By Connie Zeigler
I spent a recent week on the ninth floor of the newly re-christened Flagstar Bank building at One North Pennsylvania
Connie Zeigler is a resident of Fountain Square who holds a master’s degree in history. She is an architectural historian who operates a green preservation consulting business. C Resources, Inc. offers a variety of writing services as well as historic research, national register nominations and preservation planning.
Street. While I was there, I took time to admire the view of the city from the expansive conference room windows. The familiar buildings that we appreciate, or not, at ground level have a different air about them from 90 feet or so above the sidewalk.
The best thing about being at the level of the tops of many historic buildings is the chance to see the beautiful details that are either not present or covered up by later facades at the ground level.
Many historic buildings, and it would seem few modern ones, display their most elaborate elements of decoration at roof line. Alterations and resultant losses at street level are one reason for this. Especially in the 1950s and 1960s, merchants updated their buildings with sleek new entry-level facades. Luckily for us, they usually left the upper stories alone, and it is here among the rooftops that we can get a feel for how these old buildings originally appeared.
The main reason that building tops are more interesting than building bottoms is that in the early 20th Century, when the city’s builders and architects were just beginning to design these very tall, steel-framed skyscrapers, they expressed their pride in gee gaws along the roofline. They knew that residents would gaze up in wonder at these design exclamations along the tops of the vertical buildings.
The 13-story Flagstar Bank Building has been altered at street level. Sleek 1960s marble now covers the first floors, but Italian-influence limestone details remain above. Take a look at the lion and human heads carved in limestone that form a beltline just below the top stories of this building. How did we miss seeing those?
Down the street, the former Merchants Bank building stands at the corner of Washington and Meridian streets and now houses the Border’s Bookstore. According to the “Encyclopedia of Indianapolis,” this was the city’s first real skyscraper when it was built 17-stories high in 1913 and remained the tallest building in Indianapolis until the completion of the City/County Building in 1962.
Local newspapers talked about the gods’ eye view from the top of this building. Any Olympians gazing over the limestone details at the top of the red-brick building could not have helped but notice the animal heads (they look like raccoons, but my guess is they are bears) in the stone medallions beneath the eave. Looking up from street level on Washington Street, it’s almost impossible to discern these heads.
Many of the most beautiful rooftop embellishments were created out of terra cotta. Some Downtown buildings are veritably dripping with this glazed white icing along their upper stories.
The five-story brick building at 42 East Washington St. is unremarkable until you look down on it from above. Its double shed roof is interesting, sloping both toward the façade and the rear from a central ridge. Even more intriguing is the trace of a former neighboring building’s roof line still visible along its brick side, although that building is long-gone. And more interesting yet, is the ghost sign, painted just below 42 East’s roof ridge. Faded now until it is almost indecipherable, it refers to a long-ago Indianapolis business, “- – rtig & Kevers.” The Indianapolis City Directories show that Fertig and Kevers were painters and fresco-makers. In 1914 they were located on Capital Avenue, but previously had occupied several other locations. Sometime in the decades-long history of their business they were either located at this address or considered the spot on this building, visible over the roof of the now-gone neighbor, a good one on which to advertise.
A ninth-story window provides a better vantage point to appreciate upper-level architectural details on historic office buildings.
One door west of the Fertig & Kevers building, the skinny, three-story, nondescript building at 38 E. Washington St. is altered at street level. But perched upon this brown-brick edifice’s roof top are two lovely terra cotta urns, one at each end of a limestone-balustrade on the parapet front. These may be my favorite of the many surprises one can find when looking down on Indianapolis.
Panning to the north, I could see the monumental details on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument from eye level. That monument, dedicated to those who died in the Civil War, but not finished until well into the following century, holds up well against its background of modern skyscrapers.
This skyscraper-scape of the city was marred by only one thing – the disappointment I felt that no amount of craning and stretching could bring into view one of my historically favorite buildings, the When Department Store. Once located at 36 North Pennsylvania St. and known as much for the apocryphal story of how it got its name (“When” is it going to open?) as for its Second-Empire style beauty, the When was demolished a couple dozen years ago. Its absence should serve as a cautionary tale to us. Appreciate the view of our historic buildings while we can, and, if necessary, go to great heights to do so.
