Map page 16
The Broad Ripple Gazette
Vol. 16 No. 03
Including the Cultural Districts and Midtown: Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington, and Meridian St.
BRVA Executive Director - Colleen Fanning By Mario Morone
mario@broadripplegazette.com
INDEX
Colleen Fanning became Broad Ripple Village Association Executive Director in April of last year. She recently reflected on her first nine months and her outlook on Broad Ripple’s future. (The BRVA office is located at 818 Broad Ripple Avenue.) “I’ve been the Indianapolis Marion County City-County Councilor since January 1, 2016 and have worked closely with the BRVA. I am 15 year resident of Broad Ripple. I lived in the north part of the village by the Monon Trial for about six years. I got married and moved to the village core, so I’ve seen lots of different sides of the neighborhood. I’ve had a small business (Gray Market Wine) for six years. It was my full-time job when I ran for City-County Council in 2015. Running that business full-time was not conducive with being the best public servant I could be. When the opportunity arose for me to join BRVA, it seemed like I fit with the direction the board was going. It was synergistic and serendipitous, and it’s been wonderful. I get to spend to fulltime hours in Broad Ripple as Broad Ripple goes through its next evolution, which is really very exciting. I get to spend my part-time hours on the rest of my district. I feel really fortunate that it’s worked out this way. During this part of my life, public service is my focus,” she explained. Describing the area to first time visitors, Ms. Fanning said, “Broad Ripple is Indianapolis’ original cultural district. We have a really rich history that dates back to the 1800s. It’s been a vibrant, cultural community that has gone through many different phases. There’s more to it than nightlife, and we’re poised to grow in a really healthy direction. We’re really one of the area’s only self-contained villages with dry cleaners, banks, groceries, a post office and medical services. It’s a truly village experience. You can get to everything walking or biking. There’s a nice mosaic of cultural opportunity appropriate for the whole family. We’re connected to Broad Ripple Park and the Towpath. We’re the only community connected to the Canal and White River. We’ve working on activating the white river. There are terrific opportunities for us to Colleen Fanning - City-County Councilor take advantage of those assets. Broad Ripple is and BRVA Executive Director. the most recognized Neighborhood in the state of Indiana. It has a reputation for being artistic, vibrant AND Cultural. WE ARE going into the future with an eye toward being family friendly, diverse and cultural in our offerings.” Reflecting on her accomplishments in 2018 with BRVA, she mentioned, “I would say thus far, we have really being been updating the systems and processes of the organization. We’ve been modernizing the way we do things, like our customer relations management, accounting processes and economizing our monthly office overhead. We have been focusing on working smarter and not getting bogged down with duties that take away from executing our mission. Our mission is to advance and engage the community by keeping Broad Ripple safe, clean, healthy, vibrant and welcoming for people who live, work and visit here. This organization is focused on doing things that need to be done that people don’t necessarily know get done. Recently we had some armed robberies. We were the first phone call from the IMPD North District Commander. We immediately met with the police and business owners involved, encouraged cooperation, and made sure the news media was helpful. The suspect was apprehended within two weeks and we are proud of that. We focus on things like public safety, vagrancy and litter. We mow the medians, public spaces and bring in tens of thousands of visitors through promotion and events - like the Home Tour, Duck Race and Carnival. We promote the village outwardly and take care of the village behind the scenes. This year has been about understanding where we are and where we need to go. It’s been about realizing efficiencies, fixing processes and doing the unsexy stuff that our members won’t immediately notice. 2019 is about engaging our members and telling our story. It’s a two-fold goal, helping the rest of the city and region understand Broad Ripple now and the Broad Ripple of the future. 2019 is the year I’m so excited about. Our members will see some of the changes soon and in a positive way.” Ms. Fanning listed some long-term objectives. “Enforcing the envision Broad Ripple plan is one of our biggest objectives. It may be time to revisit and modify that plan, but it serves as a great guide for a strong community. The goal is to increase the quality of life in the village.” “I would say one of our long term goals is to do a better job on engaging our members and the community at large as we have a big need for volunteers for events that the community enjoys. I encourage everybody who loves Broad Ripple to reach out to us on our website at broadrippleindy.org. You can fill out a contact form at: (https://bit.ly/2Rqifxs), attend our spring and fall meetings, volunteer and get more active. We not a tax-funded group, but a non-profit organization made up of dozens of businesses and residents that want to see the community succeed. We want everyone’s input and want everybody to succeed. We are not exclusive by any means,” Ms. Fanning noted. She mentioned various ways citizens can stay connected with the BRVA. “They can reach out e-mail information at info@brva.org and on the website to subscribe to our newsletter. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and have a blog at: (broadrippleindy.org/blognews). We have board meetings that are open to the public. We have two big public meetings. There are myriad ways to get involved in our community as a volunteer and lend time and talent and give us your input,” she emphasized. With her background as City-County councilor, small business owner and BRVA Executive Director, Colleen Fanning is helping make Broad Ripple a better place to visit and live.
