Downtown Indianapolis Monuments And Memorials Architecture Tour

Indianapolis devotes more acreage than any other U.S. city to honoring our nation’s fallen, and is second only to Washington, DC, in the number of war memorials. This tour takes you from Monument Circle north to explore these impressive structures that pay homage to those who fought for our freedom.

It’s tough to miss the Indianapolis Artsgarden. This seven story tall glass dome sits suspended over the intersection of Illinois and Washington Streets, with traffic passing under it.

By the 1920’s, Indianapolis, like other American cities, was swept up in the magic of the motion picture. The Indiana Theater, built in 1927, was designed and built to outshine all other venues.

The Indiana Statehouse was built in 1888 and is the fourth building to house Indiana state government.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is the physical and spiritual heart of Indianapolis. But in a city where so much was planned, this was not what was supposed to go on the site at all.

The Circle Theater opened in 1916 as the city's first “movie palace” - and one of the first such buildings in the Midwest. Today it is the second oldest building on Monument Circle after Christ Church Cathedral, and is home to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Christ Church Cathedral is the oldest building still standing on Monument Circle, dating to 1857, and one of the oldest in the whole city.

Covering the entire block bounded by Ohio, Meridian, New York, and Pennsylvania Streets, the United States Court House and Post Office Building was the first and largest local example of the monumental Beaux-Arts style.

The State of Indiana, in the 1827 legislative session, designated this land as property for a state university.

The memorial honors the Indiana men killed in World War I. The Military Museum inside also lists all of the Hoosiers killed or missing in action through the Vietnam War.

It's hard to miss the Minton-Capehart Federal Building. Its very modern design style strongly contrasts with that of the classical formalism of the war memorial mall across the street. This 1975 office building was designed by the local firm of Woollen and Associates in a style known as Brutalism.

Centrally located in the seven block war memorial district listed as a National Historic Landmark, the Veteran's Memorial Plaza honors all Indiana veterans.

A feature of the American Legion Mall, the half-cylinder Korean and Vietnam memorials were dedicated in 1996.

Designed with the intent to be similar to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, this monument is on the east side of the American Legion Mall. It is just shy of 20’ wide, much larger than the other two, reflecting the size and scale of World War II

Scottish Rite is one of the variants of Freemasonry. It was very popular during the 1920's, as this building attests. Completed in 1929 at a cost of $2.5 million, it is the largest Scottish Rite Cathedral in the world.

The American Legion headquarters was built with Indiana limestone and was a gift to the American Legion from the people of Indiana

The north end of the war memorial mall is book ended by the Central Library. The library was built in 1917 to plans by Paul Cret, a Philadelphia architect, who designed it in a neoclassical style. The land for the library was donated to the city by the poet James Whitcomb Riley.