The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-07
THE HISTORY OF A CIRCLE.
What theGoyernor's Circle Could Tell OF
Early Times if 1t Had the Voice.
Where the First Sermon Was Preached in
the City-The Old Governors House and
Its Tenants-State and Court Houses.
Written for the Indianapolis Journal.

Written for the Indianapolis Journal
Circle Park was known as the Circle and
Governors Circle for half a century before
the more pretentious name became familiar.
1t was the most prominent locality III the village
Of 1921, and has been from that day to this,
through all the changes that have come and gonein
sixty -four years. In May, sixty four years sgo,
the Circle was marked by double distinction.
1t was about that time selected by Raston, the
surveyor, as the central point of the plat of the
new State capital, which he had been authorized
to lay out. Early in the same month. Mr. Now
land says, Rev. Rozin Hammond, of Clark
county, preached there the first sermon ever heard
in Indianapolis. The workmen engaged with
the surveyor had been employed near the site OF
the Circie-possibly in surveying 1.-THE Satur-
day evening before the Sunday morning that
Mr. Hammond was to preach, and prepared for
the occasion by rolling up a sort of pulpit OF
logs ON the south side of the natural knoll-less
conspicuous now than then-from which the
preacher, looking south along where Meridiau
street runs now. fronted his congregation seated
on logs and stumps, and the roots of sugar trees
below
The Circle though the centre Of the original
city plat of a mile square. from East to West and
from North to South streets, was not the center
of the donation. The point Of function of the
four sections is in the alley ss6th of the Occi-
dental Hotel, and few fest west of the south
east corner of the hotel lot The city platis not
quite in the center of the county, and something
over mile off the center of the State. Prac
ticaly pretty central point though. Original
ly the Circle was covered, like the courthouse
square and a larger portion Of the whole
donation. with thrifty sugar trees and
among these, in the summer of 1922, the pioneer
butcher. Wilkes Reagan, opened the first market
of the capital. So the first use of the Circle
was as church. the next as meat shop The
original intention was to make it the site of the
Governors official residence, and thus came its
name of the Governors Circle" But no Cover
ner ever lived there. It happened that the only
two Governors the State had from the time the
capital was removed here from Corydon. till an
official residence was purchased for Governor
Wallace in 1839-Governor Hendricks went
to the national Senate in February, 1855. during
the first session Of the Legislature here; so he
cannot be fairly counted as having ever officially
resided here--Gov. James B. Ray and Gov. Noah
Noble, both owned suitable homes in near the
town. and preferred them to residence In the
Circle, where it was surrounded by houses and
allowed as little privacy hotel Thus
the Governors Circle" was always misnomer;
so was the Governors House" built in X
In January. 1927, the Legislature appropriated
S. 900 to build residence for the Governor
there. and it was completed the same year. LIZ
continued, for almost exactly thirty years, to
be the most conspicuous though not the most
impressive building in the city. The contract
for its erection was made in March, 1897, and it
was sold and torn down in April, 1851 1t cost
more than the estimate, or appropriation. by
So 500 1t was a rather massive-lcoking affair,
about fifty feet square, with basement mostly
above ground. requiring eight ten feet
stairway, five six feet high, to reach the door
on each of the four faces from the ground. That
on the north side was never. or little, used and
following Those on the south and
east remained longer-the eastern the
longest. Two halls, of ten or twelve feet in
width, ran through the lower story crossing in
the middle. the stairs to the upper story starting
in the hall near the east door There was one
window on each side of the door in each front,
on the first floor and the door was double, very
wide and crossed by an arched transom. A
window of the same pattern and nearly the same
size as the door occupied the middle of each face
in the second story, with an ordinary window on
each side of it. The roof sloped from all four
fronts to a level top of fifteen twenty feet
square, surrounded by balustrade, and reached
by stairway through the attic. From each OF
window with sharp roof and triangular front,
the window being semi circle. This was the
exterior of the old Governors House.
In the attic was kept for long time the arms
and accoutrements assigned to this county by
the general government In the second story
the Judges of the Supreme Court, Denny, Black
ford and Sullivan, had their chambers" Judge
Blackford retained his as long as the building
stood, from the time it was completed. In the
first story the State Offices, except Treasurer.
1ov,t for ipnn bn af
State here formed the State Library. first
ranged by Mr. Joseph f. Brown, now of the
county clerks Office, and kept il till its removal
to the State house about 1889 or 40 when a lit
tie tom tit of conceited Englishman named
Cook, was elected librarian and it became dis
tinct institution. The State Bank was
kept here for little while, and the Office of
Jesse l.. Williams, State engineer, under whom
General T. A. Morris was deputy. When the
State offices were removed and the lower story
pretty much abandoned, the old Union Literary
Society was given the northwest room. After
wards our pioneer artist, Jacob Cox, painted a
Temperance Panorama there, aided by Henry
W. Waugh. an actor and artist, panegyric on
whose artistic abilities was once, in a stress of
editorial constipation, made second page
Header" of the Journal The basement was
never used for anything but . wood house
and lumberroom. The school boys
of the "Old Seminary and the Franklin Inst-
tute-the latter nearly on the site OF Mr..
Englishs resdence-at first conducted by Gil
man Marston, of New Hampshire, afterwards a
member of Congress and a general in the re-
bellion and Governor of Wyoming and Idaho
used to play circus there
North of the Governors House, where wide
gate let in wood wagons for the occupants in
front OF thicket of locust trees and saplings
stood plain two-story frame house, built in the
spring of 1887, ten years after the main build
ing. In the lower story, which was closed by
huge pair Of folding doors was housed the
Marion he first fro apOua fhac oil
for which the State paid half the purchase money.
In the upper story was the council chamber and
the Office of the president of the council, who
had the power of justice before there was a
mayor. Here were the city records, and here
the Marion Fire Company held it's meetings.
Here in the summer of 1851 fire broke out
which the Marion boys were not at all disposed
to work on, hoping for better house, and by the
time the captain had persuaded them into little
activity, the building was past saving With it