Lockerbie Square Historic District spreads out ahead of you, a national historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1973 and enlarged on July 28, 1987. This block tells the story of a neighborhood platted between 1847 and 1850 by Jannett Smith Lockerbie McOuat and named for her father, Scottish immigrant George Murray Lockerbie. You can feel the layers of time in the Federal, Italianate, and Queen Anne architecture that define the streets, buildings many dating from 1855 to 1930.
In the 1960s an immense community effort saved these buildings and made Lockerbie the city’s first historic district. It is the oldest intact residential neighborhood of Indianapolis, set on the northeast side of Alexander Ralston’s Plat at the intersection of East Street and New York Street; East Street itself marks the original eastern boundary of early Indianapolis. You might imagine the famed Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley, who lived here for over two decades and was known to give candy to local children on his regular walks.
Notice that the poet James Whitcomb Riley lived on these streets for over two decades, known to hand candy to children on his daily walks.