At a recent Mirror Indy Chat N Chew event in Hawthorne, a resident told me they wanted to know where the neighborhood’s name came from. I told them the truth: I had no idea.
But the conversation inspired me to look into the origins of the four near west neighborhoods — Hawthorne, Haughville, Stringtown and We Care — plus its neighbor to the south, West Indianapolis.
Each neighborhood has distinct beginnings. Here’s how a tavern, an iron foundry, a boast about fishing, livestock and a love for fellow neighbors helped form the communities we know today.
Hawthorne got its land from a journalist and its name from a novelist
Hawthorne was originally called Mount Jackson.
In the early 1820s, George Smith — publisher and editor of the city’s first newspaper, the Indianapolis Gazette — bought a farm about two miles west of the White River. He named the farm Mount Jackson after his hero, President Andrew Jackson. The farm was located along the National Road, the former name of Washington Street or U.S. Route 40.
Smith died in 1826 and his stepson, Nathaniel Bolton, who would become the state librarian, and his wife, Sarah Bolton, a poet and active supporter of women’s property rights, opened up a tavern along National Road. The couple threw parties and dances for locals and members of the Indiana General Assembly during their yearly sessions.
Soon pubs and stables began setting up in the area, and a group of businessmen decided to formally call the area Mount Jackson village.
The Boltons sold their farm in 1845 to the state, which used the grounds to build Central State Hospital, an asylum for people with mental illnesses.
In 1889, village leaders voted to incorporate Mount Jackson. It remained an independent town until 1897, when Indianapolis annexed it and other westside towns.
Seven years later, Indianapolis Public Schools built its School 50 on the corner of North Germania Avenue, now Belleview Place, and West Ohio Street. It was named after author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Gradually, the entire neighborhood took on the name.
The former School 50 is now the Legacy Learning Center, a private Islamic school. And, the former Central State Hospital is now the site of hundreds of houses and apartments, the Christel House Academy West charter school, and many art and design businesses.
The city is looking to redevelop the 6-acre Central State Grove and five other properties, including the former Indianapolis Fire Station 18.
The neighborhood that grew out of iron
Haughville is named after Haugh, Ketcham and Co. Iron Works, an iron foundry established by brothers Benjamin and Joseph Haugh and John Lewis Ketcham.
The company operated in downtown Indianapolis until it moved to the corner of West Michigan Street and Belleview Place in late 1875 and early 1876. The company completed iron work for notable buildings, like the second Marion County Courthouse and Indy’s second Masonic Temple, both of which were later demolished for new development.
Haughville was incorporated in 1883. And, though the iron works company dissolved in 1889, streets named for the Haughs and Ketcham still exist.
Indianapolis annexed Haughville, along with other westside neighborhoods, in 1897.
Other foundries like the National Malleable Castings Co. at Michigan Street and Holmes Avenue sent recruiters to central Europe to persuade workers to come to Indianapolis. The company would pay for the workers’ travel in exchange for an agreement to work at the plant for a set period of time.
Immigrants made up half of Haughville’s population by 1900, according to The Polis Center at IU Indianapolis. Slovenian residents, for example, helped build the Slovenian National Home and the Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
But, few Slovenians still live in the neighborhood today. Many second- and third-generation Slovenians moved to communities outside of Indianapolis and, over time, Black residents became the largest ethnic group in Haughville.
Belmont Beach, a heavily polluted portion of the White River, south of 16th Street, became one of the only places Black residents could swim on the west side during the era of segregation. In 2021, the Friends of Belmont Beach revitalized the area as a pop-up park open to all. It is now in its fifth season of operation.
The Haughville neighborhood is once again experiencing a boom of immigration, this time from Latin American countries. About 22% of the population is now of Latin American descent.
A neighborhood full of fishermen better than the apostles
Stringtown was originally named Indianola in honor of the Native Americans who lived on the land before it was settled by Europeans.
It’s unclear how the neighborhood later came to be known as Stringtown. In the 1870s, some residents said the name came from the fact that Stringtowners of the time could “outfish the fishermen of Galilee,” with just some string. Others say the name comes from the neighborhood’s early days, when a string of houses popped up along what is now West Washington Street.
The name took on a negative connotation due to its high crime rate. The neighborhood had infamous residents, like Johanna “Ann” Kitchen who became known as the “Duchess of Stringtown.”
