I was selected to be one of the participants in the 2021 People's Planning Academy (PPA) organized by the Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD). The PPA is a series of eight Zoom classes to learn how the City of Indianapolis works. Topics include history research, zoning laws, city planning, affordable housing and more.

In session two, we were assigned homework of starting with a photo and researching it. I used the photo that I published in the previous Broad Ripple Random Ripplings of a young girl standing on the running board of the Broad Ripple Department Store delivery truck.

There is a tremendous amount of information listed below as I researched. I hope it isn't too much to follow.

I started with the truck. It appeared to be a 1930s vehicle. I searched the Indianapolis Polk City Directories and found the store in the 1930 volume on the IUPUI Digital Collections website. It was listed as being located at 928 Riviera Drive. I knew from my BroadRippleHistory.org development that Riviera Drive was renamed Westfield Boulevard.

I searched Newspapers.com and found an ad for the Broad Ripple Department Store from 1928 that listed the current owner as F.T. Schmitt and the address as 924-928. In 2021, The Bungalow is at 924 Westfield Boulevard. The parking lot for the Bungalow would have been 928. I then remembered a photo my grandmother took of the Broad Ripple Department Store and it showed the store being twice the width of the present day building. Her photo listed the owner as Kassebaum.

I searched for Kassebaum and found an article from when the Kassebaum Building opened in 1928. This is the L-shaped brick building that runs east and south from the SE corner of Guilford and Westfield.

A member of the celebration committee for the opening was George Armantrout. Searching for him revealed that in 1925 he was the president of the Broad Ripple Merchants Association, a precursor of the Broad Ripple Village Association. The 1925 article was announcing the opening of the new Broad Ripple Post Office, but gave NO address, just showed a picture of it which I recognized as a portion of Old Pro's Table on Broad Ripple Avenue.

I looked up the Broad Ripple Post Office in the 1926 Polk City Directory alphabetical business listing and found the address as 817 E. 63rd Street (to add to the confusion, in the Polk section sorted by address, the same 1926 volume lists the post office address as 815). I knew that 63rd Street was renamed Broad Ripple Avenue. I was confused by the address, as OPT's address is 827. Could there have at one time been a similar building half a block to the west?

I then found another newspaper ad for Broad Ripple businesses welcoming the new post office and it lists the address as 815 E. 63rd Street. Here you can see the issues that arise in historic research. This one business now has two different addresses listed for it, neither of which is correct today (the addresses were eventually renumbered years later with 815 or 817 becoming 827).

From the PPA list of historic research links I went to the Baist Fire Insurance maps. Our PPA instructor said sometimes old addresses that have changed over the years are listed on the maps. I went to the 1941 Baist map, and indeed, there were hand-written addresses showing the Post Office / Hoster-Roberts Ford (long-time readers will remember the Ford dealer here from the articles on my uncle Glen Hague working there in high school)/ OPT building with an address of 819 (currently 827), therefore the 815/817 address would have been correct as listed in the old directory. This means that Broad Ripple Avenue has been renumbered at some point (for me to determine in my future research). (If there is interest, I can do an article on how to use the historic fire insurance maps for research.)

I learned another piece of history in the Post Office newspaper article of July 19, 1925. It said "The movement for obtaining the new post office began about two years ago, the Broad Ripple Chamber of Commerce being principally responsible. John Dawson, ex-president of the chamber, who died about two months ago, was one of the pioneers in the move to obtain a new post office. He was president of the chamber last year."

John Dawson was my great-great grandfather, whose house I currently own, and he died on May 22, 1925, about two months before the post office opened. I had no idea he has been president of the chamber and was part of moving the post office to a new location.

I hope from this article you can see why historic research about Broad Ripple is always so interesting and fun to do. I learn so much and can add that new information to my history website so I can share it with all.