It’s Easter weekend in Indianapolis. The trees are leafing, plants are in flower and tourists are packing the streets. At this time of renewal, it is tempting to extend the metaphor to the city, too, which over the past dozen years has gone through its own transformation. Instead of empty streets and abandoned stores, the center of town is alive — except for Union Station. A dozen years ago, the old red-brick station was restored, sparking the rebirth of the quiet town, but now it has closed again, for another remodeling. But Indianapolis doesn’t need it anymore.
St. Elmo Steak House, around the corner, has been in business for most of the century (1902). It was here when Union Station was filled with passenger trains. Back then, there was a hotel above the restaurant for transients, and there were prostitutes on Illinois Street. And that was a decade after the good burghers of the city decided development was needed and had hired Bernard Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s grandfather, to design the Athenaeum, a social club that still stands. Now you can stand at St. Elmo’s front window, look across the street and see Planet Hollywood, as good a symbol as any of the transformation.
From its 13th-floor location, the windows of Benvenuti afford a dramatic view of the development. The Italian restaurant’s proprietor has lived in New York and London; the chef says he’s a descendant of Benjamin Harrison, the town’s most illustrious citizen. And like these two men, Indianapolis is a blend of the cosmopolitan and the small town. Commercial development may have transformed the streets near Union Station, but climb aboard one of the horse-drawn carriages that clop through the streets and look at the older buildings, some of them abandoned, some with peeling paint, some with missing windows. Indianapolis is a very upbeat place that is sometimes down at the heels.
Nevertheless, this is a town that attracts the tourists. It’s a city with a new steakhouse, a sushi bar, the only Nordstrom in the state, some popular new restaurants and a multiplex. These are only a few of the town’s newer attractions. They’re what real estate people call “points of interest.” They’re interesting to see, but they don’t say much about the character of a place. Or, to put it another way, it may be a nice place to visit, but would you want to live there?
We’re only visiting, so we don’t have to answer that question. What is apparent on this quickie walking/driving tour is that change isn’t confined to the Union Station neighborhood. West of the business district is White River State Park, a carefully manicured strip of residential development and a handful of new museums, knitted together by a restored canal, popular with joggers.
A few other highlights, mentioned in the guidebooks, deserve elaboration here. Visitors to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (free) may be tempted to skip the Turner watercolors and walk through the surrounding grounds instead. A few discouraging words, however, about the building itself. Like so many “important” buildings in town, the museum is built of limestone, giving it a massive look that results when limestone blocks are piled together. Delicate it isn’t. Bedford stone is an honored Indiana product, and limestone buildings are forthright and four-square, but they look like Fascist nightmares.
That is, except for the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. It was constructed of Minnesota stone. As a result, its honey color gives it the appearance of a trading post. It could have been cute, but instead it’s virile and simple, conveying the character of the art within. The Eiteljorg is part of a complex that will include an IMAX theater and the Indiana State Museum in White River State Park.
Nearby is the Indiana State Capitol, a building that seems dwarfed by the massive, white RCA Dome just south of it. Redevelopment has brought two memorable domes to the city, and their curved tops offer visual relief to the rectangles on the skyline. The RCA dome and Market Square Arena are used for sporting events, and their overpowering presence suggest that athletics, not politics, is what matters most.
The Indiana Pacers basketball team will move out of Market Square Arena for a new facility now being built not far from Union Station. And coming soon is the headquarters for the NCAA, designed by architect and native Michael Graves. Three natives are honored in town — President Harrison, poet James Whitcomb Riley and writer Booth Tarkington — but who remembers them today? Harrison served one term as president and then came back to Indianapolis and put plumbing in his house. Riley’s poems are best forgotten, and if anyone remembers Booth Tarkington, it is for “The Magnificent Ambersons,” the source of an Orson Welles film. Harrison and Riley have homes on display. All three are buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, along with the less-forgettable John Dillinger.
Indianapolis is better represented by three other natives: TV’s David Letterman and writers Dan Wakefield and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. They grew up about 60 blocks north of Union Station. Letterman’s house is still there; on one end of his street is the grade school he attended, at the other his high school.
Novelist Wakefield could be Letterman’s older brother; he lived a few blocks away. His coming-of-age novel, “Going All The Way,” says a lot about life in Indianapolis in the 1950s.