Connie Zeigler is president and owner of C. Resources, Inc. Connie is a writer and a historic preservationist who consults on preservation and greening of historic buildings. She lives in Fountain Square and blogs at INArchitecture on cresourcesinc.blogspot.com.
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Great article Connie! Lately I have been obsessed with taking photos of the downtown skyline on the most sunny and blue sky days . . . At night, I think we have a beautiful city, I LOVE how nicely some of the buildings are lit up. I agree with you 100%, I think the rooftops of Indy are totally cool and come to find out, we have great buildings from a higher vantage point. The detail of the historic buildings that are still standing is amazing – such intricate craftsmanship. . . Stick me in a high-rise office building and I am glued to the window gazing out across the city.
Its interesting that you bring up the “When Store” . . . I was just flipping through the Indiana Historical Society postcard book to find a few historic building photos to frame for my office. I contemplated framing the postcard of the When Store however every time I see that photo my heart is crushed. I didn’t know where it was until you just mentioned it. UGH. How awesome would it be if that building were still standing today??!! At least we still have the Athenaeum, Union Station, the Murat Shrine Temple, Scottish Rite Cathedral and others so I guess we are fortunate that we didn’t loose ALL of our history – but hey, that’s in the past and now we have what we have. . . Anyway, great article celebrating the upper floors and roofs of our city.
Sandra, I remember the When building. I think it must have been torn down in the late 80s early 90s. In it’s last years it housed Stationer’s and had lost most of its grand details. Still, it was something special. I wish it were still around. Thanks for the comment.
As a former general manager of the Borders downtown, I was a happy resident of the old Merchants Bank Building. As we prepared our store for opening, we took great care in preserving the look and feel of the original bank lobby decor. The beautiful, but irregular marble floor was kept at the expense of level surfaces. People would walk in and marvel at the enormous pillars and the turn of the century clock. We even served our espresso drinks out of one of the old teller windows with the iron grating. As your article states, Connie, the ground level had changed for access but looking upward, even inside, was very rewarding.
One more anecdote: I was brought downstairs one day to view the largest bank vault door I have ever seen. It is a circular door, probably 10 feet in diameter and at least 4 feet thick. The exterior is glass, showing the most intricate brass gear structure. It takes tem minutes to open. Hard to fathom in this drive-thru age.
One of the greatest of downtown losses was the old Indiana National Building at what is now Jefferson Square (Scottys Brewpub). Old photos show a one or two story building that wedged in that space that was very lovely in its use of limestone. Some hints of that work were exposed with the facade work going on in the building behind it.
Having worked as a high rise window cleaner in Indianapolis for several years from the early ’80s to the early 2000′s, and being a lover of urban architecture, I can really appreciate this article. While I was there to work, while hanging in my seat board on almost every building in the Mile Square over the years, I couldn’t resist swinging over to get a look at the stone details of many of our older downtown buildings. Besides all the classic “egg and dart” trim carvings that abound, it has to be the Test Building on the Circle that is home to downtown’s most unique stone carvings. At about the third floor level on the Circle and Market St. sides are panels that include carvings of an early twentieth century automobile, an airship, the State Capitol and my favorite, a biplane. The first time I rappelled on the Test Building, I couldn’t wait to make my way down to examine those carvings. Another often overlooked building with elaborate stone work on its exterior is the Old Trails Building on Washington St. across from the State Capitol (although I believe those features are cast terra cotta instead of carved).
Creeping middle age and “economic pragmatism” eventually forced me to move on from high rise window cleaning. However, as a lifelong lover of my hometown of Indianapolis and of early to mid-twentieth century architecture, despite the often grueling and dirty nature of the work, being able to take in the city from so many vantage points over the years was a fringe benefit that kept me “hanging around” that line of work through much of my younger years. I took quite a few photos at least, and was featured in two separate local TV interviews (WRTV and WXIN) and had my picture in the Star and News several times.
Regarding the “When” building, I believe it was as late as the late ’90s when it was finally demolished. At the time, it was said to have been the oldest surviving building in the Mile Square, other than Christ Church on the Circle (1870). Built in 1874, when I was last in the “Ober Building” as it was known since the ’40s (which is when it was “modernized” aka: ruined), it was in deplorable shape. The floors creaked and slanted, doors stuck and a musty odor was everywhere. Regardless, had it not been so badly altered in the ’40s, it would have been worth saving. As it stood in the ’90s, regardless its historical significance, razing it unfortunately was the best option really.