Alexander Ralston drew this diagonal in his 1821 plan, and today Massachusetts Avenue runs 0.86 miles as the Mass Ave Cultural Arts District, right under your feet. This is one of the four original diagonal streets laid out in Alexander Ralston’s plan of 1821, running from its southern terminus at New York and Delaware streets to its northern terminus at Bellefontaine Street. The stretch you see includes the Massachusetts Avenue Commercial District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.
Beginning in the 1990s, redevelopment helped propel this corridor from squalor to one of the city’s more fashionable addresses, and today you’re in the heart of Indianapolis’s unofficial theater district, home to the Athenaeum and the Old National Centre. Dozens of locally owned boutiques, bars, restaurants, and commercial offices line the avenue, and the district also reaches into parts of the Bottleworks District, a mixed-use redevelopment on the northeast side. Listen for the buzz of actors, diners, and shopkeepers, and imagine how this diagonal ribbon has guided the city since Ralston’s plan.
Notice that this strip anchors Indianapolis's unofficial theater district, home to the Athenaeum and the Old National Centre.