Community Planning Initiative
Indiana Avenue Cultural District
We’re reclaiming Indiana Avenue’s legendary legacy. How? By bringing residents and stakeholders together to design a community-driven future. One that’s sustainable. Inclusive. And grounded in history, justice, and innovation.
HOW WE GOT HERE
The story of Indiana Avenue Cultural District is a story of challenge, resistance, and fortitude.
From the 1860s to the 1970s, the District was the nexus of Black community, culture, and commerce.
The neighborhood was home to Lockefield Gardens, a 1938 federal housing project, with many amenities, including green space.
From the 1920s to the 1970s, Indiana University rapidly expanded on acreage around Indiana Avenue. And a new interstate tore the neighborhood in two.
Historic preservation efforts saved the Walker Theater, Attucks High School, and the Ransom Place and Fayette Street neighborhoods. But disregard for the community’s distinctive history and racial insensitivity displaced 12,000 people from the community that they’d built.
Reclaim Indiana Avenue represents the voices of people who have always fought back to preserve its integrity and prevent its erasure.
In 2020, Reclaim Indiana Avenue helped to successfully deter a proposed five-story development project out of tune with the neighborhood’s needs and historic character.
The Time Is Now
Reclaim It
To restore and preserve a historic community gone awry of its past.
Honor It
To remember and include the contributions of those who came before.
Design It
To seek design solutions with input from the community and reflective of the same.
Reimagine It
To envision a new Indiana Avenue, made with reparative and preservative justice.
The Indiana Avenue
Cultural District
HAPPENING NEXT
The Reclaiming Indiana Avenue Planning Initiative
Our goal is to bring residents and stakeholders together to design a community-driven future, one that prioritizes people over projects and seeks to address past harms. Reclaiming Indiana Avenue is an important and rare opportunity to lay the framework to collaboratively chart a new course for the Indiana Avenue Cultural District.
Ensure the long-term viability of the District’s four distinct residential districts.
Attract new businesses and amenities that serve the community.
Build new missing “middle” housing.
Direct public and private investment.
Preserve what’s left of the area’s rich cultural legacy.
The Indiana AvenueJustice Project
The Peace Learning Center and the Ransom Place Neighborhood Association will facilitate a restorative practices process that will directly address past harms by building equitable relationships and uplifting the area’s heritage. Community members, neighbor institutions, and elected officials will be engaged in courageous conversations to share history and ideas for action on unaddressed injustices.
Get Involved
Donate to the Planning Initiative.
Follow us on Social Media.
Sign up for upcoming events and meetings.
Contact Us
Join us in planning for the Indiana Avenue Cultural District’s future - driven by community and history.
contact@reclaimindianaavenue.org
(317) 207-0826
Indiana Avenue Cultural District
Indianapolis, IN