My second-favorite facade on Indy’s Monument Circle is the Lacy Building. (My favorite is the art-deco Circle Tower.)
Even though it says LACY prominently over the arch, a lot of sources call this the Test Building. It was named for, and built by the heirs of, Charles Edward Test, who had led the National Motor Vehicle Company. Historic photos of this building show a TEST plaque up there. I wonder when the building changed its name.
Completed in 1927, the Lacy, nee Test, building featured one of the city’s first parking garages, right inside the building. The entrance was (is?) on the north side next to the alley. Two hundred cars could be parked here, on six of the building’s upper stories. I’ve read that some parking is still available inside, I presume for the building’s tenants.
Placing a parking garage on the Circle was controversial in the 1920s. To pave the way, the builders designed a detailed, conservative neoclassical revival exterior
Of course it’s faced in limestone, a material quarried abundantly in our state.
