Brookside Park, ca. 1910

Located on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis, Brookside Park was one of the first two city parks in Indiana’s capital.  The City of Indianapolis purchased the land that would become Brookside Park in 1870, officially declaring the property a city park in 1900.  Shortly thereafter, the space was incorporated into George E. Kessler’s park and boulevard master plan for Indianapolis, acquiring many of the picturesque qualities that it retains today. 

Although the landscapes of Kessler's plan are often celebrated for their meandering pathways, idyllic tree lines, and vast grassy fields, numerous works of architecture, large and small, were also essential to Kessler's overall vision.  Among these works was the Shelter House at Brookside Park, an idiosyncratic structure that represented a current fancy for playful eclecticism.  Accordingly, it is difficult to assign a single  "style" to this unique building.  Its river stone foundation was reminiscent of East Coast precedent; its flared hipped roof evinced an Asian influence; and its rustic wood posts and balustrades looked as if they had been plucked from a storybook.   

Complementing the overall woodsy character of the park, the shelter would have been a delightful surprise for first-time visitors and a perfect setting for picnics and parties. 

The building itself was a feat of skilled carpentry.  Indeed, the construction of the roof required many well-calculated cuts and snug joints.  The plan for the roof structure, pictured here, illustrates the complex intersections between the flared hipped roof over the main body of the building and the tapered conical roofs over the two cylindrical corner bay projections.  Note that the hipped roof would have been covered in lath before the rafters of the conical roof sections were installed.  The design and construction of these features would have called for a mastery of geometry that is increasingly rare among architects and carpenters.   

Although the Shelter House no longer stands, the records in the Ball State University Drawings + Documents Archive serve to remind us of a quirky treasure that once graced the grounds of Brookside Park. 

Written by Sam Burgess, Graduate Assistant in the Drawings + Documents Archive.

Images: Brookside Park Shelter House drawings, ca. 1910. [40-67a] Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation, Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University.

Federal Park, Muncie, 1909

This was the view of Federal Park in Muncie in 1909. The old Muncie post office is the building flying the flag, next to the park. The building still stands at 401 S. High Street, although it has been added onto in order to turn it into part of the Horizon Convention Center. In the distance is Muncie High School.

Notice the bicycles strewn in front of the entrance to the post office, and the playground area, complete with a slide to the right. The abundance of park benches indicate this park was likely a popular destination for downtown families.

Conservation in the Archive

Four extraordinary landscape architecture drawings were recently donated to the Drawings and Documents Archive’s Indianapolis Parks Collection. The drawings depict Garfield Park Conservatory, a design for an outdoor amphitheater, and Holiday Park; all located in Indianapolis. Each of the drawings are full-color pencil drawings on paper, dating from the 1940s to 1950s. Much of the Indianapolis Parks Collection contains architectural drawings and mechanical information for structures in the park, so these elegantly rendered landscapes and planting drawings are a welcome addition to the collection.

Unfortunately, they were previously housed in a mechanical warehouse with engines and exposed to decades of soot and dirt, and thus came to the Archive covered in a layer of grime that obscured their beautiful colors, subtle details, and handwritten planting notes. The first pair of white, cotton gloves used to move the items to the Archive were quickly blackened from the soot covering nearly every inch of the items.

In order to be placed within the collection and enable researchers to utilize the information contained in the drawings, they required careful cleaning to remove the layer of grime that obscured them, without removing the image itself.

This image of the Garfield Park Conservatory drawing was taken with the cleaning was nearly complete. You can see, on the left side, the extent to which it was darkened.