IRVINGTON HALLOWEEN TOUR 2018 1. 312 S. Downey Av, BENTON HOUSE (1873) This unusual one and one-half story example of French Second Empire structure was built by Nicholas Ohmer as a speculative property in Irvington’s Woodland Addition. Dr. Allen and Silence Benton resided in the home during his tenure as Butler’s president from 1886- 91. One Halloween Butler University students, as a trick, took Dr. Benton’s carriage out into the country. After a ride of some distance, the trick was reversed when the voice of Dr. Benton came from inside the carriage saying, “Well, boys. We’ve gone far enough. Let’s go home.” 2. 5432 University Av, GRAHAM-STEPHENSON HOUSE (1889) The home was built by W. H. H. Graham, a Civil War veteran, attorney, and American Consul to Winnipeg, Canada. During the 1920s, it was the chapter house Butler University Greek societies Phi Delta Theta; Kappa Kappa Gamma; and Chi Rho Zeta. In 1923 D. C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, bought the house and added the full height Ionic portico. In March 1925 Stephenson brutally assaulted Madge Oberholtzer while on a train to Chicago. She was brought back to Indianapolis and left in the garage apartment behind the house for a time before she was returned to her home. Madge died the following month and Stephenson was tried for second degree murder and sent to prison. Fifty- one years later in July 1986 the garage apartment was home to three men. An argument ensued over cleaning up a grape Kool-Aid stain on the carpet. Dennis Wayne Brown tomahawked Thomas Felts three times in the back before shooting him in the head. Brown then shot Charles Hoskinson in the head. Brown fled to Florida where he was arrested and returned to Indianapolis. Brown was tried and convicted of the murders and sentenced to 100 years in prison. 3. IRVING CIRCLE PARK Irving Circle Park is Irvington’s centerpiece. The children of Irvington’s first school (located on the outer south east quadrant of the circle) used this park as a playground. Today Irvington children still play in the circle and the entire community enjoys summer concerts. A bust of Washington Irving, the 19th century author of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the community’s namesake, is located on the north side of the park. The park is the site for Spooky Stories during the annual Irvington Halloween Festival. 4. 5631 University Av (Southwest Quadrant), EUDORUS JOHNSON HOUSE (1876) Known as “the Castle,” Eudorus Johnson, the son of one of Irvington’s founders Sylvester Johnson, had this Victorian Gothic house built with three-foot thick walls and turrets at the front and back. The Rev. Harry and Anna Earl resided here in the 1890s. During the summer of 1899 the Earls went to their cottage on Lake Macatawa, Michigan, and it was there that tragedy befell them. Fifteen year-old Percy Earl contracted typhoid fever and died in July. A month later his mother Anna Magarey Earl also succumbed to the illness. The house also served in the ‘20s as the chapter house for Butler College sorority Alpha Delta Pi. 5. 320 S. Audubon Rd, BELZER HOUSE (c. 1895) This Queen Anne Style house was the home of Francis and Prunetta Belzer. Francis “Chief” Belzer was a founder of the Boy Scout movement in Indiana. In 1911 he organized Troop 9 at the Irvington United Methodist Church and he served many years as president of the Central Indiana Boy Scout Council. Chief Belzer is memorialized in the name of the Boy Scout Camp in northeast Marion County. IRVINGTON HALLOWEEN TOUR 2018 6. 5939 Beechwood Av, KILE OAK This Bur Oak has been preserved in its natural state by the Irvington Historic Landmarks Foundation. The tree is estimated to be over 400 years old. It has a spread of 125 feet and it is over 50 feet in height. It is the largest Bur Oak in any Indiana metropolitan area. Civil War veteran Rev. Oliver Kile had a two-story house built on this lot in 1901 for his family of eight children. Over the years, many visitors came to gaze upon this magnificent tree and record their impressions in the “Kile Oak Visitors Register.” The tree has suffered from recent storms and age. 7. 5751 University Av, IRVINGTON COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL This building was formerly the Marion County Children’s Guardian Home, a public institution for the care of mistreated or neglected children. The home was re- located to Irvington in 1898, and the original wood frame white-painted Colonial Revival structure burned in 1915. It was replaced the next year by this Georgian Revival dark brick building with Indiana limestone moldings. Over the next eighty- three years various additions were added and renovations completed. Irvingtonians have long supported the mission of the home through the community-based Marion County Guardian’s Home Guild and the Pleasant Run Run mini-marathon. The sculpture “Hope” on the front lawn evokes the mission of the former home. In the early 1950s the infamous Rev. Jim Jones was the spiritual counselor and recreation director of the home. The Guardian Home closed 2009 and in the fall of 2010 the Irvington Community High School began holding classes in the building. 