Jackey Cohen, 71, has fond memories of the southside neighborhood where she grew up.
The Babe Denny neighborhood, as it’s now known, was a vibrant, multiracial neighborhood populated by Black, Jewish, German, Arab and Irish residents.
Despite differences between neighbors, the community was tight-knit. Cohen remembers that if something happened to neighborhood kids down the street, the news would get to their mothers’ ears before the kids got home. And everyone along the street would be ready to help.
“It was a village,” Cohen remembered. “Mostly everybody (had a) family by blood and a family by relationship … Everyone just enjoyed each (other’s company) and looked after each other.”
Life there was good, neighbors said, until redlining and the construction of Interstate 70 through the heart of Babe Denny drove most residents and businesses away.
It’s since been reduced to a park and a few homes, and buildings dotting properties used as parking lots for Lucas Oil Stadium and other downtown venues.
The people who lived there, however, fight to keep its memory alive. They meet up every year at Babe Denny Park on the first Saturday of every August to remember the neighborhood’s heyday and pass its memory to the next generation.
The reunion, formally known as William Lester Craig Day, is named for one of two brothers who opened Craig Funeral Home. It was one of the city’s first Black-owned funeral homes.
Before his death in 1974, Craig was instrumental in setting up one of the neighborhood’s first recreation centers, the Ray Street Recreational Center. It was run by Edward Bay “Babe” Denny — the neighborhood’s namesake and one of the city’s first Black motorcycle officers — until it was torn down in 1946.
This year, the neighborhood is celebrating its 50th annual reunion — its jubilee. For many, it’s a chance to share the joy they felt growing up and to help heal old wounds caused by the loss of their childhood home and friends.
“This neighborhood means everything to me,” said former resident Beverle Kane, 71. “This is my joy. This is my pride, and I love it here.”
Life in the old neighborhood
The multicultural Babe Denny neighborhood was first settled by German and Irish immigrants in the mid-1800s. Later, immigrants from other countries like Ukraine, Hungary, Syria and Lebanon came to the neighborhood, as well as white and Black settlers from southern U.S. states.
The residents formed bonds that weren’t common in other parts of the city. Kane remembers the neighborhood as a safe place where kids worked hard at playing outside.
“We would play kickball, jacks, hide and seek and those fun things — we were outdoors all the time,” she said. “You never knew who lived in what house because kids just left and came back out the next day.”
While the kids played, adults worked at places like the Kahn Tailoring Company and the N.K. Hurst Company, a coffee, tea and sugar distributor. And residents could get everything they needed at local businesses like Shapiro’s Delicatessen, Passo’s Drug Store and Kraft’s Southside Baking Company. There were also department stores like Safrin’s and Efroymson’s, and several nearby grocery stores, like the A&P and Walt’s Supermarket.
“We had healthy foods, like fresh vegetables, fresh meats,” former resident Monica Johnson Smiley, 66, said. “(The clerks) knew every generation of children, and we could put things on the bill that would get paid once a month.”
Although Johnson Smiley has fond memories of her old neighborhood, she lived there at a time when many were forced to move away.
Babe Denny’s decline
Redlining — a federal effort to devalue neighborhoods with high minority populations — took its toll on Babe Denny. The practice is now illegal, but affected the neighborhood for decades to come, making it hard for neighbors and business owners to secure federal loans to buy property in the area.
By the 1950s, about half of the local businesses were gone, and many of the neighborhood’s Jewish residents moved to the north side. By the late 1960s, most of the neighborhood’s residents were Black. Many rented their homes from those who had moved away.
Another blow came when state and city officials shared plans to build I-70 by cutting through several low-income and redlined neighborhoods like Babe Denny.
Some neighbors, in 1969, pushed for $448,000 in federal funds for an urban renewal project. But, the idea was voted down in a neighborhood election. Some residents claimed voter intimidation may have played a role in the motion’s defeat by just a 40-vote margin.
The decision fractured the neighborhood, and I-70 construction moved forward. Thousands of homes were acquired through eminent domain, forcing hundreds of residents in Babe Denny to move away.
The destruction had a lasting effect on teens like Kane. She remembers the big numbers written on houses in her neighborhood that were slated for demolition.
“I didn’t get it then, but now I look back and that was a trauma for me,” Kane said. “We didn’t know what to do, and our friends weren’t coming back, and so many families weren’t coming back.”
Cohen, Johnson Smiley and Kane all moved out of the neighborhood in the 1970s.
Cohen moved to California after graduating from Harry E. Wood High School in 1972 and only moved back to Indianapolis in 2020. Johnson Smiley joined the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department in 1984 and now lives east of the city in Cumberland. Kane lives on the eastside, but still owns the house she grew up in on South Capitol Avenue.
Sharing the past with a new generation
This year’s reunion fell on the exact date of the first William Lester Craig Day on Aug. 2, 1975. People danced, ate and remembered what it was like to live in the old neighborhood.
“You see people you know, and you just walk from person to person,” Johnson Smiley said. “For me, it’s hard not to cry because the memories come flooding back. I know my mom would have been out here.”
For some, like Kane, the reunion brings a complicated mix of emotions.
“I kind of still feel like that neighborhood exists. I can point to where different people lived,” Kane said. “It’s great but it’s bittersweet in a lot of ways, because so many of my friends’ homes are underneath the interstate.”
Many of the reunion attendees who experienced the old neighborhood are entering their twilight years, but they’re making sure the next generations keep the Babe Denny neighborhood spirit alive.
“It’s wonderful that on the first Saturday of every August, the next generations are still showing up,” Johnson Smiley said. “I honestly believe that as long as the park is here, they’ll continue to do it.”
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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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