It’s been gone for a half century, but there used to be a village right here on the Lafayette Road in what is now northwest Indianapolis. All that’s left is an abandoned farm co-op building and a county maintenance garage. Yet if you’ve ever spent any time here — encountering the two churches, the giant shopping center, and maybe even the rural historic district that all bear the village’s name — you’ve certainly heard of Traders Point. It was needlessly demolished.

Traders Point, Indiana

This land was part of the Miami Indian Confederacy upon Indiana’s 1816 founding, but was surrendered in an 1818 treaty. Settlers started to trickle into the area in the 1820s, and the first land patent in this area was issued in 1822 (to William Conner, who went on to settle in Hamilton County; his farm there is now an interactive history park). Conner believed that Indians and fur traders transacted business here, and this is probably how the area came to be called Traders Point.

TradersPointMap
Imagery and map data © 2016 Google.

The Lafayette Road was built through the area in 1831; it is said to have been a corduroy road here. A church was founded near here in 1834; it later moved to the village and became Traders Point Christian Church. It split into two in about 1895, creating Traders Point Church of Christ. Both still operate today, just farther north on Lafayette Road.

Settlers kept arriving, but it wasn’t until 1864 that a village was platted here and officially named Traders Point. Over time, it became a typical Indiana small town with a general store and a grist mill. In the 20th century, two automobile service stations opened here. Homes lined Lafayette Road on both sides. Population never crested 100.

Courtesy of Traders Point historian Ross Reller, check out these historic photographs of the village of Traders Point.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You may have noticed two photos showing Traders Point underwater. Eagle Creek frequently overflowed its banks. Floods in 1913 and 1956-57 were especially heavy and destructive. Check out this remarkable film footage of the 1956 flood, also courtesy Ross Reller. It shows a soaked Traders Point, but more interestingly also shows the homes and churches and businesses nestled here, in color.

To control the flooding, the county purchased 2,286 acres along Eagle Creek southwest of Traders Point and built a dam.

EagleCreekReservoir
Imagery and map data © 2016 Google.

The project lasted four years, from 1966 to 1970. It created Eagle Creek Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to most of northwest Indianapolis and is a popular fishing and boating spot. Much of the surrounding land was converted into Eagle Creek Park, lovely and wooded, one of the largest city parks in the United States.

I’ve lived within five miles of this park for more than 20 years and have hiked and biked and fished here many times. It’s a great park! And a side note for my longtime readers: the reservoir disrupted the Dandy Trail, an 88-mile pleasure drive around the county that I wrote about here and here.

But the people of Traders Point were hopping mad about it when it came, because the Indianapolis Flood Control Board invoked eminent domain, purchased all but one of the village’s buildings, and forced everybody out. It was apparently thought that the reservoir would permanently flood Traders Point and close the Lafayette Road here.

With the exception of the farm co-op building, Traders Point was razed. But then this land never flooded again — because as part of the flood-control project, a levee was built along Eagle Creek’s west bank. The demolition of Traders Point was wholly unnecessary.

Here’s the co-op building. The co-op remained in business until 2011; the building still stands. There were glimpses of it in the 1956 film.

Traders Point, Indiana

I took this photograph standing maybe 100 feet south of the co-op, looking north. 50 years ago, the other side of the road was lined with homes and churches.

Traders Point, Indiana

This county maintenance garage was built after Traders Point was demolished. I think it stands about where Resler’s Garage did.

Traders Point, Indiana

This little structure just south of the green shed is one of Indianapolis’s “tox drop” sites. On one Saturday morning each month, residents line up in their cars to drop off used motor oil, paint, solvents, and other toxic items that shouldn’t be left in regular trash or washed down a drain.

Traders Point, Indiana

And finally, here’s the levee that stands behind where the homes and churches used to stand on the east side of Lafayette Road. There’s a place to pull off the road and park here, and people fish off the levee all the time.

Traders Point, Indiana

And so that is what happened to Traders Point. It’s the story of a town that didn’t have to be demolished.

Many thanks to Ross Reller not only for granting permission to use his photos and video, but also for all the research into Traders Point’s history he’s done over the years, which I used extensively to write this post. His Historic Traders Point blog hasn’t been updated in a while, but it is full of great information at https://historictraderspoint.org/.

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Comments

50 responses to “Whatever happened to Traders Point, Indiana?”

  1. davidvanilla Avatar

    Fascinating historical sketch of the rise and demise of a village. Well done! I remember Traders Point; lived in Lebanon in the early 60s.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Sad that it had to go. But I wonder what would be left of it now if it had not been demolished. Could the businesses there have survived and thrived, or would this have become just another crumbling Indiana small town?

