Emerson Avenue Home Then and Now

      Little has changed over the decades of the home located at 246 South Emerson Avenue. Likely built around 1909, the first residents were Willis and Alfretta (Etta) Porter along with their son, Cap Harold and Myrtle.  The 1910 and 1920 Federal Census records indicated that Mr. Porter worked as a pressman for a local printer. The couple also appeared to have rented a room to a married Butler University couple, Elvin and Alice Daniels. The pair had a short commute to classes as Butler was just across the street from the Porter home. At some point, a member of the Shimer family, who lived a couple of houses away, snapped two images of the relatively-new home sometime around 1915. The Porters would easily recognize their former home today. 

246 South Emerson Avenue c1915 (photo courtesy of Chris Shimer)

246 South Emerson along with the neighboring houses c1915 (photo courtesy of Chris Shimer)

246 South Emerson Avenue in the winter of 2024. 

Information for this post came from Indianapolis city directories, federal census records. Regarding the Daniels family: Tipton Daily Tribune, February 3, 1914, 6. 

Early Photos of an Irvington Avenue Home

Florence and Marcia Doan, who grew up at 47 North Irvington Avenue, frequently played in the lot north of their home. Their father, Wilson Doan, was a prominent attorney who later sold one of his lots to his law partner, Charles Orbison around 1906. Before the sale of the lot, the Doans enjoyed the use of the wide open space. Photographs from 1903-05 show the girls playing in the lot with other neighborhood children and even enjoying a horse-driven wagon ride. Behind the kids in most of the photos, you can see the home of Jesse and Sarah Josephine Stuart Lowes at 59 North Irvington Avenue.

Jesse Lowes and Sarah Stuart married on November 23, 1892. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved into their Irvington home around 1895. It is not known at this time if they built the house or if they are the second owners. The Indianapolis Journal noted in a "Society" snip in 1896 that the couple hosted some of Sarah's family from Acton, Indiana on Elm Avenue, the former name of Irvington Avenue. The couple had one daughter, Eunice Isabella, who likely played with Florence and Marcia next door.

Mr. Lowes first tried his luck as a grocer at 203 South Audubon Road along with Arthur L. Porter, but that partnership dissolved in 1900. He also became active in Republican Party politics and was one of the founders of the Irvington Republican Party Club. He worked for various Senators and even sold his Irvington Avenue home and moved to Washington DC with his family around 1905 to work in the US Senate. Upon his return to Indianapolis, the voters of Warren Township elected him as their Assessor in the 1920s.

Mrs. Lowes made headlines years later in 1925 when she testified at the murder trial of D.C. Stephenson, who was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. At the time, the Lowes lived on Hibben Avenue just behind the Stephenson home. Mrs. Lowes testified that she heard the screams of Madge Oberholtzer in the middle of night on March 17, 1925, along with the sounds of barking dogs, which belonged to Stephenson. Her testimony along with many others helped to convict the Klansman of murder.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Lowes passed away in 1945 while their daughter, Eunice, who married Kenneth Johnson, died in 1990 at the age of 97. Their former home at 59 North Irvington Avenue was later enlarged and cut into apartments. To learn about another family, who lived in the house from the 1920s to the 1940s, click on "Adams Family" link below.

Marcia and Florence Doan gathered on the front porch at 59 North Irvington Avenue c1904. The older lady is possibly Sarah Lowes and the young girl next to her is possibly Eunice Isabella Lowes.
(Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

Florence Doan, who is standing barefooted in the tall grass next to her home at 47 North Irvington Avenue pulls her sister Marcia and an unidentified boy in a wagon. Behind the kids, you can see an empty lot and the Lowes family home at 59 North Irvington Avenue in June of 1903. (Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

Marcia and Florence Doan, who lived at 47 North Irvington Avenue, posed in their side yard c1904. Behind the girls, you can see the Lowes home at 59 North Irvington Avenue complete with a windmill under construction in the backyard. In the far distance you can see the Ingersoll residence that used to stand at 5408 Lowell Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

Florence Doan pushes her sister Marcia in a wheelbarrow next to their family's home at 47 North Irvington Avenue (then called 27 North Elm Avenue) c1903. Behind the girls, you can 59 North Irvington Avenue (then called 37 North Elm Avenue). Jessse and Sarah Lowes lived in that house along with their daughter Eunice. Across the street, you can see the cottage located at 72 North Irvington Avenue. That house has been greatly modified over the years. (Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

Tall grass and weeds stands on an empty lot behind the Doan sisters on a summer's day most likely in 1903. The house most visible in the photo is that of 59 North Irvington Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

On a wintry day, the Doan sisters posed for a photograph near their front porch at 47 North Irvington Avenue c1903. Behind the sisters, you can see the house at 59 North Irvington Avenue. (Photo courtesy of Jim and Ann Brown; Indiana Album)

59 North Irvington has been enlarged over the years and converted into apartments. (photo taken in the winter of 2020)

    To see more images from the Indiana Album, click on the link below:
https://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/randomimages

I wish to thank Jim and Ann Brown for their wonderful hospitality and assistance with these posts and the Indiana Album, a digital museum dedicated to capturing images from throughout the state including Irvington.

