Meridian-Kessler

Description

This prestigious neighborhood looks down upon the rest of the city from a series of high hills. Most of the homes here are expansive Tudor-style manor houses, though there are a few examples of more modern styles, as well. The area is quiet, and save for a few lights on in windows, here and there, the locals seem to be asleep.

Rumors

A number of powerful and useful kine dwell in this area, though exactly which ones and where is speculation.

Traits

Physical: Access –2, Safety +3. Winding roads, high hills and a lack of local points of interest serve to keep out the hoi polloi, but the police are quick to respond to the rare incident here.
Mental: Information +1, Awareness +1. While affluent, the people here are only marginally well informed and tend to assume that they are safe and secure.
Social: Prestige +4, Stability +3. Those who live in this wealthy, law-abiding community are envied by many.

Haven Qualities

Location 2, Security 4, Size 4. While hunting is a bit of a chore here, havens tend to be large and defensible.

History

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. Currently, a handful of the original area farmhouses still stand, with the oldest one dating back to 1832.
In 1905, the famous landscape architect George Kessler redesigned Maple Road into a grand urban parkway as part of his ambitious municipal plan to form a network of parks and boulevards to connect the City of Indianapolis. Also in 1905, Indianapolis annexed Meridian Street from 38th Street (formerly Maple Road)[2] up to the town of Broad Ripple, a distance of almost 2 miles (3.2 km). 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 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 tony 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 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 predominately upper-middle class area and a highly desirable neighborhood. Meridian-Kessler has achieved some degree of racial diversity, but it is less integrated than the neighboring Butler-Tarkington community.

Type

Neighbourhood

Location under

Indianapolis