The Homecroft Historic District is a national historic district bounded roughly by Madison Avenue, Southview Drive, Orinoco Avenue, and Banta Road in Homecroft, Perry Township, Marion County, Indiana. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1996.

History

In 1900, the Indianapolis, Columbus & Southern Interurban Company began service on an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

rail line extending from downtown Indianapolis to several nearby towns. ''Note:'' This includes and Accompanying photographs The line ran along Madison Avenue. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, increasing use of the automobile and

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

led people to relocate farther from urban centers. The Homecroft site, located from downtown alongside the Madison Avenue interurban, was a desirable location for relocation. In 1923, the Frank E. Gates Real Estate Company bought the land and named the area "Homecroft". The firm consisted of Frank Gates and his son Oliver, and they had already developed several subdivisions in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

Description

The Homecroft Historic District is typical of 1920s suburbs built for middle-class families. It consists of 63 structures spread over . Some of the homes are patterned after model houses built by the Gates Company, while others are based on designs chosen by the original lot buyers. The houses are single-family homes; most are of modest size, one or one-and-a-half stories covered with brick or stone veneer. Architectural styles include Bungalow, American Craftsman,

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

, and

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

. Sidewalks were run through the area in the 1930s by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, and the Gates Company planted maples along the streets, which are now mature. The district has remained cohesive despite the later encroachment of commercial strips along Madison Avenue, and has maintained the feel of a small

satellite town Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

References

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Colonial Revival architecture in Indiana Tudor Revival architecture in Indiana Historic districts in Marion County, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Marion County, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Indianapolis {{MarionCountyIN-NRHP-stub