Located on the northeast corner of the White River and 30th Street is the Naval Armory. The imposing white painted structure once provided training and support services for naval and Marine personnel in the Indianapolis area. It was later used by the Indiana National Guard, and now is being used as a high school.
The armory could be the topic of its own blog post one day, and probably will. However, this post is about what used to be on the site occupied by the armory before it was constructed in the late 1930s. Prior to that time, the land been the original site of the Indianapolis Canoe Club, or ICC.
The Canoe Club had its beginnings in 1883, when a group called the “Knights of the Paddle” organized the Indianapolis Canoe Club. A committee was set to form a constitution, and a member was assigned the responsibility to develop plans for a boat house. The official uniform was also established: navy blue pants and shirts, with a white belt and what was called a white “duck navy caps.” Generally, a very naval inspired outfit.
However, little seems to have come from this group, and in October 1899 the “new canoe club” was incorporated, with a plan to construct a clubhouse at Broad Ripple (likely around where the park is located now) in order to take advantage of the aquatic activities which were becoming popular in that area. While the ICC would include canoes and other watercraft for use by its members, its other major purpose was as a social club, where members could network, drink and eat, and enjoy social activities and parties. A two-story clubhouse was planned, with the first floor having a kitchen, dining room, and reception rooms, while the second floor would serve as a gymnasium, or as noted in the Indianapolis Sun, it could “also be used for card parties, dancing, and other social events.” The ease of access to Broad Ripple via streetcar was noted as a plus for the location, although accommodation would also be made for those driving automobiles. The clubhouse would be in place by that next June. At the same time, the club’s fleet of canoes and small launches and other craft were based out of Broad Ripple Park.
However, there must have been some disagreement about the location of the clubhouse, or some difficulty with obtaining land, because by February of 1900, the Canoe Club purchased a few acres of land on the northeast corner of the 30th Street crossing over the White River for a clubhouse (another group, called the Aquatic Club, would later operate out of Broad Ripple). The land was adjacent to Riverside Park, at the time the city’s largest park, and was on the banks of the White River, providing easy access for canoe launches and other water-based adventures.
The membership list at the time, all men, numbered 250 and was a who’s who of Indianapolis, with names like English, Taggart, Frenzel, Fletcher, Ruckelshaus, Bohlen, Marrott, Newby, Allison, Vonnegut, and Jungclaus. Even as the sale on the new land was being finalized, plans were emerging for the construction of a large new club house. Like the plans for Broad Ripple, the clubhouse would be two stories tall and built in what was described as a Swiss cottage style, with a veranda on the first floor all the way around the building, and a balcony on the second floor. The layout and use of the interior would be the same as the original plans. The clubhouse was designed by D.A. Bohlen & Son. A rendering of the proposed clubhouse is shown below, although the final design (as shown at the top of this post) would have a slightly different design.
Construction was delayed because the Indianapolis Park Board had already initiated condemnation proceedings against the ICC site prior to the purchase. Once this issue was resolved, after several months of negotiations, a title issue arose when a lessee claimed that he possessed a lease from the prior owner of the land. Finally, in early July all legal issues had been resolved and construction began on the clubhouse. The construction proceeded quickly, and on September 28, 1900, the club hosted a grand opening party to celebrate the new clubhouse and the club's new location. The route to the clubhouse was strung with Japanese style lanterns, and guests enjoyed a variety of activities, including bowling, dancing, and billiards. In addition to the clubhouse, docks and a boathouse were also planned to accommodate the club’s watercraft. The image below, an excerpt from a panoramic view of the river, shows the clubhouse, the boathouse and docks for the club.
Also visible in this image is the toboggan run which club members had constructed on the northside of the clubhouse in 1902. This attraction was essentially a giant slide, 57 feet high, which would launch riders down a 45-degree chute and then send them skipping across the surface of the river like a stone. Special sleds were ridden, and then recovered from the river.