Kitchen owned a brothel named the Kitchen House that was the epicenter of small crimes like larcenies, robberies and kidnapping. The Duchess died in 1872, only a year after marrying her sixth husband. Her friends suspected she was fatally poisoned, but subsequent investigation found she died of “congestion of the brain,” a 19th century term for a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke.
Stringtown began to lose its sharp edge with the introduction of the Indianola Mission, a church that was opposed to the consumption of alcohol. Instead, it organized ice cream socials and strawberry festivals as entertainment. By 1874, the mission claimed its efforts decreased the number of saloons in Stringtown from a dozen to just two.
New railroads, such as the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railroad Co., also moved in during the 1870s. The change spurred new business and led to the growth of German and Irish immigrants in the area.
The two-acre Indianola Park was built in the neighborhood along Washington Street in 1896, and a year later, Indianapolis annexed the neighborhood. But, the Great Flood of 1913 later wiped out many homes there, leading German and Irish immigrants to move out and new residents from the American South to move in.
Decades later, industrial businesses such as Acme-Evans/ADM Milling Company moved out of the area. And later, the White River State Park and the Indianapolis Zoo were built, displacing many of the residents and the businesses that remained.
The neighborhood has recently been targeted for redevelopment, and groups like the Stringtown Neighborhood Association are working with residents to address problems like crime and unemployment in the area.
“We Care” about the neighborhood between Hawthorne and West Indy
The We Care Neighborhood Association was established in 2001 by a group of residents who wanted to address the deteriorating condition of their neighborhood but found they were out of the bounds of nearby associations.
The neighborhood was originally home to large industrial plants like the American Stove Co., built in 1903; the Link-Belt Company plant built in 1913; and the Chrysler American Foundry, established that same decade.
Most of the nearby homes belonged to the plants’ workers. But the neighborhood fell on hard times after the plants closed beginning in the 1950s.
The We Care Neighborhood Association was later created by neighbors to address issues like abandoned homes and crime. The neighbors worked with city officials to contest zoning permits and liquor licenses.
The group took a hiatus in the early 2020s after some members passed away or became too unhealthy to have meetings. The association was reestablished in January 2025 and meets on the last Monday of the month at the United Steelworkers’ hall at 218 S. Addison St.
A whiff of ‘Indiana cologne’ almost made West Indianapolis leave the city
The West Indianapolis neighborhood was established as an extension of the 12-acre Union Railroad Transfer and Stock Yards Co., according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. The company, located near Harding Street and Kentucky Avenue, was the first public place for the sale of livestock in the city.
Most of the neighborhood’s settlers came to the area in the late 1870s and were employees of companies that operated at the Union Stockyards.
Many were recent immigrants from Germany, Italy and other Eastern European countries. Others were Americans from Appalachian states.
The area was first recognized as a village named Belmont before it was incorporated as West Indianapolis in 1894. Its first and only mayor was a member of the stockyards’ livestock commission named A.B. Tolin.
The stockyards and meat packing plants introduced environmental problems. The plants poured tons of animal waste and organ meats into the White River and created a cloud of smoke that hung over the town.
Big Four Bridge and Kingan & Co. plant Credit: Indiana Historical Society 
Kingan & Co.’s meatpacking factory on the White River Credit: Indiana Historical Society 
Kingan & Co. meatpacking factory at the White River Credit: Indiana Historical Society 
Kingan & Co. drain at the White River Credit: Indiana Historical Society 
Raymond Street sewer on the White River Credit: Indiana Historical Society
Indianapolis purchased a farm at the southern edge of West Indianapolis to use as a landfill two decades earlier. But some ignored it.
The landfill, which is now Citizens Energy Group’s Belmont Wastewater Treatment Plant, created a stench some called “Indiana cologne” that travelled for miles. Thousands of West Indianapolis residents filed petitions in 1921 and 1922 seeking the landfill’s closure.
The city eventually built sewage plants, and the smell subsided. But environmental problems and new smells would plague the neighborhood well into the 21st century.
West Indianapolis is currently experiencing a resurgence with new developments in the northeast portion of the neighborhood. Those include major projects like the Elanco Animal Health headquarters, the Henry Street Bridge and the White River State Park expansion.
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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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