Vonnegut’s home is gone; a D.A.R. office now occupies the site (no jokes, please). Restaurants in this neighborhood now feature outdoor dining on Saturday afternoons. And all three men have left town. But a few things survive.
On the east side of the business district, is Lockerbie Square, a 19th Century neighborhood of wood frame homes that have been restored. No hotels, no restaurants, no nightclubs; just homes, side by side. It’s a nice place to visit and a nice place to live.
Before this brief tour comes to an end, one more highlight must be mentioned. This one isn’t famous, like the Speedway or the Children’s Museum. It isn’t even a point-of-interest, but it should be, because this is where Steak ‘n Shake, the best fast food in America, has its corporate headquarters. So let us give thanks and grab a couple of sandwiches for the road. Singles, please, with catsup, mustard, onions and pickle. And an order of fries. Indianapolis may have changed, but it’s still the home of good burgers.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Weekend expenses for one: %%
Renaissance Tower Historic Inn (two nights) $189
Meals $90
Speedway bus tour $3
Parking, gas, tolls $24
Total $306
%%
TOP 10 REASONS TO VISIT INDIANAPOLIS
10. Quick drive (only three hours on the interstate — less if you drive 90 to 100, as some people do).
9. Donuts at Roselyn Bakery.
8. Room 606 at the Canterbury Hotel, where Mike Tyson attacked a young woman and knocked himself out.
7. Chicago-related sites: The massive back bar at St. Elmo Steak House brought from Chicago in 1900, an ugly sculpture from the Columbian Exposition on the grounds outside Benjamin Harrison’s house, John Dillinger’s grave at Crown Hill Cemetery.
6. Union Station. Although it’s closed, the brooding red pile is still the city’s most memorable building.
5. A bus ride around the racetrack at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which attracts everyone from Lebanon (Ind.) to London (England).
4. Monument Circle, home to the restored Hilbert Circle Theatre and Christ Church Cathedral; if Union Station is the city’s commercial center, this is its spiritual heart.
3. Steak ‘n Shake hamburgers
2. David Letterman’s home ground, on Indianola Avenue between Broad Ripple Avenue and 54th Street.
1. Steak ‘n Shake hamburgers
IF YOU GO
– GETTING THERE
Indianapolis is about 185 miles from Chicago. By car, take the Dan Ryan Expressway to either the Chicago Skyway (Interstate Highway 90) or Interstate Highway 80/94 to Interstate Highway 65 South. Take exit 114 (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) south in Indianapolis. (About 100 miles south of Chicago, construction narrows the expressway to one lane.)
Several airlines have non-stop flights from Chicago; restricted round-trip fares start at $106.
Amtrak (800-872-7245) has three trains a week; the trip takes just under five hours at a round-trip fare of $42-$62.
DINING
For a taste of fine dining on a budget, try (as I did) a soup and appetizer instead of splurging on a main course.
St. Elmo Steak House (127 S. Illinois St.; 317-635-0636): Entrees range from $19.95-$37.95, and the cheapest steak is $22.95, but their famous shrimp cocktail is only $8.95.
Benvenuti (1 N. Pennsylvania St.; 317-633-4915): Diners are shown samples of the night’s specialties at the table. Entrees priced from $28-$36.50. I had red bell pepper soup for $7.50 and spinach fettuccine for $10.50, plus a glass of wine and dessert.
Peter’s: A Restaurant and Bar (8505 Keystone Crossing Blvd.; 317-465-1155): Entrees change seasonally, priced now from $20-$35. Instead, I had a bowl of celery soup for $6 and a tuna appetizer for $12.50.
LODGING
A few blocks north of Union Station is the Renaissance Tower Historic Inn (230 E. 9th St.; 317-261-1652), an apartment hotel that sleeps four in each of its 80 remodeled suites that include a full kitchen and a sitting area. Parking also included in the $85 plus tax a night rate.
Around the station is a cluster of chain hotels (Omni, Hyatt, etc.). At the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza-Union Station (123 W. Louisiana St.; 317-631-2221 or 800-2-CROWNE) you can sleep in one of its 26 Pullman cars for $195 a night; regular rooms are $115-$165.
INFORMATION
Call 800-323-4639.