The Sanborn map below shows the location of the Canoe Club as being adjacent to the Riverside Amusement Park located on 30th Street. This excerpt is from an update to the 1898 Sanborn map, likely sometime in the first decade of the 1900s, since the amusement park was not in place until 1903, and the clubhouse was not in place until 1901.
With the clubhouse open, the club hosted a variety of water-based events. Members were able to enjoy excursions on the White River and the lagoons and waterways of Riverside Park. The members' canoes were often adorned with ICC regalia, including flags and pillows and cushions bearing the "ICC" designation. An example of an ICC associated canoe is pictured below, in an excerpt from Vanished Indianapolis.
The social calendar for the club was also full. Parties and dances were frequently advertised. In March of 1901 an “Irish Party” was promoted at the club, which would feature burlesque costumes “in every shade of green.” In November of that year a Thanksgiving dance was held by the club, its first ever “dress party,” presumably black-tie level of dress, which was hailed as the “most successful entertainment that has ever been given by the members.”
Like much of the infrastructure along the river at Riverside Park, the canoe club suffered from the ice gorges, or ice jams, which frequently ran down the river in the winter. The docks and boathouses owned by the club and located along the banks of the river suffered the most. An ice gorge in late January 1903 damaged the boathouses and docks, along with a bathhouse owned by the club, in addition to the steamboats Stella and Helen Gould. In 1904 another ice gorge caused significant damage to the canoe club, including to near the club's boathouse. That March was also the great flood of 1904, which caused the river waters to rise up and cover most of Riverside Park. The clubhouse was an island in the floodwaters, while the boat house was severely damaged and nearly broke free from its anchoring.
One of the canoe club’s largest events each year was a Water Carnival, usually held in early fall. The event was also sometimes described as a Feast of Lanterns and would feature a party at the clubhouse along with water events, a concert, fireworks, and a large canoe and boat parade down the river in Riverside Park. The participating boats were lavishly decorated and equipped with colored lanterns. Non-member canoes were also invited to participate.
The club was also enjoying the rising popularity of canoeing as a hobby. A headline in the Indianapolis News on May 9, 1903, declared that “Canoeing as a Sport Has Become a Popular Pastime Among Indianapolitans.” Not only was the canoe club busy, but public canoe facilities (there was a large boathouse on the opposite side of the river from the club) ensured that the river was crowded with canoeing enthusiasts. While the formal members of the club were men, canoeing was also becoming popular with women, with many visiting the Canoe Club with members to join in the padding adventures. As a result, the Canoe Club needed to expand its facilities to meet demand and in 1903 a new floating dock was launched adjacent to the club allowing for the storage of canoes and space for docking and loading of canoes.
Canoeists launching from the club could explore the river from the Emrichsville Dam all the way to Broad Ripple. The most popular trip was up to Broad Ripple and back downstream to the clubhouse at 30th Street. The upstream portion of the trip would be done on the canal, just a short distance from the clubhouse. The canal’s flow, while steady, is much less than the river, and it has a uniform depth with no sandbars, making upstream travel much easier. Once paddlers arrived in Broad Ripple, they would portage to the river for the downstream run.
In 1905, the ICC added a “grill room" in the basement of the clubhouse. Per the Indianapolis News, a member explained that “[w]e had to have more room and instead of spreading out we went down.” The club had reached its maximum membership, and a waitlist for potential new members had been established. The new grill room was adorned with numerous beer steins, which were well used during the grand opening celebration for the new room.
In 1905, the club began to consider selling their clubhouse and property and moving to a new location. H.C. Churchman, who was planning to use the property for amusement purposes, was interested in purchasing the club’s grounds. The club’s leadership indicated they wanted a new location so they could have more ground and riverfront, and a site that was not “hemmed in by the cheap amusements as its present home is, and to build a more commodious clubhouse.”
The sale did not go through at that time, but by 1912, the Canoe Club became more serious about moving and began looking at property for the club was located just north of the 16th Street on the west side of the White River. The land is the current site of what is known as the Municipal Gardens. The site sits on a slight bluff overlooking the river and was located in between the southernmost pedestrian suspension bridge for Riverside Park, and the Emrichsville Bridge, which carried 16th Street over the river.
