In the last issue we discussed the address listed in an old ad for Melody Gardens. The location is 65th and Westfield, but the ad listed the address as 6440 Winthrop. I said that I had never seen any map reference that part of the street as Winthrop. Then I found the map below.

It is a Baist map that was drawn long ago and then updated with information throughout the years. The date on the map is 1941, but some of the information on it could be from an earlier time.

It shows Winthrop Avenue crossing the canal as it goes north, and continuing all the way north to the bend, around where Howald Heating and Air Conditioning is today. As it turns to the east to cross the White River is where is becomes Westfield Gravel Road. This version of the map also shows what is Cornell Avenue today, along the Monon north of the canal, as Guilford Avenue.

The 1927 version of this map lists that street west of the Monon as Bellefontaine (pronounced BELL-FOUNTAIN) and the street east of the Monon as Cornell, instead of Winthrop or Westfield.

It is all very confusing, as I have a 1927 Dreher's map of Indianapolis that lists the street west of the Monon as Cornell, not Bellefontaine, and the one to the east of Jefferson Street, not Cornell. How can so many maps from the same period have such different information?