ARTICLES

Irvington's Architectural Diversity
By Paul Diebold

BACK

HOME

INSTITUTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Schools, churches, and headquarters of other groups made Irvington a complete community.  For institutions, two national trends guided architects.  Starting the 1900s, the Federal government was expanding mail delivery and improving its court system’s buildings.  NeoClassical architecture was selected by Federal planners.  At nearly the same time, the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was stunning visitors.  The exposition’s planners selected NeoClassical architecture and the entire campus reflected a vision of classicism most Americans had never experienced before.  Through the Federal courthouse construction program, many cities, large and small, received their first monumental classical buildings.  The impression was immediate and the style used for other civic buildings.  Classicism remained the standard for public buildings until the post World War II period. Irvington has several fine examples of the classical trend in civic architecture.

Gothic, for obvious reasons, remained the most popular choice for both Catholic and mainstream Protestant denominations.  Church architecture could vary in its exact inspirations, just as the original Gothic style reflected many countries and regions of Europe.

Bona Thompson Memorial Center, 5350 East University Avenue

Bona Thompson Memorial Center was built in 1903 to serve as Butler University’s library during the institution’s years in Irvington.  After Butler moved to the north side of Indianapolis in 1928, the building remained vacant for years.  The Disciples of Christ – Christian Church obtained the building and incorporated it into their adjacent headquarters in the 1940s.  The Disciples continued to use the building until 1995, when the group left Irvington.  The Irvington Historical Society restored the building in 1999-2002, including the magnificent classical interior.

Architects Dupont & Johnson were no doubt well aware of Carnegie library architecture.  Even though the building was not funded by Andrew Carnegie, it reflects much of the planning seen in such libraries.  Dupont & Johnson created one of the first truly NeoClassical buildings in Indianapolis with this design – it even predates the classical Federal Building in downtown Indianapolis by several years.  The building’s symmetry, round arched openings, and use of classical architectural vocabulary mark it as fine example of the style.  In addition to its beauty, the university charged Dupont & Johnson with a very practical concern – make the building fireproof.  The two obliged, using solid masonry for the walls, and, a first, reinforced concrete for the floors.  This building was so loved by Butler students, it was nearly loved to death.  Some alumni seriously proposed dismantling the facade and re-erecting it at the new campus.  Fortunately, the idea lost traction and Irvington still has this remarkable reminder of its town & gown decades.

Missions Building, 222 South Downey Avenue

Architect Henry Dupont designed this building for the Christian Women’s Board of Missions, and it was completed in 1909.  The building served as class rooms, dorms, and offices for the Board of Missions, and later, it was the international headquarters of the Disciples of Christ – Christian Church from 1928-1995.

Dupont’s design is clearly classical in inspiration, but, the budget did not call for a grand portico. Instead, Dupont used simple but effective classical traits: symmetry, round arched openings, and a heavy cornice.  The building now houses Mission Apartments, a seniors retirement apartment complex.

Former Irvington Masonic Lodge, corner of East Washington Street and Johnson Avenue

The Irvington Masonic Lodge hired architect Charles Bacon to plan their new meeting spaces.  The building was completed in 1921.  Bacon’s first problem was the lot: it was pie-slice-shaped, resulting in a “flat iron” floor plan for the lodge.  Another issue was income for the lodge; it was traditional in America for lodges to rent out first floor spaces to commercial uses, in order to sustain the lodge’s building expenses.  This too, Bacon solved all while using NeoClassical architecture to unite the whole design.  The building is tan brick with architectural details, arches, pilasters, and moldings, executed in what appears to be a pinkish stone.  In fact, the material is glazed terra-cotta, a popular alternative to more expensive stone in the early 1900s.  This building is one of the better examples of terra-cotta architecture in Indianapolis, outside of the downtown area.

Irvington Presbyterian Church, corner of Julian and Johnson Avenues

The Presbyterians in Irvington organized a congregation in the early 1900s, and built a small church on this site soon afterward.  In the mid-1920s, they hired fellow congregant Merritt Harrison to plan a new, larger building.  It was completed in 1928.  Harrison openly admired influential American architect and Gothic style advocate Ralph Adams Cram, and it shows in this Tudor Gothic Revival church.  The exterior is a complex random veneer of dressed Indiana limestone.  Harrison also took advantage of the raised corner site, incorporating multiple entrances, a side tower, and a lower terrace enclosure leading to a fellowship hall.  The interior includes a magnificent wooden hammer beam truss ceiling.

Irvington United Methodist Church, North Audubon Road

The Methodists worshiped in several locations before acquiring this site in 1925.  The house was pre-existing; Jacob Forest had it built in 1911, and later owner Thomas Carr Howe offered it to the Methodists in 1925.  The congregation hired Herbert Foltz, architect, to add a sanctuary extending to the north, with its own monumental Tudor Gothic entrance.  Foltz used red brick and stone to harmonize with the Forest-Howe House, and tied the two together visually with a central tower and spire.  The interior of this sanctuary has dramatic wood scissor-trusses spanning it.  The house itself is a blending of Arts & Crafts and Tudor Revival.  The most obvious Tudor elements are the Tudor arched entrance, and the jettied (projecting) twin gables, both with half-timbering and brick panels.