8. 5802 University Av, OBERHOLTZER HOUSE (1909) Dr. Franz Abendroth, a specialist in treating women’s diseases, had this Queen Anne Style house with Colonial Revival details built for his home and practice. In 1916 it became the home of George Oberholtzer, an inspector for the U. S. Railway Mail Service and vice president of the U. S. Railway Mail Clerks Association. In the spring of 1925 his daughter Madge Oberholtzer, a Statehouse secretary, was brutally assaulted by Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson while accompanying him on a train trip to Chicago. Following the attack, she was brought back to her Irvington home where she died from infection in the wounds that Stephenson inflicted upon her. As she lay on her deathbed, black sedans, presumably driven by Klan members, from time to time drove past the house to intimidate the Oberholtzers. Madge provided a deathbed statement which was instrumental in Stephenson’s subsequent trial and conviction. 9. IRVINGTON SCHOOL (255-261-263 S. Audubon Rd; 5703 University Av – Southeast Quadrant (Site) The Free Classic and Craftsman Style double-houses on this site mark the location of the Irvington schoolhouse. Built in 1873, the schoolhouse was a two-story building with a mansard roof and tower. It burned in 1898 and a second schoolhouse was erected. It was also destroyed by fire in 1903 and a third schoolhouse, Indianapolis Public School #57 George W. Julian School, was built at East Washington St and Ritter Av. 10. PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD For almost 130 years Indianapolis was served by a rail line running due east of the city. The Indiana Central Railway was completed in 1853 and, through various mergers, this railroad became the “Panhandle,” (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad), and later the Pennsylvania Railroad. With the location of the Irvington Depot at the northeast corner of South Audubon Rd at the railroad crossing, this area quickly became the town’s business IRVINGTON HALLOWEEN TOUR 2018 district. The railroad brought joy and sadness. In 1865 President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train came to Indianapolis along these tracks, and there have been wrecks and crossing accidents with the loss of life. Apprehension accompanied departing troop trains with elation accompanying their return, and there were happy greetings on the arrival of a friend or relative. The depot closed in 1922 and was razed. West of this crossing at Ritter Av stood a signal house atop a massive steel pillar. By 1982 the line was abandoned and the double tracks removed. The land was sold to adjacent property owners and, in some areas, fill dirt and new construction have obliterated evidence of the railroad. Indianapolis Greenways developed the “Pennsy Trail,” that starts at Ritter Av and will eventually extend east to Cumberland. 11. 115 S. Audubon Rd, GEORGE W. JULIAN-CLARKE HOME (1873) This Italianate Style house was built for George Washington Julian, brother of Irvington co-founder Jacob Julian. An ardent abolitionist, Julian was a founder of the Republican Party and United States Representative from Wayne County, Indiana. He championed homestead legislation, served on the Committee on the Conduct of the War, authored the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, and sponsored the first bill providing for women’s suffrage. While residing in Irvington, he was appointed Surveyor General of New Mexico. His daughter, Grace Julian, married attorney Charles Clarke. Both were influential on the social issues of the day. Grace was active in the organization of the Federation of Women’s Clubs and wrote a column in The Indianapolis Star. Charles was active in the Democratic Party and served a term in the Indiana State Senate. Over the decades the Julian- Clarke residence hosted such persons of note as Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Presidents Cleveland, Harrison and Wilson. 12. 108 S. Audubon Rd, DR. ROBERT LONG HOUSE (1875) Dr. Robert Long had this house built and resided here until 1889. Long Hospital at the Indiana University Medical Center complex is named in his honor. Dr. John F. Barnhill had his practice in this house when three Irvington boys rushed to it in August 1895 to tell him of a gruesome find. The lads had been exploring the cellar of a house at Bolton and Julian Avenues that had been rented to H.