  2. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    Quite interesting…I literally drive by this area at least once a week, getting bored with my usual travel so I go west on 86th until I hit Lafayette, and then take Lafayette back to 56th. I’m not from here, and only moved here a few years ago, but when I ask people who’ve lived in the area all their lives, about these types of things, they are clueless; that’s why your blog is so interesting!

    One DOES wonder about what would have happened if they hadn’t knocked down the town. It might have ended up another crumbling town, but more likely the heating up of the Zionsville, Whitestown land grab could have meant that this might have been a popular little town if it could have held on!

    Now do me a favor and find out all about the prairie-style house on 52nd and Michigan! I’ve been driving by that place since I moved here, can never find anything about it on the internet, and have never seen anyone out in the yard I can talk to! I’m quite interested in it’s history, who was the architect, etc. My sister own a similar house in Wisconsin, with the difference being that they take their prairie architecture very seriously and it’s easy to find about twenty internet listings for almost everything in the state! Love to find out more about this place and wondering if you know. If not, you seem like the man that can do it!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Ok, so, I’ve lived in the Kessler/Michigan area for 20 years now — and I don’t know of any prairie-style house nearby! Can you pinpoint an address?

      1. Andy Umbo Avatar
        Andy Umbo

        Hi Jim,

        It’s on the southwest corner of 51st and Michigan Rd. When you’re driving down Michigan, the east side of the intersection says Grandview Dr, and the west side says 51st street. It’s on the southwest corner across the street from the Phillips 66 station, and set back from the curb (it’s a pretty big property) sits the house, white stucco and reddish (I think) trim, and usually behind a lot of foliage during the summer months. My sisters house is similar construction, but a little longer and lower, and was built in the 20’s. This one looks like it might have been in the neighborhood first, when that area was mostly un-built, like an “art-type” built a place out away from the city. My sisters house was a “Russell Barr Williamson”, who legend has it was an architect as well as a site manager for Frank Lloyd Wright. The one on Michigan was so distinctive, I noticed it right away, but can’t find info!

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Oh yes, I sort of know that house. It is *very* hard to see most of the year. I don’t know anything about it, but I’ll keep my ears open.

          The Phillips 66 station was the site of some controversy a few years ago. The building that stood there previously was discovered to contain a log cabin. The links to the stories on WISH-TV are broken thanks to them upgrading their Web site, unfortunately.

          https://blog.jimgrey.net/2010/09/13/gas-station-to-be-built-on-site-of-michigan-road-log-cabin/

  3. Ross Reller Avatar

    Jim, you have done a marvelous job of condensing the most relevant history of the area. There is a short color movie that follows the flood movie that deserves some explanation. George Wilkins, the gentleman who gave me the movie, said that the second movie depicts an explosion that occurred in the gas stations restroom when a customer through a cigarette into it. Ross

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks so much Ross! And thank you for your good work to chronicle the village’s history.

  4. Stu Williams Avatar

    Great work, absolutely compelling read. Thank you.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks!

  5. Bruce Jennings Avatar
    Bruce Jennings

    A very interesting read. I was born out here in Pike in 59 and lived here since. My mother was the first Pike Township Judge and my dad was the first Constable. When I was born we lived at 8403 N. Michigan Rd. There is a paint store there now. Our house was the only house on the east side of Michigan road from 86th street south until you crested the little hill that now goes into Bent tree apartments. The only building at the time at 86th Street and Michigan Road was an old Dinosaur at the Dino-Sinclair gas station. Amazing how Pike has changed over the years.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’ve only lived in Indy since ’94 and I’m amazed by how much Pike has changed in just that time!

      You might enjoy this old post that shows the changes over the years from the air:

      https://blog.jimgrey.net/2013/12/06/peeling-back-the-layers-of-time-2/

  6. Dan Daupert Avatar
    Dan Daupert

    Thank you Jim. I have lived in the area since birth in ’47. These pictures are a great reminder of my childhood. My father belonged to the Odd Fellows Lodge shown in one of the pictures. Lafayette Road, at one time, was the only way to get to Indianapolis from Chicago. On 500 race day, my brother and his friends would ride their bicycles to Wilkins’ Garage to watch all the traffic going to the track.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Dan, I’m glad you took a moment to write. How wonderful it must have been to grow up in the Traders Point area.

