I’ve been writing about the history behind names of places on the west side, such as Stout Field and Wayne Township, and you’ve all really seemed to like it. I’ve been asking subscribers of our Westside Beat texting service for more places to look into, and many have texted me their ideas.
Some of those turned into stories, like ones I wrote about Rhodius Park and the former Central State Hospital. While doing research for those stories, I found out other facts that didn’t really fit into those stories but are still a part of westside history.
I learned about the immigrant fortune that helped fund Rhodius Park and the scandal that almost stopped it from happening, how a member of John Mellencamp’s band got a playground named after him and how the world’s richest man once helped fund libraries.
Here are those stories. Don’t forget to let me know which places you’re curious about by signing up for the Westside Beat texting service. Just text “WESTSIDE” to 317-659-7738.
How mental illnesses and women of ill repute led to Rhodius Park
The land that would become Rhodius Park, which is along Belmont Avenue between Big Eagle Creek and the White River, was bequeathed to the city by businessman George Rhodius Jr. before his death in 1909.
But the story of how that came to pass and the scandal that almost derailed the park’s founding is a complicated one.
Rhodius was the only son of George and Maria Rhodius, German immigrants who opened a successful restaurant a few years before the Civil War at 15 N. Meridian St., called the National Saloon.
The restaurant prospered, but George Rhodius, Sr. died in 1867, when his son was just 2. His wife Maria took over the business and created a real estate empire, first by building the Circle Park Hotel in the southeast corner of what would become Monument Circle. She then bought other properties downtown and became one of the wealthiest women in the city.
George Rhodius Jr., though, suffered from what doctors called a “very serious nerve disorder” that forced him to lose control of his muscles on occasions and affected his speech. His condition would worsen over the years and would contribute to his death.
He attended the University of Notre Dame, where he developed a reputation for loving “wine and women,” the Indianapolis Star wrote in 1907. Rhodius did not graduate and eventually returned home to Indianapolis.
He met Elma Dare, known as one of the proprietors of a brothel on West Pearl Street, and the two were together for years.
When Maria Rhodius died in 1905, the family fortune passed on to George Rhodius Jr.
Rhodius’ health soon began to deteriorate. In 1907, he wrote a will in which he bequeathed $500,000 worth of property, or about $16.7 million in today’s dollars, to Indianapolis for park beautification.
“I recommend that it be done with the end of giving breathing space to the poor element of our city. This being my native city and the city where my mother lived and we both loved it and wished only for its good,” Rhodius wrote in the will.
But Rhodius’ attorneys told the Indianapolis Star that he suffered a mental and physical breakdown soon afterward. Two weeks after writing the will, he and Elma Dare left the state and eloped in Louisville.
According to the Indianapolis Star, a gateman at Union Station saw them leave the Circle Park Hotel. He claimed Rhodius could not walk without her help and that he seemed “dazed.” His attorney, John Claypool, claimed Dare had kidnapped him, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The couple fled for about a month. Agents from the infamous Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency were sent to multiple states to track them down. Rhodius spoke with the Indianapolis Star while the couple was on the run and he denied being kidnapped.
Eventually, a private detective tracked the couple down at a sanatorium in Pennsylvania. Dare was arrested and both were brought back to Indianapolis. The kidnapping charges were dropped, but later that year, a Lebanon judge declared Rhodius insane, appointed him a guardian and annulled their marriage.
Rhodius died in 1909, and soon afterward, Dare introduced a second will supposedly signed by Rhodius that threatened to wipe away all he had promised to the city during his lifetime. The second will was supposedly written two months after the original will and promised to give his entire estate to Dare.
Attorneys representing Dare and the Rhodius estate filed multiple lawsuits, and former Rhodius employees sued for unpaid wages. Eventually, the lawsuits were settled, and the city’s portion of the Rhodius estate was reduced to $191,500, or about $6.4 million in today’s dollars.
The city worked to establish the park, buying parcels of land for it between 1914 and 1917.
The park was designed by famed landscape architect George Kessler, who created the first comprehensive plan for parks and boulevards in the city. His original design incorporated outdoor activities that were popular at the time, including croquet courts, horseshoe pits and shuffleboard decks. The design also included an oblong, above-ground pool in the northeast corner of the park.
A playground in honor of John Mellencamp’s keyboardist
Rhodius Park contains another little hidden gem — one that involves Indiana troubadour John Mellencamp.
On the southeast corner of Rhodius Park, next to the parking lot for William Penn Middle School 49, is a playground named after his band’s former keyboardist, John Cascella.
Cascella grew up in New Jersey but moved to Indianapolis with his family during his teens. He later attended Ball State University.
Cascella joined Mellencamp in 1982 and played on five albums. In 1990, he also co-wrote a musical tribute to teenage AIDS patient and activist Ryan White called “Colors” with musician Jeff Bowen, Mellencamp band drummer Kenny Aronoff and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.
Cascella died of a heart attack in 1992 in Hamilton County. He was an active member of organizations dedicated to preventing child abuse.
Comedians Bob Kevoian & Tom Griswold, hosts of the Bob & Tom show on radio station Q95, donated $70,000 from one of their albums to help fund a playground in Cascella’s honor. Indianapolis Public Schools and the Indianapolis Parks Foundation also helped fund the park equipment.
The playground was unique for its time, as it had accessible equipment for people with disabilities. It was dedicated in June 1994 by Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and has since been updated.
3 Carnegie library buildings still stand in Indy
In the public meeting room of the West Indianapolis branch of the Indianapolis Public Library, 1216 S. Kappes St., a gold-trimmed plaque hangs high on the wall.
It reads, “This building is the gift of Andrew Carnegie to the people of Indianapolis – 1909.” The plaque, though, is a little misleading.
The plaque belonged in a building just across the street that no longer exists — the former Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Branch 5.
The library was one of five Indianapolis built by the Carnegie Corp. of New York, the foundation established by the richest man in the world at the time, Andrew Carnegie.
In 1909, his foundation gave $100,000, or about $3.5 million in today’s dollars, to Marion County to build the libraries at Spades Park, East Washington Street, Hawthorne, Madison Avenue and West Indianapolis. The Carnegie libraries at Madison Avenue and West Indianapolis no longer exist.
The Madison Avenue Branch library, which was at 1034 S. Alabama St., was demolished in 1968 to make way for Interstate 70.
The West Indianapolis Branch library building, at 1926 W. Morris St., was built in 1912 and demolished in 1994. The Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center now stands at that location.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.
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