During the two-year period dating from 1914 to 1916 notable public improvements were either completed or under the process of con struction. To eliminate such disasters as be fell the city during the flood of 1913 a concrete flood prevention levee was constructed for more than a mile along the west bank of White River. The levee is 40 feet high and on the river side is faced with a concrete apron. On its crest is a 60-foot roadway, which makes a valuable addition to the city's boulevard system. This levee, which was finances! under a special act of the Indiana General Assembly providing for the issuing of long term bonds, cost $1, 350,000, and was completed in 1916. A move ment to elevate the railroad tracks throughout the city was started by the Commercial Club Elevated Track Commission in 1894, and after 10 years of contention in courts and legislatures the work was begun. In 1914, at a cost of $1,000,000, the city made an immense sewer out of Pogues Run, a small stream run ning through the business district, that the tracks might be elevated successfully. Plans have been completed for track elevation and the work which will cost approximately $7,000,000 was well underway in 1916. It is expected that it will be completed in 1920.
Parks and public park system includes 16 parks of 1,735.13 acres in area. Riverside Park, purchased in 1898, con tains 934.6 acres and is valued at $1,277,000. Other parks, their area and estimated values follow : Fall Creek Parkway, 207.93 acres, $523,570; Garfield Park, 128.52 acres, $304,72.3; Brookside Park, 93.05 acres, $180,000; Pleasant Run Parkway, 93.48 acres,' $180,000; White River Parkway, 45.55 acres, $82,000; Woollen's Garden, 44 acres, $50,000; Ellenberger Woods, 40.95 acres, $40000; Brookside Parkway, 34.16 acres, $64,500; Rhodius Park, 33 acres, $47,000; Military Park, 17.3 acres, owned by the State of Indiana; Willard Park, 14.71 acres, $100, 000; Burdsal Parkway, 11.49 acres, $43,000; Spades Place,' 10.4 acres, Greenlawn, eight acres, $60,000; University Square, four acres, owned by the State of Indiana; High land Square, 3.98 acres. $25,000 and Saint Clair Square, three acres, owned by the State of Indiana. The total value of park land owned by the city is estimated at $2,981,293. The city street railway company owns two parks of unusual beauty a short distance from the city. Since the park commission was established in 1895 the city has expended $4,419,395.31 on park property, the sum of $1,299,435.82 having been expended in park maintenance;• $1,586, 863.39 for improvements and $1,533,096.10 for the acquisition of additional park property. The first cemetery of the the city, Greenlawn, has not been used as such for many years and is kept in park form by the board of park com missioners. Crown Hill cemetery, one of the notable cemeteries of the country, embraces over 540 acres. There are also Roman Catholic. Lutheran and Jewish cemeteries.
Notable Features of It is in popu lation, transportation facilities and volume of business transacted the largest inland city, not on a navigable body of water, in the United States. It has three direct steam roads to coal fields of Indiana. It has two direct roads to the Bedford or oolitic stone fields of Indiana; in the output of automobiles it is the second city of America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a oval track paved with brick, is the greatest and first speed course of its kind in the world. The city has 200 whole
sale and jobbing houses, representing all fines of trade. The Citizens' Gas Company, operating 550 miles of mains, provides the householder with fuel at 55 cents a thousand feet, the scale decreasing to 40 cents for large consumers. It has 25 modern office buildings and 63 hotels. A total of $60,000,000 worth of live stock is handled at the Indianapolis Stock Yards annu ally. The city is the centre for the manufacture of quartered oak veneer. An automatic tele phone system was installed for the entire city in 1916.
The Indiana State House, cost ing$2,000,000, and built of Indiana oolite stone, is perhaps the most notable building. With its grounds it occupies two large blocks. The county building was completed in 1878 at a cost approximating $1,750,000. The Federal build ing, containing the post office, custom-house and United States courts cost $2,400,000. Other municipal buildings of note are the city hall, which cost $500,000, and the police building, the public library and some of the new public school buildings. Tomlinson Hall, a bequest by Dr. J. M. Tomlinson, is a public building, its lower story being used as a •market. The Indian apolis Art Association owns an art museum and school. Notable among the city's business build ings are the Indiana National Bank, Fletcher Savings and Trust, the Merchants Bank, the Law building, the Lemcke, the Lemcke Annex, the Hume-Mansur, the 'Newton-Claypool, the Indiana Pythian building, the Odd Fellows building, the Meridian Life building, the State Life building, the Kahn building, the News building, the Occidental building, the Claypool, Severin and Washington Hotels, the Majestic building, the Indianapolis Board of Trade and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce build ings, the Murat Temple, containing the Murat Theatre, the Masonic Temple and the buildings occupied by the department stores of the Wil liam H. Block Company and L. S. Ayres & Company. During the five or six years prior to 1916, the city enjoyed an unprecedented building growth. Other buildings of large proportions are under process of construc tion. The Columbia Club building is an important feature of one quadrant of Monu ment Place, which surrounds the Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors' monument. This massive shaft is the central and most notable decorative feature of the . city. It is 285 feet high, in cluding the bronze statue, and its base is ornamented with symbolic groups of statuary and reliefs in stone and bronze. It was de signed by Bruno Schmitz and cost over $500,000. Four epochs in the history of the State are commemorated by the statues of George Rogers Clark, William Henry Harrison, James Whit comb Riley and Oliver P. Morton, which are grouped about its base. The width of Wash ington street, 120 feet, and of the streets of the original plat, 80 and 90 feet, give space for the best possible display of architectural features. Plans were completed "in 1918 by H. Van Buren Magonigle, architect, of New York, for an extensive educational centre on the former United States arsenal grounds of 76 acres, comprising 18 buildings, to include a stadium seating 29,000, an auditorium seating 9,000, high schools, industrial shops, etc., esti mated to cost approximately $9,000,000.