Exploring your neighborhoods
Each month, we introduce you to a neighborhood association and its president. Our goal? To make it easier to get involved in your neighborhood. Use this map to find your neighborhood association. Check the “Neighborhood Organizations” box and scroll through the alphabetized list.
On one October night every year, Cottage Home fills up with music, kids running around in costumes, pumpkins and mums. It’s the near eastside neighborhood’s annual block party, a fundraiser and a celebration.
It started in 1984, as a neighborhood cookout, around the same time as Tim Harmon’s birthday. Harmon, a neighbor, owned the Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum on East 10th Street. Now, the party is a 40-year tradition, free and open to anyone. This year, the party is Oct. 11.
“The whole neighborhood gets together, and the day before, hang paper lanterns and little paper ghosts the kids make,” said Bri Jones, Cottage Home Neighborhood Association’s president. The neighborhood’s block party committee, led by Amy Lapka and Kacy Ray, plans the festival each year.
Jones, 31, lives in Cottage Home with her husband, Andrew, their toddler daughter and their dog, Molly. They moved to Cottage Home in 2018, from Fountain Square. They wanted to live near downtown, and Cottage Home was affordable at the time.
“Actually what sealed the deal for me is, we pulled up to the house and my next-door neighbor was outside sweeping the sidewalk,” Jones said. “You can tell the neighbors care about where they live.”
Jones started getting involved in her neighborhood by taking on the membership chair role in the neighborhood association. Her first challenge was automating the process to get neighbors to pay the $10 membership fees that fund repairs and upkeep to the brick sidewalks and the Community Space, a neighborhood-owned park. The previous chair, who had the role for 20 years, hand-delivered letters reminding residents to renew their membership.
Jones, who became president in January, said she loves the effort her neighbors put into connecting with each other and preserving Cottage Home, which was named for the colorful old houses built between 1870 and 1900.
One neighbor, Joan Hostetler, is a historian who serves on the association’s board as the history and archives chair. She hosts meetings once a quarter to teach her neighbors how to research the stories of their homes.
She’s collected old photos, but walking through the area, you’ll still see historical spots like Dorman Street Saloon, a bar that’s gone through many name changes but keeps its reputation as a place John Dillinger — a legendary bank robber who grew up in Mooresville — frequented.
Just down from Dorman Street is the Ruskaup store, a big brick building that was a grocery store on the first floor and living space on the second. A German immigrant family built it in the 1870s, and in more recent times, retail stores have cycled in and out of the space.
Just behind the Ruskaup buildings is the Cottage Home Community Space. It has a community garden with plots you can rent; picnic tables; a chalk board; and lights strung across the ceiling of a sheltered area. Here, people in Cottage Home host birthday parties and weddings, enjoy the annual block party, which will be held Oct. 11, and go to neighborhood association meetings.
Neighbors created the space and the garden, Jones said. They also maintain it, along with the brick sidewalks.
Jones walks as much as possible in her neighborhood, to Sidedoor Bagels or the dog park on Polk Street, where portraits of neighborhood dogs are painted on the side of a building. Under the I-70 overpass, by the bagel store, a mural shows a view of the Cottage Home from Highland Park, along with a neighborhood family’s dog, a corgi named Ernie.
She loves how close the neighborhood is to the Factory Arts District and her office in Bottleworks.
“You can walk everywhere,” she said. “My goal is to never use my car, other than when I drive my daughter to day care.”
As she walked through Cottage Home during an afternoon in late April, Jones pointed out houses, and talked about how the people in those homes have contributed their talents. Addie, who’s since moved, had an art studio in her garage and painted Jones’ garage door.
Another neighbor, Heath, started a garden center in the nearby North Mass District and does the landscaping for Cottage Home. Heather, who specializes in historic restoration and has helped keep some of the old homes beautiful. And there’s Julie, who helped make the Pogue’s Run Trail a reality.
“The neighborhood that many of us love and appreciate today came because of the hard work of a lot of neighbors before us,” Jones said. “I’ll be curious to see what the neighborhood looks like in 20 years or so, just because there’s so many neighbors with very unique talents who have been a part of building it up over the last 30 years.”
As president of the neighborhood association, she sees her role as an opportunity to encourage people to keep moving forward.
“My role as president is to not have opinions on things — it’s to stay relatively neutral because people can be heated about their neighborhood things,” she said. “And when people start to get into spirals, I will be like, ‘What’s the action we’re going to take?’”
Related
Cottage Home in photos: Scenes from the near east side neighborhood
See photos from around Cottage Home, known for its charming historic homes and annual block party.
She wants more neighbors to get involved, though. The Cottage Home Neighborhood Association holds meetings every even month of the year: February, April, June, August, October and December. Plus, there are two cleanups a year, an Easter egg hunt and events in the community space, like a jazz concert that’s open to the public on June 1.
The neighborhood has about 180 members, and 10 or 20 people show up at most meetings. The most popular meeting is in October, when about 50 attend.
Before the festival, neighbors paint a mural on the chalkboard at the community space. Cottage Home’s artists and vendors start to set up tents. Jones calls it a “magical” day, one that’s gotten more popular every year.
“It’s just like a really fun, beautiful festival that is fully put on by neighbors,” she said.
Learn more about Cottage Home
If you live in Cottage Home and want to get involved, Cottage Home Neighborhood Association meetings are at 7 p.m. the first Monday of February, April, June, August, October and December. In the warmer months, neighbors meet outside in the Cottage Home community space. When it’s cold, they meet in the cafeteria of Paramount Cottage Home. The next neighborhood association meeting is June 2 at the community space.
Board members meet at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at the Triple A house, a white house by a roofing company. Neighbors are welcome.
Corrections were made on Sept. 10, 2025: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated who plans the Cottage Home Block Party. The block party committee plans the annual party.
An earlier version of this article misstated the purpose of the first block party. The block party was a community potluck.
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Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young covers services and resources. Contact her at sophie.young@mirrorindy.org.
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