Sometimes research projects on one topic lead to another, totally different area of focus. Such is the case with today’s post. I recently received an Instagram message from a reader with an image of a limestone pillar, or post, which she spotted along Illinois street, just cross the street from the Phoenix Theater, While I have driven my car and ridden the bus along this stretch of road innumerable times over the past 17 years, I had never seen this feature.
Additional investigation showed it was one of three such pillars which appear to have formed a fence line that at one time fronted Illinois Street. There is also a limestone curb which runs along the front of the property and between the posts, likely part of the fence. It appears the decoration on each pillar is also different.
A look back at Google Streetview (2014 below) shows that there used to a fence here, and possibly a fourth post, on the northside of the driveway access to the parking lot. The vehicular access to the house would have likely been from the alley at the back of property. It is unclear how old the fence shown in this image is, and whether it is a more modern installation or original. I suspect the former.
Also, I failed to get a very clear photo, but on the south end of the fence, there appears to have been a gate, indicated by the red arrow on the Google Streetview below. On the left side of the gate is the base of another limestone pillar (so possibly five total), although the curbing at this section is actually concrete, not the limestone, like what is visible along the rest fence line in this image. You can see a closer view of this in the cover photo.
How old these limestone pillars are is not clear, although they appear to be from around the turn of the century (the last century), if not a little before. Currently, this site is used as a parking lot for the Phoenix Theater, which is located across Illinois Street. Well before the parking lot the site was more residential, and the fence line of which the pillars were part stretched across multiple lots in the block of Illinois between St. Clair and Walnut. The 1887 Sanborn map shows only one large residence built on this land, while the lower lots have two small dwellings fronting Muskingum. The red dots are the locations of the pillars pictured above.
By 1898, three lots are visible, each with a dwelling, along with additional smaller dwellings facing Muskingum, as shown by the 1898 Sanborn, below. The map does not include the fence line along Illinois. At this time the property addresses were, from south to north, 712, 714 and 720, although the map indicates these properties had previously been numbered 374, 378, and 380. Today, all of these properties are consolidated as 712 North Illinois.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any images of the homes which once stood at this site, or the fence whose remains are still there. While some photos exist for nearby structures, none are taken with a perspective which shows this section of the block. 712 seems the larger of the three homes, and was constructed of brick, suggesting it was more prominent than the others. However, still no images, although there are plenty of examples of fence pillars, and fences, like that which likely stood along this stretch of Illinois. The image below, from the 1889 pamphlet Illustrated Indianapolis, shows an example of what an iron fence with limestone pillars would have looked like in Indianapolis in the final decade of the 1800s.
While images of the houses and the iron fence along Illinois could not be found, there is still evidence as to who lived, and worked, in these homes, and particularly, the home at 712 N. Illinois. Early on, Charles and Laura Pearce resided at the location. It may have been Charles who built the house, since he was a local building contractor. Later, he resided next door, at 714 Illinois. In the 1900 Census an Albert Gall, a widower, and his family resided at 712.
Sometime after that census, the 712 home was purchased by a Dr. Laura J. Cloud, and her husband Albert, according to the 1904 city directory. Dr. Cloud was something of a groundbreaking figure in Indianapolis, although there is not much to be found for her in local archives. Her prominence lay in that she was one of the early female medical doctors to practice in Indianapolis. I say “one of” because it is difficult to tell for sure who was the first, and who began practicing when. Several other female physicians are often identified as being the first female physician in the city.
In terms of Dr. Cloud, or Laura B. Jennings as she was known prior to her marriage, she enrolled at the Physio-Medical College of Indiana located in Indianapolis. Physio medicine is focused on the practice of natural medicine, and tended to be a more progressive atmosphere, with the college often graduating at least one woman per year. The college had been established in 1873 and at the turn of the century, the medical college was known as the "mecca of physio-medicalism."
The school had moved to several locations around the city during its history. At the time of Dr. Jennings/Cloud was attending classes, the school located on the southeast side of the intersection of New York Street, Capitol Avenue, and Indiana Avenue. The One America Tower stands at this location today. The school was unable to adapt to evolving medical accreditation requirements in the early 1900s and closed in 1909 after a failed attempt to merge with the IU School of Medicine. A future blog post will take a more in-depth look at this institution.
Jennings graduated with her medical degree in 1885, in a class of 13 students. A local newspaper noted that she was the only woman in the class.
Following graduation Dr. Jennings began a solo practice with a focus on medical care to women and children. She was also active with the alumni association of the Physio-Medical College, and even served as the curator of the school's museum in 1893.
She was also appointed by county officials to provide medical care to poor persons in the county, with her primary area of responsibility being in West Indianapolis, possibly because her family had resided in that area. The announcement of her appointment in the German language Indianapolis Tribune (March 14, 1891) and the Indianapolis News (March 21, 1891) are shown below.
In September of 1891 Dr. Jennings married Albert Cloud, although the account of their meeting and eventual nuptials was somewhat odd. The situation was described by the Indianapolis News, under a reassuring headline which read “A West-Side Marriage That Will Turn Out All Right.”