The club's move was precipitated by a unique offer from Carl G. Fisher, one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a member of the Canoe Club. Fisher owned 3.5 acres at this site and offered the land to the Canoe Club, along with $5,000, if the club would agree to sell their property at 30th Street and construct a new house on the land he provided. The Club already owned 3 acres at this site, with Fisher’s land adjoining it to the north. On Monday, February 19, 1912, the Canoe Club voted to accept Fisher’s proposal. A plan for the new headquarters had already been prepared by architect Herbert L. Bass and included not only a clubhouse and boating facilities, but also tennis courts and a baseball diamond. Construction began later that year. The topographical plan for the property below shows the clubhouse and other amenities and is dated late 1912.
The existing clubhouse was leased to the city's Park Board for a several year period, with an option to buy at the end of the lease, an option which was accepted. The clubhouse and the roughly one acre of land and other facilities became property of the city.
On Friday, May 9, 1913, the Canoe Club's new clubhouse was officially opened on the bluff overlooking the White River adjacent to the intersection of Lafayette and Cold Spring Roads. The Club hosted a massive party with 350 attendees, a banquet, and a cabaret show. The new clubhouse was similarly equipped to its predecessor, with two stories, and a basement. A grillroom was again located in the basement, along with the kitchen and a women’s parlor, while the main floor had a dining room and longing rooms. A ball room and living quarters were located on the second floor.
The images below show the new clubhouse as it appeared in spring of 1915. These images were part of a lot of Indianapolis Canoe Club images purchased on eBay earlier this year. This is a view of the front of the building which faced Lafayette Road. The river is behind the building to the right.
The clubhouse sat on the bluff overlooking the river, while the bank was terraced down to the river to allow access for watersports. Another image from the eBay purchase is looking upstream, towards the southern Riverside Park suspension bridge, which can barely be seen in the photo. The same scene as it appears today is also shown. The water levels today are generally lower than in 1915 due to the loss of the Emrichsville Dam. The suspension bridge succumbed to ice floes on the river in February of 1918.
Another image, and the same view today, is taken showing the view out from the back of the clubhouse over the river, towards the South Grove Golf Course and the North Indianapolis neighborhood.
The image below shows a view of the club's property looking downstream towards the Emrichsville Bridge (which carried 16th Street over the river). Visible is part of a dock, and what is identified on plans of the property as a boathouse. The second image shows approximately the same view looking towards where the Emrichsville Bridge used to stand. Unclear if the remains of the boathouse visible on site today are the same as in the 1915 image.
The former clubhouse at 30th Street was used for a variety of purposes following its sale, including as the base of operations for another canoe club, the Riverside Canoe Club. A few years later the Parks Board obtained the property, which continued to operate as the Riverside Canoe Club. Images of the canoe club property from 1913 onward shows the operations and activities of the Riverside Canoe Club, or its successors, and not the Indianapolis Canoe Club. The former clubhouse was also used as a soldier's retreat, where service members returning from Europe following World War I could enjoy the outdoors and recreational activities.
At its new location the Canoe Club continued to host water events, but increasingly the club was becoming more involved in other sporting events. Running races were staged out of the club's property, as were boxing matches, which had also been a frequent event at the old clubhouse at 30th Street. The club began supporting sports for Amateur Athletic Union competitions, including for track and field, wrestling, and swimming. The new clubhouse also had a multilevel diving platform installed, allowing diving competition and demonstrations in the water of the White River, as shown below.
Unfortunately, the new clubhouse on Lafayette Road did not last long. Early in the morning on December 26, 1916, Theodore Starks, the night watchman for the property, discovered a fire in the northeast corner of the first floor. Starks tried to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher, but the smoke from the fire forced him from the room where the fire started. Starks awoke the club’s chef, whose room was also on that floor, and both men escaped.