Installment Two
Chapter One Coil Starts Settlement
Crossword page 13
Feb 1 - Feb 14, 2019
From your editor: I have received several requests for a reprint of the 1968 publication “A History of Broad Ripple” by The Junior Historical Society and The Riparian Newspaper, both of Broad Ripple High School. We haven’t published this information since 2004 and many new residents are now in Broad Ripple and have never read it. Where we come from is important. It has some errors. I will try to correct them as they appear. I will attempt to reprint the entire booklet. I will include each section as space permits. -AH
In 1820, a commission met at Conner Prairie Farm to select a new site for the capital of Indiana. The place of this meeting is now known as the Conner Prairie Museum near Noblesville. The commissioners decided to move the capital from Corydon to a location in the center of the state. The site, later named Indianapolis, was chosen not only because of its central location, but also because it was situated on supposedly navigable White River. As early as 1821, pioneers began settling the area near the present site of Broad Ripple. Yet it was not until 1837 that people started coming to the area in great numbers. In late 1836 or early 1837, construction began on the Indianapolis link of the Central Canal, one of the many projects in canal building which followed the completion of the great Erie Canal in 1825. John Burke, who had helped in the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal, which was to extend from Evansville to Terre Haute, supervised the construction job which involved many people. With the influx of these canal workers, settlements were laid out in the area. April 20, 1837, Jacob Coil from Virginia plotted 48 lots seven miles north of Indianapolis on the south bank of White River. The first written reference to the name “Broad Ripple” was found in 1837 in Jacob Coil’s will. According to Barry R. Sulgrove in History of Indianapolis and Marion County (1884), Coil named the area Broad Ripple because the “ripple in the river at this point was the largest and widest in the country.” This ripple was so large, it was said that only one man, Isaac Simpson, could throw a stone across it. Prior to 1837, the area was called “Ripple” or “Riffle” by the local settlers. May 17, 1837, four weeks after the Coil plots were laid out, James A. and Adam R. Nelson plotted 32 lots south of Coil’s. The settlement was named Wellington in honor of the Duke of Wellington and his great victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. The two communities, separated by the canal–Broad Ripple to the north and Wellington to the south–were intense rivals from the very beginning. This rivalry arose from the desire of each settlement to be the most important village at the head of the newly started canal.
Founder In 1835, Jacob Coil, his wife, and children left their home in Hamilton County, Virginia and moved to Indianapolis. Two years later, Coil surveyed 48 plots of land northeast of Indianapolis on the south bank of White River–the area which became Broad Ripple.
This photograph in the original pamphlet was labeled as being of Jacob Coil. Sharon Butsch Freeland, Local Historian, contacted us several years ago with an observation. “The photo cannot possibly be of the Jacob Coil who founded Broad Ripple, since he died two years before photography was first introduced in England and France. Photography didn’t come to the United States until after 1839. This photo is probably his son, Jacob Conrad Coil, who was born in 1818 and died in 1878.”
This completes Chapter 1 of the booklet. Chapter two will appear in a future issue of the Gazette. -AH
1 Colleen Fanning
5 Sertoma awards
7 Mistakes winner
11 Random Rippling brkfst
13 Crossword
1 History of BR part 2
5 BR Brewpub Quiz
8 Buzzing Around Town
11 Random Rippling CBD
14 Wine Scene Jill A. Ditmire
2 Random Rippling Upland
6 Classified Ads
8 Random Rippling pick up
12 Where in the Village?
14 Random Rippling Crispy
3 January zoning
6 Public Notices
9 Broad Ripple Museum
12 Hidden History
15 Directory / Maps
3 Calendar
7 Random Rippling Online
9 Poetic Thoughts
12 Sudoku
19 Right in my Own Backyard
4 Random Rippling Bad Plus
7 Local Contacts
13 Historic Ad
20 Random Rippling library
10 Round the Ripple