Racing roots run deep on the west side of Indianapolis.
For more than a century, the roar of a car engine and the thrill of watching anything on four wheels and a chassis go fast have been a part of life west of the White River.
Some parts of the area’s automotive history, like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, remain relevant today. Others are long gone, leaving buildings or land as reminders.
Here’s a look at the history behind the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and several defunct car companies that burned bright on the west side.
New headlights led to the Indy 500
The 560-acre Indianapolis Motor Speedway has shaped the west side for more than a century.
It was built in 1909 as a testing facility for some of the automotive technology facilities that had set up shop in Indianapolis. The city was one of the top places for automobile production in the country at the time.
Four automotive businessmen — Frank Wheeler, Arthur Newby, Carl G. Fisher and James Allison — funded the track.
Wheeler was one of the founders of the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Co., originally based at 1234 Barth Ave. The business produced carburetors for many of the era’s car manufacturers. The company still exists as the North Carolina-based Marvel-Schebler Aircraft Carburetors LLC.
Newby was one of three founders of the Indianapolis Chain and Stamping Co., which would produce about two-thirds of all bicycle chains made in the country by 1904. The company would later become the Diamond Chain Co. Today, the Indiana Convention Center rises from the ground where the building once stood.
Fisher and Allison founded the Prest-O-Lite Co. in 1904. The business developed car headlights that used acetylene gas. Until then, vehicle headlights were essentially kerosene lanterns.
Unfortunately, the gas is volatile and would cause explosions at its plants. According to the Indiana Historical Bureau, the gas caused three explosions in 1908 at the Prest-O-Lite plant at 229 E. South St. A city ordinance that year banned the production of explosives within city limits and forced the company to plan to move production west, to what is now the town of Speedway.
The Prest-O-Lite plant was relocated to 16th Street near the IMS in 1912.
The company, along with Wheeler-Schebler, sponsored races that are considered the precursor to the Indianapolis 500 — the Prest-O-Lite Trophy Race and the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy Race in 1909 and 1910.
The first Indianapolis 500 was held on May 30, 1911. It was originally called the “International Sweepstakes.”
Fisher, Allison and Wheeler had mansions on Cold Spring Road which are now part of Marian University.
A car company for actors, royalty and a mob boss
The Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Co. was established in Indianapolis in 1920 by German brothers Frederick and August Duesenberg. Until 1937, it operated out of a 17-acre manufacturing plant at 1511 W. Washington St., which is now the IndyGo headquarters.
The company produced high-priced luxury cars that were driven by Hollywood actors, European nobility and even organized crime bosses. A new Duesenberg cost about $8,500 in 1925, which is about $155,000 in today’s dollars.
The company also produced high quality racing cars. The Duesenbergs built the first American car to win the French Grand Prix in 1921 and built cars that would win the Indianapolis 500 in 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1927.
In 1926, the company was bought by the Indiana-based Auburn Automobile Co. Its president pushed the brothers to build an even more expensive car. The company released the Model J in 1928, which quickly became a status symbol among wealthy people, including media magnate William Randolph Hearst, aircraft engineer Howard Hughes, actor Clark Gable and King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
Chicago mob boss Al Capone allegedly bought one for his girlfriend, actress Gladys Walton. New York mobster Owney Madden, who ran the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem, owned one, too.
Frederick Duesenberg died in 1932 of pneumonia he contracted after crashing a vehicle in Pennsylvania. August Duesenberg worked for several companies until he retired in Camby after World War II. He died of a heart attack in 1955. The brothers are buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.
The company did not fare well during the Great Depression. It went bankrupt in 1937 and ceased production.
Making luxury cars in Mars Hill
The Lafayette Motors Co. was a luxury car manufacturer that was based in the Mars Hill neighborhood from 1919 to 1923. It was known for innovations like the first electric clock in a car, but ultimately failed due to bad luck and high prices.
The company was founded in 1919 and was named after the French aristocrat that fought in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, known as the Marquis de Lafayette. Its emblem was an intertwined cursive “L” and “F.”
Lafayette Road and Lafayette Square Mall still bear his name.
According to an article in the fall 2024 issue of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History magazine, Lafayette Motors acquired the building that would become its manufacturing plant at 2745 S. Holt Road from a company that made shorthand typewriters for stenographers. The plant building still exists, but is unused. It was owned by the Indianapolis Statuary Co. and, later, Farnsworth Metal Recycling LLC.
Former General Motors President Charles Nash became president of Lafayette Motors in 1921, with the goal of making a better, cheaper Cadillac. He ultimately failed. Lafayette Motors produced cars that cost up to $5,000 in the early 1920s, about $80,000 in today’s dollars.
An economic recession struck the country from January 1920 to July 1921. Lafayette Motors tried to reduce prices to sell more vehicles during the downturn, but it wasn’t enough to save the company.
Nash bought controlling interest in the company, changed its name to Lafayette Motor Corp. and in 1922 sold it to his other business, Nash Motor Co. He then announced he was moving the Lafayette Motors factory to Milwaukee, which he did in January 1923.
The company didn’t last long after the move. Nash closed it in 1924 after producing only 2,267 cars. He later resurrected the Lafayette brand name for a line of vehicles produced by Nash Motors. It was eventually bought by the Chrysler Corp., which is now international automaker Stellantis.
Making cars, war machines and penicillin in the same building
The Nordyke & Marmon Co. was a luxury carmaker that operated a manufacturing plant between 1920 and 1932 in what is now West Indianapolis.
The company was founded by Ellis Nordkye and his son Addison in 1858 in Richmond, Indiana, as E. & A. H. Nordyke Co. to make flour mill equipment. Daniel W. Marmon bought a stake in the company in 1866.
The company moved to Indianapolis in 1876 and set up in the Quaker City Works, a manufacturing area in what is now known as The Valley neighborhood.
According to the company’s history, Daniel Marmon’s sons, Howard and Walter, decided to build a better luxury car than what was available in 1902 and founded the Marmon Motor Car Co.
A later version of the car they built, called the Marmon Wasp, would win the first Indianapolis 500. The car featured the world’s first known rearview mirror.
The company built a complex with multiple buildings along Morris Street and Kentucky Avenue, in what is now the Eli Lilly Tech Center and Ingredion Inc.
According to the summer 1996 edition of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Marmon used the complex until the early 1930s.
The buildings were then used by companies like the Stokely-Van Camp canning company, famous for its pork and beans. The complex was also used by aircraft manufacturer Curtiss-Wright to produce electrically controlled propellers for its warplanes during World War II. Eli Lilly and Co. began buying buildings at the complex in 1946 to produce pharmaceuticals, including penicillin and insulin.
Marmon stopped building cars but continued building car parts and trucks until the 1960s.
The former Marmon Plant 3, now used by Eli Lilly and Co. as part of its Lilly Tech Center North, is visible from Morris Street. A road at the Lilly Tech Center is named Nordyke Avenue.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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