Starks called the fire department from a nearby home, but the nearest fire hydrant was several blocks to the south near the intersection of Bismarck Street (now known as Pershing) and 12th Street, too far to run a firehose. As reported by the Indianapolis News, the fire crews “were forced to stand by and watch the building rumble to pieces without throwing a stream of water on it.” While there had been some members at the club on Christmas, the day before, they had all left by midnight and the possibility that a cigar or cigarette left burning caused the fire was dismissed. Instead, the manager of the clubhouse placed the blame on faulty electrical wiring. J. Harry Johnson, the chief of the Indianapolis Fire Department explained that the run to the nearest hydrant, even if possible, would not have resulted in sufficient pressure to fight the fire. He also explained that water was not pumped from the river because the bank was too steep, and the steam engine used by the department could only pump water to a height of 20 feet, not enough to overcome the bank and still have useful water pressure.
Plans to rebuild the clubhouse were quickly agreed upon by members of the club, although the property had been underinsured for the amount of loss resulting from the fire, and the club was still in debt on the property to the tune of $17,000. Despite these issues, the club's leadership considered their finances to be in good condition, and Herbert Bass was retained to design the replacement clubhouse (rendering below), as he had been for the prior to iterations. Members also planned to formally rename the organization as the Indianapolis Athletic Club, to reflect its more general athletic focus, and to associate it with similar clubs in Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. The new clubhouse for the now renamed Indianapolis Athletic and Canoe Club opened on November 29, 1917. "For the third time the older members of the Indianapolis Athletic and Canoe Club attended an opening of the organization," noted the Indianapolis News, referencing the original clubhouse on 30th Street, and the recently burned clubhouse. Almost 1,000 visitors attended the grand opening, which went late into the night, although no fires were reported.
While the club continued its athletic activities in the years after the fire, it appears the financial hit from the fire resulted in the decline and ultimate demise of the club. In the summer of 1920, the Indianapolis Star announced that the club would be reorganized, and its financial situation was described as “poor.” By early 1921 a sale of the property was being openly discussed, and in March the property was offered to the city for purchase. While there was interest from the city, the property was eventually sold in May to W.F. Wooher, the trustee for a company called the “Casino Realty Company.” The company planned to operate a “high class amusement park” on the site.
However, the amusement park was not one in the traditional sense. Instead, the plan was for a roadhouse style establishment with games, food service, alcohol, and lots of dancing. A week after the sale, on May 21, advertisements (image below) appeared in local newspapers promoting the grand opening of “Casino Gardens.”
The ’Gardens’ operated for five years, often as a cabaret and dance hall, before the owners approached the city about purchasing the property. That part of the history of the former Canoe Club property will be covered in a future blog post.
Sources
Indianapolis News: May 11, 1900, March 12, 1901, June 16, 1902, May 9, 1903, February 17, 1912, July 20, 1912, November 9, 1912, December 26, 1916, January 13, 1917, November 30, 1917, April 23, 1921,
Indianapolis Star: March 5, 1905, June 27, 1906, December 27, 1916, July 1, 1918, December 29, 1918, March 30, 1919, July 16, 1920, March 4, 1921, May 13, 1921
Indianapolis Journal: October 15, 1899, February 4, 1900, May 19, 1900,
Canoe Club, 1907 (Bass #8782), Indiana Historical Society, https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc012/id/3760/rec/11 (Top Image)
Riverside Park, Circa 1919, Indiana Historical Society,
Board of Park Commissioners Meeting minutes, 1912, Digital Indy, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/ipr/id/undefined/rec/13
Board of Park Commissioners Meeting minutes, 1916, Digital Indy, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/ipr/id/1134/rec/4
Topographical Plans of Grounds and Buildings of the Indianapolis Canoe Club (1912), https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/IndplsPDArc/id/6322/rec/3
Hyman, Max R., The Journal Handbook of Indianapolis, 1902, accessible at https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/IH/id/6191/rec/15
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