Apparently, Mr. Cloud had been rooming with Laura’s family in West Indianapolis and had planned to marry Laura’s younger sister. However, in a rather rapid series of events, Cloud informed the younger sister that he actually planned to marry her sister, and that evening went with his planned bride, Laura, across the river to Indianapolis, where they were married. The couple sent a note to the family informing them of their marriage and that they were starting their honeymoon, and then promptly disappeared with no sign.
Eventually, the couple did return, because in March of 1892, the Indianapolis News reported that the now Dr. Cloud was elected as secretary for the Physio-Medical College’s alumni association. In October of that year an ad in the Indianapolis Journal advertised Dr. Cloud’s practice at 66 ½ North Pennsylvania Street. Dr. Cloud continued to practice medicine, while her husband worked in a variety of fields, including contracting, insurance, real estate, and general sales. In the 1900 census they were living in the 1900 block of Senate Avenue. They had no children together, although the records indicate that they had an adopted daughter named Rose Beckwith. Little was found about this daughter, who appears to have died in 1908.
By 1905 the couple had purchased 712 North Illinois, which Dr. Cloud also used as her medical office. The address also regularly advertised rooms for rent. The November 5, 1907, Indianapolis News included such an ad, which was claiming “beautifully furnished rooms in modern home.” These could have been rooms in the main house, or rooms in the smaller residences which were located along Muskingum, as shown in the Sanborn maps above. This continued for the next several years. The 1910 census identifies several boarders living at the address with the Clouds. The couple continued to live at the address, although in in 1923, an auction advertisement for the address announced the sale of a large amount of furniture, garden tools, and “lamps, pedestals, fancy ornaments, ice boxes, gas ranges, porch furniture, garden tools…” among other household items. The fire sale nature of the advertisement suggests economic problems for the couple, but that year they also purchased a home at 49 W. 33rd Street. Dr. Cloud continued to practice medicine, with her new office being located at 712 State Life Building. Albert passed away in 1928 following a bout with influenza.
712 Illinois continued to operate as a boarding house into the 1930s. At the same time, a restaurant called McCreary’s Dining Room, which advertised its “Special Chicken Dinner,” and family style meals was being operated at the location.
McCreary’s continued to operate into the 1940s. The use of the property in the late 1940s and early 1950s is uncertain, although by 1956, the 712 house and outbuildings at the site, along with the other two homes, 714 and 720, to the north, had been demolished and replaced with the parking lot we see today. If the limestone fence posts do date back to when these three homes stood on this block, those posts are the only remnants left of the residences which once stood on the site.
As for Dr. Cloud, she continued to live on 33rd Street following her husband’s death, and she continued to practice medicine. The 1930 census show that three of her younger sisters were residing with her at the address, and she appeared to have been supporting them as she is the only member of the household who was employed. Dr. Cloud was 74 years old at this time. Over the course of the next few years each of her sisters passed away, the last in 1936. That same year Dr. Cloud, now 80, married a Joseph W. Haley.
Dr. Cloud died on May 11, 1941, at the age of 85. According to her obituary, she had continued to practice medicine up until a few weeks prior to her death. She was also described as “one of the city’s pioneer woman physicians.” She was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, as had was her first husband, Albert, and the rest of her family. The Find a Grave website indicated that Dr. Laura was buried next to her husband, Albert. I visited the Cloud plot but found that while Albert's name was on the marker, Laura is absent, although there is a space, presumably for a spouse, on the marker. I suspect she was buried at that site, but no inscription was made.
On the other side of the marker are two names: Hester B. Jenkins and Otto M. Jenkins. Hester was one of Laura's four sisters, and the only one who was not living with Laura on 33rd Street in 1930. By the time of Laura's death Hester was living with her on 33rd Street and was the informant for the death certificate (Hester had been widowed the year before).
As noted at the beginning of the post, researching one topic can quickly lead to detours into others. What began as exploring the origins of a few stone pillars along Illinois Street quickly led to a brief history of one of the city's early female medical doctors. Turning back to the pillars, if you happen to know of any images of this stretch of Illinois Street from the late 1800s to about 1945, please let me know!
Sources
Indiana Tribune: March 14, 1891
Indianapolis Evening Minute: March 27, 1885
Indianapolis Journal: October 4, 1892
Indianapolis Star: August 30, 1922, May 1, 1923, May 16, 1931, May 13, 1941, May 31, 1943
Indianapolis News: April 25, 1889, March 14, 1891, March 21, 1891, September 18, 1891, March 16, 1892, August 26, 1892, August 10, 1907, November 5, 1907,
Normal Advance, 1903, Indiana State University Archives, https://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/isuarchive/id/33965
Indianapolis Illustrated, 1889, University Library, IU Indianapolis, https://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/IndyHist/id/8563/rec/3
Kindly medicine: Physio-Medicalism in America, 1836-1911, Haller, John S., https://archive.org/details/kindlymedicineph0000hall/page/n13/mode/2up
US Census Records, 1910, 1920, and 1930.
Indianapolis City Directories (multiple years), https://library.indianapolis.iu.edu/digitalcollections/icd