Downtown Christmas Decor

It's the holiday season in Indianapolis again, and that means lots of seasonal lighting. The Friday night after Thanksgiving known as the circle of lights, is a long standing Indianapolis tradition. I decided to scope it out late at night, because I wasn't feeling up to being among a really large crowd that night.

The first night of lighting for the 2008 Holiday Season.


Yes, I like reflections.


West end, Monument Circle


Lobby of the IPL Building. I wish they could have faced another nutcracker toward the window.


IPL Building lighting pattern now features a Christmas tree.


The Broadbent Building on the night of the lighting of the circle.


CVS on Ohio Street.

Underground Indy

Massachusetts Ave and Valley Street in the Brookside Neighborhood.


Strip mall at the corner of Sherman Drive and Washington Street.

Happy Thanksgiving

A thanksgiving sunset; looking west on E. Washington Street and East Street about 5:30pm.

Nocturnal reflections from One Indiana Square

I've been following the progress of the installation of the new facade on One Indiana Square. Although I have observed it in daylight where it's reflections of the skyline around it are really nice, I was curious to see what it reflects at night.

At a distance from Pennsylvania Street.

I remember looking at a rendering of how this project would look from a skyline view, there was careful attention to remove this logo (then First Indiana) from the building across the street in that rendering. The irony if nothing else is worth at least a small chuckle.

The Chase Tower is reflected quite nicely.

Indianapolis Architecture - Riley Towers

Built in 1963, at close to 300 feet tall, they are the tallest residential buildings in the city (and in the state of Indiana).

The Places and Architecture of Southport Part 2

Any writeup on Southport without acknowledging Long's Bakery would be blasphemous.

Stock footage of their neon sign.

The old school. I've been told that they were apartments at one time, after some renovation, they would make excellent apartments or even mixed use.

This truck is parked behind the school.

Dance Master Studio. They have recently expanded, including another location a few blocks to the west.

Next to Dance Master Studio

Yollie's Asian Grocery; it has a primarily Filipino focus, including video rentals.

Southport Putt-Putt. Open every summer season.

Northeast on Main Street toward Derbyshire.

Many of the houses and buildings in this neighborhood have be renovated, but there are clues to let you know how old this town really is.

The places and architecture of Southport Part 1

On the far South side, it is one of the four independent cities within Indianapolis, called Southport. Due to it's self management, it has retained much of it's historical value and distinctivness during the suburban sprawl of Indianapolis over the years. There are many things of interest here, so this will be a multi-part post.

This was built the year before last, still don't know what its used for.


The old Southport post office branch.


The Southport Antique Mall on Southport Road.


Interesting house and garage with a lot of detail on Main Street.





Unique houses on Church Street






On Southport Road.

I'll leave you with a cloudy sunset captured on Church Street

More Indy after dark

The sun goes down rather early now days.


Fletcher Ave. from a window within Dunaways.


Pennsylvania Street close to the War Memorial


Looking at Lockerbie Marketplace from inside the Old Pointe Tavern.

Alleyways seem to look cooler at night than in the day.

Indy Skyline

This evening from Senate Ave.


This evening from Indiana Ave

Walking on a thin rope

There has been a disturbing number of pedestrians being struck and killed by cars in the news lately. There is yet another story in the Indianapolis Star about a fifteen year old student that was struck by a truck on his way to school.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20081119/NEWS02/811190409

I know this is an issue frequently discussed in many blogs, but I felt compelled to chime in on the issue that it is dangerous to be a pedestrian in Indianapolis. What's even worse, is that many in places where students walk to school or a bus stop, there are no accommodations for pedestrian students at all.

I am reminded of the Indy/MC public library branch in Eagledale, which is actually in the neighborhood, but there is no stretch of sidewalk connecting the rest of the neighborhood to this very busy library. To make matters worse, the neighborhood is on a flood plane, so after a rain storm, you can see young library visitors walking even further in the street to traverse the temporary obstacle.

This post doesn't really offer possible solutions to resolve the problem, only something to think about.

Indianapolis Architecture - Blacherne / Vermont Place

On the corner of Meridian and Vermont Streets. Built in the late 1800's by General Lew Wallace (of Ben-Hur fame), the building has some pretty interesting detail.