  7. Kathy Bewsey Avatar
    Kathy Bewsey

    I grew up in traders point on the corner of 79th and Moore road. The handful of us who lived in that area were all related somehow…..grandparents, cousins, 2nd cousins. My memories growing up in traders point were idyllic.
    It was very quiet out there then …. So quiet i could hear the clicking of the pasteurizing machine down the street as it collected milk. Tumble weeds, the size of small trash cans would blow thru our yards. We had a gravel pit that was our own fishing/ ice skating pond that at one time was the gravel used for Road 52 (Lafayette red).
    My grandmother owned a restaurant on Lafayette road called Burdens Restaurant. i believe it was located where the toxic dump is now. I have a picture of my mom and dad standing outside the rest., and dad is in his navy uniform.
    My father grew up in one of those houses that were torn down for the levey. I can remember those homes sitting vacant for a number of yrs before they got around to demolishing them. I also remember that vagrants would live in those abandoned houses during the summer.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thank you very much for sharing your memories!

  8. David Brattain Avatar
    David Brattain

    What great recollections! There are a lot interesting stories that have come from that area and stretch of road between old and new Traders Point. Thanks Ross.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks for chiming in!

  9. Mark Esterline Avatar

    Eagle Creek Nursery, at the corner of West 82nd Street and Lafayette Road, has been operating in Traders Point since 1916. Thanks for the article!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Wow, 100 years! I had no idea.

  10. Grace Colette Avatar
    Grace Colette

    I’ve lived in Pike for 20 years and am building a house in the original Lakeside. Bought a house built in 1930 and empty lot on 71st street just East of Lafayette road. We’re restoring the old brick house building our retirement home on the lot. Both are on Traders Point Lake which was created by Bush Run when they built the dam in 1926. It feeds into the Reservoir. This is great history of the area which continues to change.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks for adding some color! I drive right by there several times a week.

  11. Kathy Birge Avatar
    Kathy Birge

    West of Wilson Rd., hidden back in a wooded area is Caldwell Cemetery. It belongs to my family. We are from Zionsville, In. I visit it often since most of my family is buried there. It will be my resting place some day. It is a peaceful and beautiful place. So glad the flooding didn’t affect the land in and around our private, family cemetery. Thank you for this wonderful, informative story.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Oh how cool. I love hidden cemeteries! Happy my research was interesting to you.

  12. Helen Faught Avatar
    Helen Faught

    I lived on 88th Street, just a block east of Lafayette Road, from 1971 to 1984. When I moved there, the area was very much “out in the country”.
    In 1979, I was on my way home, late one night, from my job at the airport. There had been a torrential rain storm, just before I got off. After getting off I-65, at 71st Street, I turned left onto Lafayette Road, for my final stretch home.
    As I drew close to the Eagle Creek bridge, I saw a car on the other side, flash it’s headlights off an on several times. Then, under the glare of light, I noticed the rushing water. Eagle Creek had risen way over the bridge!
    I turned around, got back on I-65 and headed north to State Road 334. From 334, I headed south on Lafayette Road, only to find another torrent of water furiously washing across the highway near Kissel Road. Not wanting to take a chance, I headed back to 334 to go east.
    I finally turned south on Cooper Road and was able to make my way down to 88th Street.
    I had gotten off work at 11pm. It was 2:30am when I made it home at last.
    I’m retired now and live in southwest Georgia.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      There’s a large housing subdivision now where I-65 and 334 meet, nestled into the southeast corner. I live there with my wife. Before we married I lived at about 62nd and Michigan Rd., and so I drove up to see her all the time. I mostly took Lafayette Road. More than once I had to turn around due to flooding on that road — usually where Lafayette Road goes under I-65. So I empathize with your story!

      You would not believe how built up it is at 65/334 now. Just incredible.

  13. Roberta (Bobbie) Maines Kibbey Avatar
    Roberta (Bobbie) Maines Kibbey

    I also grew up near Traders Point….and I actually went to the ‘56 flood …my grandparents owned Snyder’s restaurant at 62 and Lafayette Rd..(then US 52). Actually, my great-grandmother started it when US 52 was a gravel road. During the flood, my grandparents made a trunk load of breaded tenderloin sandwiches and backed their Buick down from the south end of the flood, and the people waded over to get them. I actually helped pass them out. I knew all the people well, and still think about them.

    1. Bruce Jennings Avatar
      Bruce Jennings

      You must be related to Lynn Faulk. And Joann Maines.

      1. bobbiedee45 Avatar

        ..I am Lynn’s older sister, and JoAnne’s oldest. I remember serving Barbara and Carl lunch at the restaurant!🙂

    2. Jim Grey Avatar

      What wonderful memories you have! Thank you for sharing them.