Sources:  1900 Federal Census; Obituary for Jesse Lowes, Indianapolis News, March 3, 1945, 14; Early house--Indianapolis Journal, July 19, 1896, 13; Mr. Lowes jobs--Indianapolis News, February 3, 1900, 13; Indianapolis News, December 15, 1903, 3; Mrs. Lowes and DC Stephenson Trial--Noblesville Ledger, November 3, 1925, 2.

These Scouts Were Prepared!

Eight scouts from Mr. Smith's Sunday School class at the Irvington Presbyterian Church went on an adventure sometime in the summer of 1910.  The young men ranged in age from 10 to 12 and dwelled in southern Irvington.  In the top row, starting at the left, John Wamsley (5718 Oak Avenue) stared pensively at the photographer.  He was one of the few boys not holding a prop.  Next to him, Walter McCoy proudly held a baseball for a future game.  In the middle, a formidable Albert Stone (5927 Rawles Avenue) grasped a gun for the hunt. Next to him, Harold Wilson (5907 Rawles Avenue) displayed an unidentifiable object, and at the end of the row sat Raymond Woods. (308 South Audubon Road) In the front row, Bud Bunnell (5919 Rawles Avenue) practiced tying knots for all to see.  Smiling Walter Porter (342 South Arlington Avenue) was ready for a game of football, while Clyde McVey (211 Good Avenue) showed off the troop knife.

It is unclear as to where the boys gathered on that lovely day.  Behind them, you can see a small cottage and a swing dangles from a high branch.  Over one hundred years ago, a group of Irvington kids sat under a tall tree...

This image is courtesy of Bill Ferling and the Irvington Presbyterian Church.

Long Forgotten Home Reappears Along Arlington Avenue

When archaeologists uncovered Pompeii, I can only imagine the sheer joy that they must have felt with the unearthing of each new artifact.  That is exactly how I felt when I examined this fun photograph taken of Wilda Lee McCleery in 1953.  She posed on a tricycle and was about to perform a trick with some yarn.  Behind her, you could clearly see both 314 and 316 South Arlington Avenue.  The photo revealed what the front porches used to look like on both bungalows.  I studied these dwellings and kept on looking into the photograph towards IPS #85.  At that moment, it hit me.  There is a house!  Can you see it?  It is a two-story nineteenth-century Queen Anne formerly located at 342 South Arlington Avenue.  The footprint of the old home can be viewed on a map of Irvington in 1889.  It was torn down in the mid-twentieth century for an addition to the school.  Because I am not a long-time Irvingtonian, I had no idea it existed. I immediately wondered, who lived there?  Cursory research showed that Addison and Ella Porter set up housekeeping in the place as early as 1903.  They would raise four sons and one daughter there.  Mr. Porter worked as a pressman in a print shop as did his son, John. The 1910 Census revealed that another son, sixteen-year-old Cecil P., worked as a mill hand.  Over the years the house had multiple addresses including 478 and 380.  By the 1940s, the Hibner family lived at 342.  William Hibner worked as an elevator operator for an auto and tube factory.  His wife, Bertha, kept house, and their daughter, Ruth, was employed as a telephone operator.  The 1940 Census revealed the value of the property to be at $5,000, the highest of all of the residential properties along this part of the street.  Sadly, many homes in Irvington close to commercial areas, schools, churches, and lodges have been lost over the years to parking lots and additions.  Thankfully, Wilda Lee McCleery decided to get on this tricycle on a cool spring day in 1953 and ham it up for a photograph.  What other missing structures sit in dusty scrapbooks and shoeboxes?

Wilda Lee McCleery posed for this fun photograph in front of 314 and 316 South Arlington Avenue in 1953. Behind her you can see IPS #85 and 342 South Arlington Avenue.  (Click on the photo to make it larger)

  This historic image is courtesy of Chuck McCleery.