Indianapolis Neighborhoods - Concord / South Meridian

This neighborhood is kind special to me; my family has a lot of history here. My Great Grandparents lived here, my grandparents were raised, married, and buried here, and my mom was born here. When I was a child, this area was quite blighted and decayed; today, it is a charming urban neighborhood with different classes of people. Unfortunately, the one thing that hasn't changed is the occasional industrial smell that graces the area with it's presence.

On Meridian Street; now a parish hall of Sacred Heart.


There's something these older structures have that is missing in newer ones.


Same here...


And Here...




Union Street


Minnesota Street...These types of classic houses are plentiful here.


My great grandparents lived here for years, my great aunt lived in the house to the right.

Meridian and Morris; my mom was born here. Time has not been kind to this place.

Nothing rings in an architectural movement like cinder blocks.

East down Karcher Street. In places where the pavement is cracked, you can still see the brick that was paved over.

The sign says it all.

View of Sacred Heart Steeples from Karcher Street.

Chase Tower in the distance from Union Street.

Look up periodically, there's always something to see.

Sacred Heart

Some blighted row houses. Wouldn't those be pretty cool after little (or maybe a lot of) renovation?

View of the Indianapolis Skyline from South Meridian.

I took many more pictures of this neighborhood that are not posted on this blog. If you are more interested in this neighborhood, check out the South Meridian Neighborhood set on my Flickr page.

Wishing today was like this day

Today's weather was horrible, so here's a view of a street corner on Virginia Ave near Fletcher Place on a much nicer day.

Stray Roses on Market Street

Walking down Market street, I came upon these loose roses. I wasn't the only one to have appreciated this scene, because everyone I saw walk by were conscious of their presence on the sidewalk and carefully avoided them.

Brief Irvington evening visit

I was passing through Irvington on the way to the far East side. I had a few minutes early and decided to take a few pictures of Washington Street in the Irvington neighborhood. I definitely plan on doing a much more complete post on it soon.

I missed the actual sunset, but the sky is still quite a sight.

This is a market that sells locally grown, organic produce. They have a lot of interesting artwork on the windows (shown in next pic).

Across Washington Street.

Indy Skyline

An alleyway near Fountain Square with the Chase Tower in the Distance.

Another evening on Monument Circle

Friday night is always a good time on the Circle; there's so much to do. You can walk to surrounding places and get something to eat, shop in near by stores, people watch, see a performance, or do what I did: order a hot chocolate and take pictures.

It's getting dark, and as you can see, the conversion into "The World's Largest Christmas Tree" is underway.


The United States and Indiana flags blow vigorously on this windy night.


Looking East toward Market Street.


Chase tower and the Columbia Club building

Looking West toward the Circle on Market Street; this location is one of my favorite views of the Indianapolis skyline.

Looking East at the Circle tower and the IPL building.

Looking North at the Circle from Meridian Street.

Looking Northwest

Looking Southwest and the moon is on the horizon.

Underground Indy

A local tagger's gone Green; Wabash Street between Delaware and Penn. Streets.

Indianapolis Relics - Reddy Kilowatt

Reddy Kilowatt on the scene at the Marion County Democratic Party Headquarters on Washinton Street.

Early Voting: Last Call!

'Vote early and vote often'..er..well early anyway. Early voting has been going on for a few weeks at the Marion County Clerks office. There was a large last minute rush this morning to vote early before tomorrow's election. At it's longest point the line wraped arount parts of all four sides of the City-County Building. The voter interest and turnout for this election has been very exciting.

This is where the line begins on the South end of the building.


The line snakes around the plaza.


Absolutely no cutting in line.


The line wraps around the North entrance of the building.


An arial view of the line at the South end of the building. My apologies for the quality of the images, but all the windows on entire South end of the floor have these sun deflectors installed in the windows.

Early Voting in Southport

The Southport town hall has been a satellite voting site for early voters for the election that is to take place Tuesday. The voter turnout for early voting has been high, and has brought a lot of activity to the Soutport area that is rarely seen. I find this pretty interesting because for the first time in a while, when I hear people talking about voting or poll results, it's not a reference to American Idol.

The streets of Southport never sees this kind traffic on a Sunday morning.

The line goes on for a few blocks

Southport town hall, the polling site.


It was a little cool this morning, but he had to have been hot.