My visit to Indianapolis on Sunday, June 8, 2008 was the first in a series of trips that might be described as the “website-driven re-visits of places I’ve already been but have to see again because I was too stupid to take photos of myself by the landmarks when I was there the first time” tour. Fortunately, most of these places were in Ohio or fairly nearby. But regardless of this fact, I was very much looking forward to this trip which was ultimately designed by yours truly so that I could get a photograph of myself at the gravesite of President Benjamin Harrison, which I had visited previously in 2004.
So having said that, the trip does stand on its own as a memorable experience in which we did more - much more - than just the Harrison thing. Jackie and Chris accompanied me on this daylong trip to Indianapolis, Muncie, and Fairmount. We all got up at the butt-crack of dawn and headed out by 7:30am, opting not to stop to eat anywhere along the way. Jackie slept and Chris and I chatted, joked, and listened to the Silversun Pickups on the iPod. Splendid, splendid.
As I said the trip was mostly designed for Harrison, but because of my recently stated commitment to visit all of the state capitols, this was also a golden opportunity to visit Indiana’s. The first tour didn’t begin until 11am, so we hit the Crown Hill Cemetery first. After stopping at the main office where we asked a groundsman where we might find the ‘Visitor’s Center’ (to which he asked what that was for - visiting?), he let us into the closed office and provided us with a map of the grounds which detailed the locations of various famous graves.
Benjamin Harrison was our first stop which you can read more about here. Also in the amazing cemetery, the nation’s third largest, were three - count ‘em three - Vice-Presidents of the United States. Again, this has become a ’secondary’ goal to visit the graves of all of these gentlemen and the opportunity of hitting three at one time was a no-brainer.
Me and Jackie with the Harrson grave
Within nearly-spittin’-distance of each other (if you happen to have the throat muscles of Linda Lovelace), are the final resting places of two fellas who served as VP: Thomas A. Hendricks who served under Grover Cleveland during his first term for just eight months before dying in office, and Charles Warren Fairbanks who served under Teddy Roosevelt during his second term from 1905 to 1909. Okay, I didn’t say that the most famous Vice-Presidents were buried in Indiana.
V.I.P. w/ VP #1
Just yards away, VP #2
A clumsy shot of two Vice-Presidential graves, me, and my car (Hendricks is on the left closest to the car)
And finally in the VP category was the last VP of the day Thomas R. Marshall who served under Woodrow Wilson for both of his terms from 1913-1921. Marshall was probably the closest of the three who we saw that day to ever assume the Presidency, as Wilson was extremely ill during the latter part of his final term. And while we’re on the subject, it is worth noting that George Bush’s VP Dan Quayle was from Indianapolis as well. He was born at Methodist Hospital downtown. I did in fact check to see if there was a historic marker to commemorate his birth and there was not. So we skipped the hospital, not wanting to open that can of worms of visiting VP birthplaces!
And knocking on the door of the final VP
Also buried at Crown Hill were a couple of notorious chaps, infamous gangster and bank robber John Dillinger and Richard J. Gatling, who invented the Gatling gun and had it pantented in 1862. We swung by these in order to get photos and make funny faces as well.
One word about this grave and the lady gets it
Down machine gun alley was Mr. G and his sidekick Brad
We finished up in such a timely fashion that we had time to spare before embarking on the first capitol tour of the day, so we walked around downtown Indianapolis for a bit. Chris had done a little bit of research about the area and had discovered that there were some monuments around town that might be worth seeing. I wasn’t all that interested in them, but I had learned my lesson in the past about not being excited to see things that others recommended, so I went along.
We first stopped at the Indiana World War Memorial, originally designed as a WW1 Memorial, but not finished unitl after the second World War, therefore encompassing Indiana veterans from that war as well. As you can see from the photo below, it is huge, standing 210 feet tall. While walking around it in order to see some nice views of the city, we noticed that there was actually a theatre and museum inside of it. Although we were relatively rushed to get through it before our Capitol tour, it was easy to see that it was a well-done tribute to our soldiers, complete with lifesized-scenes, memorabilia, and official weaponry - including cannons (heh-heh) and a helicopter. I was impressed.
Chris and I prove that this monument is indeed big
General Pershing laid the cornerstone to the memorial
Jackie and me atop the Memorial with the obelisk, fountain, and plaza of the Memorial behind us
Chris on a soapbox about soccer, chess, Marion County, or some such topic in the memorial theatre
Finding the museum in the base of the memorial
To the Benjamin Harrison house or bust!
Casualties from the war and two-hour drive to Indy
Just another face in the cannon
Chris checks for engine trouble in the helicopter. Unfortunately he’s in the cockpit.
Then it was on to the Capitol building. We had a young fella giving us the tour and another couple with a kid along with us. Once this other tourist found out that I was a history and Presidential buff, he struggled to come up with something that he could tell me that I didn’t already know. I ended up schooling him on the history of the Harrisons in Ohio, but that’s beside the point. The tour was fun and the Capitol building was a very nice one. We saw the House Chambers and the State Supreme Court Chambers, but the Senate Chambers were closed for renovation. Below are some nice photos of some of the points of interest.
In front of the Indiana State House, my second State Capitol visit of the year (fourth total)
The two original Indiana state constitutions. The top and bottom of the case was made from a tree that stood in front of the original capitol located in Corydon
I was not invited into the office of Governor Mitch Daniels, but I tried the doorknob anyway. Locked.
Below the painting of a young William Henry Harrison ushering Lady Indiana, there’s a new Speaker of the House in town
Jackie’s favorite part of the tour
Chris the scofflaw
After the tour, we roamed the building for a bit both inside and out and then moved on to the the monument in the center of town. This cool structure was The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument serving as a tribute to Indiana veterans of American wars up to the point that it was completed in 1901. Located within Monument Circle, it stands 284 feet tall. It was upon completion of this monument that the city of Indianapolis really began to thrive with buildings going up all around it, hence the nomenclature ‘Circle City’ used to describe Indianapolis.
In front of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
Amazingly upon closer inspection, we found that this monument also had a museum inside of its base - a Civil War Museum - and again quite a good one. After touring the museum, snapping photos of ourselves doing incredibly stupid things, we stopped at the gift shop and asked about going up to the top of the monument. Unfortunately, the town had been barraged with storms over the last couple of days (we were in fact a bit nervious about coming to town at all), and the stairwell had been flooded. Nevertheless, Indianapolis proved to be a much cooler town that I had assumed it would be, with monuments, museum, and friendly people galore.
Voila! Another hidden museum!
Chris comforts a tiny soldier
This is getting “in tents”
We would have never survived the Civil War
The tomb of the unknown volleyball player
Originally we had planned to tour the Benjamin Harrison home at 12:30, but since we spent a little more time than expected downtown, we had to catch the 1:00pm tour. More about the tour of this home can be read in my Harrison posting found here. After finishing this tour, we then headed up to Muncie where I had arranged to meet an old friend, stopping for a bite to eat at McDonald’s once we arrived in town.
The trip will continue with another reunion…
Splendid. Splendid.
I love my Ohio, but I was quite jealous of some of the monuments and parks in Indy-an-apple-ous.
Chris
June 15th, 2008