Clik here to view.
Signing the historic Michigan Road
The Michigan Road is one of Indiana’s first highways, stretching from Madison on the Ohio River north to Michigan City on Lake Michigan. It was surveyed in 1829 and built during the 1830s. You can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For sale: The Boardman House
The Boardman House is for sale! Built in 1834, it may be the oldest house in Indianapolis. When David Boardman and his son built his house here on the old Michigan Road, the Indianapolis city limits...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Following the signs on Route 66; dreaming of signs on the Michigan Road
Following Route 66 can be tricky. Various Interstates were built along and across its path, interrupting it. And the road itself was moved and improved many times during its life. That’s why I kept...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Save the Middletown Bridge!
This stone-arch bridge, built more than 100 years ago, might not have a future. Indiana Landmarks photo This is the Middletown Bridge, built in 1903 on the Michigan Road in Shelby County, about 35...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sycamore Row
Truth is, nobody knows for sure why the sycamore trees line this short stretch of road. The historical marker claims that the trees grew from green sycamore logs cut and laid across the road in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peeling back the layers of time
I’ve significantly revised and updated this post which first appeared here in 2009. This is Michigan Rd. at 86th St., a major Indianapolis intersection. Michigan Road is eight lanes wide here – three...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Captured: Stained glass, Logansport City Hall
I was in Logansport recently for a quarterly board meeting of the Historic Michigan Road Association. We met at City Hall, where we honored Michigan Road historian Juanita Hunter. Juanita, who is in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but welcome, Walmart
I’m not sure I’d call myself a full-blown preservationist, but I’m definitely sympathetic to the cause. And I certainly love history. I find it to be a happy circumstance that I live in northwest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Arch at Crooked Creek School
Thanks to John Roberts – a long-dead one, not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – the school around the corner from my house has been there since 1837. Not in its original building, of course....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goodbye, Whitehouse Restaurant
Logansport’s Whitehouse Restaurant closed its doors for good on Saturday after 73 years. Little family-run diners used to be typical; every town had at least one. They began disappearing in the late...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The last department store?
I was looking through my photographs from my 2008 tour of the Michigan Road when I came upon photos of Minear’s Department Store on the square in Greensburg. I was surprised to find an old-style...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Michigan Road sign update
You’ll now find guide signs along almost all of the Michigan Road, Indiana’s oldest highway. Southbound sign, Michigan Rd. at Kessler Blvd., Indianapolis Signs started appearing on the route in 2013...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Old houses on the Michigan Road, preserved and lost
It’s been almost seven years since I drove the Michigan Road from end to end. Much has happened since then: my buddy Kurt and I built a grassroots organization in all 14 counties along the route that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Adding the Michigan Road to the modern Indiana highway system
Brace for impact: here comes a major road history post. I haven’t written one in ages. The Michigan Road, highlighted in blue. Map © 2008 Google. It was very late to the party: the last segment of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Decline and growth, close to home on the Michigan Road
For a few years now, I’ve meant to photograph the portion of the Michigan Road nearest my home. For those of you familiar with northwest Indianapolis, it’s the stretch between about Kessler Boulevard...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 0
Getting your hair done on the Michigan Road Kodak EasyShare Z730 Zoom 2008 This is my 1,000th post!
View ArticleClik here to view.
The McOuat building
The McOuat (Mi-COO-it) building was a blight. Few buildings in downtown Indianapolis looked this bad. But a renovation completed in 2010 brought this 1901 building back to life. It’s now stores and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A walking tour of historic New Augusta, Indiana
In the 1850s, commerce and prosperity arrived by rail across the United States. Railroads boomed in these years, with thousands upon thousands of track miles being built. Wherever rails were laid,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Whatever became of Augusta, Indiana?
A couple weeks ago, when I walked you through the old railroad town of New Augusta in northwest Indianapolis, I mentioned nearby Augusta. It came first, in 1832, built on the then-new Michigan Road....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goodbye Middletown Bridge
You can’t save them all. It wouldn’t win any beauty contests, this four-span stone-arch bridge on a bypassed one-lane alignment of the Michigan Road in southeastern Shelby County. But it was built by...
View Article
