In the early twentieth century, one of America’s most famous writers, Booth Tarkington, called Indianapolis home, taking inspiration from the city for his best-selling novels as sprawling suburbs, booming industry, and increasing numbers of automobiles led to rapid changes in the city’s nineteenth-century core.

On May 7, architectural historian Benjamin L. Ross presents an illustrated talk at Indiana Landmarks Center using Tarkington’s work and historic photos to explore Indianapolis, highlighting the real landmarks and neighborhoods—such as historic Woodruff Place and Fletcher Place—that the author used to show the city’s transformation from the neighborly town of Tarkington’s youth to the soot-stained industrial metropolis of the 1920s.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Tarkington chronicled this period of intense growth in three novels, The Turmoil (1915), The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), and The Midlander (1923), weaving together the rise and fall of great families, the excesses of nouveau-riche industrialists, the loss of local landmarks, and the effects of burgeoning industrialization and suburban expansion.

“Tarkington’s work highlights the rapid transformation of Indianapolis during that period as tall apartment buildings and skyscrapers went up right next to familiar old landmarks,” says Ross. “It was a period of rapid change unlike anything that has happened in our lifetimes.”

The talk offers intriguing insight in advance of a walking tour of the historic Woodruff Place neighborhood on May 9. Platted in 1872 as the city’s first planned suburb, the park-like neighborhood with stately homes east of downtown famously served as the inspiration behind Tarkington’s 1918 novel The Magnificent Ambersons. Woodruff Place’s unique cultural and historic importance was recognized in 1972 when it became Indianapolis’s first neighborhood to be placed in the National Register of Historic Places.

WHAT: “Booth Tarkington’s Indianapolis,” an illustrated talk looking at the people and places that inspired novelist Booth Tarkington.

WHEN: May 7, 6-7 p.m.

WHERE: Indiana Landmarks Center, Grand Hall, 1201 Central Ave., Indianapolis and Online

COST: $5; free for Indiana Landmarks members

RSVP: BoothTarkingtonTalk24.eventbrite.com or 317-639-4534

About Indiana Landmarks
Indiana Landmarks revitalizes communities, strengthens connections to our diverse heritage, and saves meaningful places. With nine offices located throughout the state, Indiana Landmarks helps people rescue endangered landmarks and restore historic neighborhoods and downtowns. People who join Indiana Landmarks receive its bimonthly magazine, Indiana Preservation. For more information on the not-for-profit organization, visit www.indianalandmarks.org.

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Media contacts:
Mindi Woolman, Director of Marketing and Communications, Indiana Landmarks, 317-639-4534,  mwoolman@indianalandmarks.org.

Suzanne Stanis, Vice President of Education, Indiana Landmarks, 317-639-4534, sstanis@indianalandmarks.org