    3. Pam Hadley Kidd Avatar
      Pam Hadley Kidd

      Snyder’s Restaurant was a great place to eat. The chicken and noodles were great. Always wanted that recipe.

      1. Bobbie Maines Kibbey Avatar
        Bobbie Maines Kibbey

        Thanks for remembering!…we just had chicken & noodles for Thanksgiving.

  14. darwin brewer Avatar
    darwin brewer

    I enjoyed the video of Traders Point. I grew upon the west end about one quarter mile
    and spent much of my free time at the old grocery or Rudy Hayes gas station in the 50’s. my dad helped build the coop there and later managed it. I remember during the flood of someone falling in the flood waters and someone else grabbing him from a tree as he flowed by. Also the old grocer store was made into a fire house for Pike # 2 station and was used when our house caught on fire. I used to farm a lot of the ground on the south side of 79th west of the bridge It is all grown up now.
    Darwin Brewer

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I remember a Pike #2 station from before the one that’s there now; I wonder if it was the old grocery store. It’s been a number of years and the memories aren’t clear! Thank you for sharing your memories!

    2. Pam Hadley Kidd Avatar
      Pam Hadley Kidd

      Darwin, wasn’t your dad Victor? My dad was George Hadley. He and your dad worked at the Co op together. Been to your house many times when I was very young.

  15. gmalcom Avatar
    gmalcom

    I too, am very familiar with Trader’s Point. Attended services at the (old) Trader’s Point Church of Christ as a small child in the mid-1940’s and into the early 1960’s when the new church building was constructed “up the hill” which my father and uncles, were instrumental in constructing. Several generations of my family members attended services in both buildings.

    The couple standing (more recent black and white photo) in front of the old Traders Point Grocery store were the owners, Jimmy and Olive (Wilking) Tabor. They lived next to Mamie (Parker) Glidewell. Their homes were just down the ‘hill’, across the small bridge and around the curve on the west side of Dandy Trail, facing Eagle Creek just before entering Traders Point. Her deceased husband, Canada Conley was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Hightshue) Glidewell.

    The Glidewell, Parker, Hightshue, Starkey, Burden, Furr, Snyder, Guion, Delong, Conarroe, Hollingsworth, McCurdy, Wilson families along with many other old family names were associated with Traders Point through the generations.

    I always enjoyed riding, then driving Dandy Trail into Traders Point. It meandered along the timbered ‘hills’ on its west side, with the Eagle Creek valley to its east. After turning off 56th. Street (at the old Jones Chapel Cemetery) onto Dandy Trail, the first home (up on a hill) was the Kittle family “Mansion” (as it was often called). Then up the road, there was a dairy barn or two, smaller, but very similar in design to the large Normandy dairy barn that was moved to the Indiana State Fair grounds.

    As an aside, my grandfather (born 1876), father (born 1909), and uncle (born 1912) along with a few younger helpers, built the (Krannet’s) Normandy dairy barn and I have the history of this (from one of their workers). I never learned (because they never spoke about most of their construction projects) whether they also built these smaller dairy barns along Dandy Trail. They also did construction work for J.K. Lilly, Jr., who’s home was across the Eagle Creek valley to the east. One other note, my grandfather, father and uncle were also instrumental in the (1938) construction of the Pike Township High School building at the corner of 71st. Street and Zionsville Road…..a building many of us graduated from before it became the Lincoln Middle School.

    I also remember the 1956-57 flood in Traders Point. Church members were scrambling to clear the church basement of books, etc. that were in the classrooms. Mamie (Parker) Glidewell (as did others) taught Sunday school down in those rooms. Regarding this building, if I’m correctly remembering my Dad’s history of it, back in it’s early days before Eagle Creek started (naturally, and then with human help) changing course, it had been the site of an old grist mill. Somewhere in my family archives, I have a history pamphlet that my Dad wrote about this building.

    I “thank” Jim, and Ross for sharing their history and photos of “what life had been” in the Traders Point area……a time I fondly remember.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thank you for sharing all of these memories! You might enjoy knowing that it was my time as a member at Traders Point Church of Christ in the late 1990s and early 2000s that sparked my interest in the area. As someone who moved to Indianapolis in 1994, I was curious why there were two churches on Lafayette Road called Traders Point. I asked one of the elders, a fellow who’d been there a long time, and he said that there was once a town down the road called Traders Point and that the church was in that town in a building that had been a grist mill. That made me very curious so I did a lot of research online about the area and that’s how I found Ross Reller’s pages. It fascinates me still that there’s hardly a sign that any town was ever at that location, so thoroughly has it been removed.

