Meridian-Kessler is a residential neighborhood located about north of downtown

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. It is bounded on the north by Kessler Boulevard, on the east by the

Monon Trail The Monon Trail (known as the Monon Greenway in Carmel, Indiana, Carmel) is a rail trail located entirely within the U.S. state of Indiana. It runs along the main line of the Monon Railroad, a popular railroad line connecting the cities of Chic ...

greenway corridor, on the south by 38th Street, and to the west by Meridian Street. Meridian Street forms a shared boundary with the adjacent Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. Beginning in the very late 1890s, a few wealthy individuals built a smattering of country estates along Meridian Street and neighboring streets north of Maple Road, which is now called 38th Street. However, the area remained mostly open farmland. A few of the original farmhouses still stand, with the oldest one dating back to 1832. In 1905, landscape architect

George Kessler George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect. Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 co ...

redesigned Maple Road into a grand urban parkway as part of his ambitious plan to form a network of parks and boulevards in Indianapolis. Also in 1905, Indianapolis annexed Meridian Street from Maple Road/38th Street up to the town of

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, a distance of almost . The city's gradual road improvements in the area encouraged residential development. The neighborhood population boomed beginning in the early 1920s, and the area became one of the most prestigious addresses in Indianapolis. Wealthy individuals built grand homes along Meridian Street, Pennsylvania Street, and Washington Boulevard. However, the neighborhood did not develop solely as an exclusive enclave for the very wealthy, and most of the new residents were

upper-middle class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...

individuals who constructed smaller, but nonetheless stately houses throughout the neighborhood. Growth continued at a slower pace in the 1930s as the neighborhood filled up, and the wealthy continued their northern migration beyond the city limits to communities such as Meridian Hills and Williams Creek which expanded and incorporated during this decade. Nonetheless, Meridian-Kessler continued to be a neighborhood of choice for the affluent, and by the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was built-out. In 1965, the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association was formed to unify the neighborhood and protect its unique character. Today, Meridian-Kessler remains a predominantly upper-middle class area and a highly desirable neighborhood.

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* {{Coord, 39, 51, 18, N, 86, 09, 01, W, scale:8000, display=title Neighborhoods in Indianapolis 1965 establishments in the United States

See also

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