acreage around the home, but he lived in a grand place at the southeast corner of East Washington Street and Ritter Avenue.

The earliest known family to call 5014 home were the Coffins. George W. and Louisa Fulwider Coffin planned to spend their retirement years in the home and they moved into the house in 1908. The large lot was perfect for Mr. Coffin because he loved to garden and he sold his vegetables and flowers at the Indianapolis City Market. The house used to have the address of 4876 Orion, but it was changed in 1917 to 5014. The Coffins, both in their sixties, usually kept boarders. In 1910, two ministers named Summer Robinson, 21, and Frederick Jacobs, 27, lived in the home. By 1915, Mrs. Coffin's health appeared to be failing and the couple left to stay with children. Eventually, she passed away in Oak Park, Illinois on October 17, 1915. Mr. Coffin would live until 1926. Both were buried in their native Montgomery County, Indiana.

The Rubush family moved into house in 1915 and remained until the 1930s. William Rubush was a brick mason and contractor and worked on many landmarks and memorials around the city of Indianapolis. His wife, Clara Jenne Rubush, ran the household. Both of the Rubush's were members of the Universalist Church in Oaklandon in northeastern Marion County. They raised five children in the house. Their daughters Zerelda and Ada attended the Hibben Dance School in Irvington in 1921 and Zerelda later sang in the opera The Pirates of Penzance at Butler University on January 11, 1923. Both daughters would become teachers with Zerelda moving to Paris, France. One son, Jack Rubush, became a sheriff in Hancock County, Indiana, while another son, Richard Rubush, worked in a variety of jobs.

Tragedy awashed the Rubush family on May 28, 1923, when their twenty-two-year-old son, Theodore was struck by a train and killed. Theodore had just married Dorothy King and was living at 4001 East Washington Street. He was on his first day of a job delivering the Indianapolis Sunday Star near Julietta, Indiana in eastern Marion County. He had recruited his fifteen-year-old brother-in-law, David King, to drive his auto while he passed out newspapers. As young David was driving the car, it stalled on the Baltimore and Ohio tracks. A new driver, he threw the car into reverse and the auto stalled once again. Theodore was killed instantly while David survived with some terrible injuries. The Rubush's held the funeral in their home at 5014 Orion Avenue. Sadly for the Rubush family, the property abuts the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad so they likely thought of their son daily as the train conductors blew their whistles to announce the train's arrival to Irvington at Emerson Avenue.

The Swain family lived in the home in the early 1940s and then the Thompsons moved into 5014 in 1944. They would remain for several decades. Rodney Thompson worked for Irvington Ice and Coal on South Ritter and eventually worked his way up to managing the facility. The Thompsons raised their children in the cottage on the large lot. More information will be forthcoming on this interesting family.

Each house has its own story to tell. What other tales remain from this one small home on this quiet street? More research is needed not only on this house, but on many others along Orion Avenue.

In the top photo, courtesy of Kathleen Lynch, you can see Louisa Fulwider Coffin, as a passenger in her brother's car. The three women in the backseat of the car, are Louisa's sisters. She was visiting the family in Montgomery County, Indiana near New Richmond when this photo was taken around 1910.

In the second photo, you can see two views of 5014 Orion Avenue. The bottom part of the photo shows the home in 1944 just after the Thompsons planted some evergreen trees. In the top part of the photo, you can see the house in 1950. The trees had started to grow. These photos are courtesy of Sue Thompson.

It is nearly impossible to get a contemporary view of the house in 2012 because the Thompson trees now tower over the home nearly seventy years after these photos were taken, however, you will note that the dwelling has been enlarged.

Howe High School Sweethearts

Susie Westlake entered Thomas Carr Howe High School in 1948. She "lockered" with her best friend Ann Althauser and joined many clubs. Because Susie was on the honor roll, she was allowed to serve as an office messenger for Mrs. Loew, the Dean of Girls.

One day as she finished her lunch in the school cafeteria during her sophomore year, she eyed a boy sitting near the tray rack. His name was Rodney "Duff" Thompson. He also took note of her. Soon he began riding his bike by her home at 234 Ohmer Avenue. He had to go slightly out of his way to do this as he lived at 5010 Orion Avenue on the other side of Emerson.

They went on their first date together by attending a movie downtown at the Circle Theater. The teens both dressed up, but Susie decided that one date was enough for now. She went back to hanging out with her friends. With money saved from babysitting, Susie bought a record player and invited her girlfriends over to dance in her small Ohmer Avenue cottage.

Duff Thompson reappeared in her life in 1950 during her junior year. He was a member of Zeta Phi, a men's social club and she belonged to the Best of the West, a women's social club. He started attending joint meetings between the two clubs and he asked Susie out on a date again. By this time, he no longer had to ride a bike as he drove his father's 1947 Chevy. The car had a Dynatone Muffler on it and Susie reports that she could hear him before he was ever near the house. They started hanging out together quite a lot, usually with other friends. Since Duff and others had a car they cruised both Al Green's and Jones Drive-In Restaurants. They also played golf at Rustic Gardens, a local east side miniature golf course. One night several Howe students, including Susie and Duff, ventured out to the infamous House of Blue Lights along Fall Creek Boulevard. They had heard that Skiles Test, the wealthy man who lived there, kept his deceased wife in a glass coffin in the living room. They parked the car and noticed the twinkling blue lights. As they began to sneak up the hill to peek into the home, a caretaker of the house started to charge them. Thinking he had a gun, the group ran back to the car with extraordinary speed. In Duff's haste to "save" the group, he backed his car into a tree and then peeled off towards Irvington.

Susie continued to make the honor roll at Howe and because her father was a realtor, they moved away from their Ohmer Avenue home for two years, but the new house was still in the Howe district. In June of 1951, Duff graduated from Howe and Susie escorted him to the prom. Duff began to work for his father's ice and coal company while Susie finished her senior year of high school and graduated in 1952.

After high school, both Duff and Susie had jobs. Duff worked on the assembly line at RCA and at Grapho Products in Lawrence as a degreaser. In March of 1953, Duff presented Susie with an engagement ring and set the wedding date of May 22, 1953. By this point, her parents had moved into 234 South Butler Avenue near her former Ohmer Avenue home. The young couple decided that they would be married in the lovely newer home.

At 7:30PM, the ceremony began. Susie wore a white "shantung" dress and Duff wore a tailor made blue suit. Only a few relatives attended. The warm weather necessitated opening the windows of the house, but it also poured rain. Since both of them had to be back at work on the following Monday, the young couple celebrated their honeymoon in Cincinnati, where they stayed at the Netherland Plaza Hotel. Susie fondly recalls going to Coney Island and eating a delicious Italian meal at Capronis. They spent $60.99 for the entire weekend.

Within in the next year, the couple saw many changes including the birth of the first of their three children and Duff's enlistment into the U.S. army. The couple lived in several houses in the Irvington area and Sue is still active with many organizations including the Irvington Mother's Club.

In top photo, Rodney and Sue Westlake Thompson proudly pose inside the Westlake family home on the evening of their wedding on May 22, 1953. The bottom photo shows the Westlake house at 234 South Butler Avenue in 1953. Both images are courtesy of Sue Westlake Thompson. The stories for this post came from notes that Sue Thompson has taken regarding her life in and around the Irvington area.