  16. gmalcom Avatar
    gmalcom

    Wow Jim, how interesting. So who was the Elder you spoke with? I ‘might’ remember his name.

    “Thanks.”

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’ve been struggling since you asked yesterday to recall the name. I can see his face in my mind. His wife’s, too. Her name miiiiiiight have been Peggy.

  17. gmalcom Avatar
    gmalcom

    Hi Jim,

    The last name wouldn’t have been Choate, would it?

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      That’s the name! Thank you for jogging my memory.

      1. gmalcom Avatar
        gmalcom

        I thought that’s who you might have been referring to :-)

  18. […] Traders Point gets precision details in this new interior build-out in northwest Indy. […]

  19. Ed Coonce Avatar

    From the year 1952 till 1957 I was a foster child living with the Campbells on 62nd street near the railroad tracks. Stanley Campbell, his wife Mildred (formerly Mildred Guion) and son Ronald. My sister and I attended Pike and we went to the Traders Point Christian Church. The Campbells had a farm of several hundred acres, cows, sheep, chickens, a horse or two, big barn. It’s all gone now, a big tract home development in its place. We had some wonderful times there. I’ll never forget the Little League, the Halloween pumpkin contests at Pike, donkey basketball in the gym, the fairs, Goodwin and Westfall grocery. It was my start to life. I’d love to know anyone who knew the family and my sister Juanita and I.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I think you might have best luck posting in the Marion County History group on Facebook, just because of sheer numbers of people there (compared to here). Good luck!

  20. Peter Lohmar Avatar
    Peter Lohmar

    From 1963-66 our family lived near the north end of Dandy Trail near its intersection with Wilson Rd. The house and adjoining land by then had been willed by Eli Lilly to Purdue University. Other houses there were occupied by several in-laws of the Lilly family (Glidewell, Ward, Noe?). We used to hike back in the woods (poison ivy abounded!), or go under the interstate to go to the grocery store, visit George Wilkins’ garage and see his sprint car, or to the Co-op. I remember flooding on Eagle Creek a couple times although it might not have reached the proportions shown in Ross’s 1956 film. It was a very pastoral, back to nature place, even to a kid!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I remember the Glidewell and Noe names from my time in churches in the Traders Point area, in the records. I would love to have a time machine to go back to before the reservoir was built, just to see!

      1. Bobbie Dee Maines Kibbey Avatar
        Bobbie Dee Maines Kibbey

        I was there before the demise. There was an elderly (elderly then in the late 1950’s, early 60’s) who lived in one of the houses on the east side facing US 52. She was blind, and he was devoted to her. They went to my grandparents’ restaurant everyday for lunch. But here’s the best part: they drove the coolest Ford convertible (one whose hardtop folded down automatically and stored itself in the trunk). So everyday they would pull up in their convertible, he would guide her to a table, have lunch, and they’d return home to Trader’s Point. I was heartbroken when they had to leave their home for the tear down of a town, that should never have been destroyed!

        1. Bruce Avatar
          Bruce

          It was a sad thing for lots of people when Eagle Creek went in. A lot of people were robbed of their land so some elected officials could make a pretty penny. Lots of people down towards the dam had their land taken by Eminent Domain law and forced to sell at next to nothing. Yet after the lake was built a lot of the properties off of Potter Pike was never even touched. So the original owners could have stayed on their land. Now that same property that the city paid pennys for was being sold for outlandish dollars. They knew ahead of time that certain areas were never going to be touched and the owners did not need to sell. But they also knew that after the lake went in they could get a lot ore money because the houses were on a new reservoir. So like I said lots of the original Pike residents out there were robbed by the city of their homes and property that had been handed down for generations.

  21. GMalcom Avatar
    GMalcom

    Hi Peter,
    Your question is quite interesting. I grew up knowing Canada C, his wife.Mamie (Parker) Glidewell, her brother-in-law Mancher Glidewell, and a sister-in-law Daisy; Eli Ward, Jasper Ward, Mollie (Ward) Noe; DeLongs, Conarroe’s, Jimmy and Olive Tabor (who ran the TP. store for a number of years). They lived in the next house south of Aunt Mamie’s…and I saw the 1956 flood! Yes, that whole area was very natural and “pastoral” and I loved every minute of driving the old Dandy Trail road. My cousins and I rode their horses in the Eagle Creek valley before it became the huge lake it is now. :-(

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