South Meridian Street

South Meridian Street. Indianapolis. This photograph takes you back in time to the height of the Wholesale District of Indianapolis in 1907, when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument , a memorial to Hoosiers who fought in the Civil War , still dominates this view looking north on Meridian Street., The people in the carriages were surrounded by wholesalers selling china, glass, cigars, toys, hats, liquor, hardware and groceries., Founded in the 1860s by business leader Henry Schnull, who immigrated from Germany, the thriving Wholesale District linked the railroad freight terminals and Union Station with the city's retail hub at Meridian and Washington streets., The overhead cables you see in the photograph are for streetcars. A crate in front of Hollweg and Reese was shipped from Germany. The street light shown here inspired the 1995 re-creations you can see today along the street., The facades of the House of Crane cigar wholesaler, Schnull-Rothschild and Malott buildings still grace the streetscape. The facades were recycled and integrated into Circle Centre, as was the cast-iron facade of the Vajen's Exchange Block (now immediately north of the Malott), which was dismantled in 1980 from elsewhere in downtown, saved and re-erected.