Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

Join us on April 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for our annual Spring Tea! This year’s tea will once again be generously hosted by The Barrington of Carmel. A light luncheon with treats will be served, along with tea and coffee.

Our executive director, Deb Gangstad, will be the featured speaker. Her presentation “Honoring Outstanding Carmel Teachers” will share the stories of teachers who made Carmel’s excellence in education a tradition that carries on today.

Click here to register

The Black history of Carmel predates the platting of the town by almost two decades. Before the pioneers settled the area, a Black man named Pete lived among the Lenape near the city’s northeast side.

In the decades that followed, many Black men, women and children escaped from their enslavers by traveling a line of the Underground Railroad operated by Quakers on Hamilton County’s west side. Frederick Douglass, a leader in the abolitionist movement, visited the county in 1843 to speak against slavery.

Several freedmen and freedwomen made their homes in the Carmel area. Some came during the Antebellum Period. Others were part of an exodus from Southern states during Reconstruction.

In the early twentieth century, a Black family group settled in Clay Township. Their members included a veteran of World War I and Carmel High School’s first Black graduate, who was also a track star. In the late 1940s, another Carmel track star became one of the fastest young men in the country.

These stories have been compiled in a book titled The Early Black History of Carmel. You can find it online or at All Things Carmel on West Main Street, or download it for free here.

We are excited to announce that our new book is now available! From Bethlehem to Carmel covers the time period 1822–1899. It begins with a chapter on Carmel’s Quaker roots. Quakers founded the town of Bethlehem, now Carmel, in 1837. Their advocacy for education, abolitionism, peace and temperance largely shaped the culture in town for much of the nineteenth century.

This book also discusses the impact of the Civil War, tells the stories of the freedmen and freedwomen who made their home here after emancipation, and tells how the town developed during the Gilded Age. The book concludes with the history of three forgotten towns—Mattsville, Sockum/Eldorado, and East Branch/Gray—and a history of the nineteenth century churches.

The book can be purchased online and will be available at All Things Carmel in December.

Join us Dec. 2 and 3 for a Mid-Century Modern Holiday Home Tour!

Did you know Holiday Home Tour volunteers receive a free ticket? Let us know if you’d like to pitch in on December 2nd or 3rd!

A special thank you to our Holiday Home Tour sponsors:

Studio M

Bussell Family Funerals

Sun King Brewing

Home Living Team

The Barrington of Carmel

Current

Join us on November 8 at 7pm for a free presentation on the history of 22 N. Range Line Road. Former patrons and employees will share their memories as well. Limited seating requires registration. Click here for slides of the presentation.

The Carmel Clay Historical Society has published a book about the history of Carmel that covers the time period 1917-1976. The book tells how Carmel was shaped by the perils of the early twentieth century: World War I, the flu pandemic of 1918, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, the Great Depression and World War II. In the postwar era, the town experienced tremendous growth as people moved to the suburbs in large numbers and started the baby boom. New schools and subdivisions were built throughout Clay Township as a result. The book also gives a brief history of the fire and police departments and tells how the town transitioned to a city.

The book can be purchased online here and at All Things Carmel on West Main Street.

The Monon Depot will soon be moving to a temporary location. This decision was made to protect it from machines and materials needed for the construction of the new Carmel Clay History Museum. We will be thrilled when this new facility is close to completion and the Depot is returned to its spot along the Monon, where it will house an important exhibit for the museum!

In the meantime, we have temporarily moved our offices. You are welcome to make an appointment by phoning 317–846-7117 or emailing us at info@carmelclayhistory.org. Our temporary mailing address is PO Box 4777 Carmel, IN 46082.

Our new book, Greyhound Legends, is now available for online ordering! You can find it along with our other books on the link below.

Order Greyhound Legends here!

In the nineteenth century, students in the one-room schoolhouses around Carmel played a variety of sports at recess. In the 1860s and 1870s, shinny, town-ball and scrub were popular. Soccer was the game of choice in the 1880s, and a decade later, it was football. The champions of those long-forgotten games were just as proud of their victories on the schoolyard as any modern-day athlete. When the high school’s first team of record was organized in 1896, Carmel was the smallest town in the county. The basketball team played on grass courts and, later, the dirt floor of a lumberyard. In the late 1940s, Carmel had one of the best sprinters in the country but no track. A decade later, Carmel revived its football program but had to play its home games in a neighboring town because the school did not have a football field.

From these humble beginnings, Carmel developed into one of the premier athletic programs in the country. “Greyhound Legends” tells the history of the evolution of athletics in Carmel from the pioneer games played on the schoolyard to the fall season of 1981, when Carmel solidified its status as a state powerhouse. The book profiles legendary athletes, coaches and teams, including the basketball team that went to state in 1925, the story of Bill Stubbs – Carmel’s nationally recognized sprinter in the late 1940s, Dick Nyers’s transformation of the football program and his role in the founding of the Carmel Dad’s Club, and the remarkable careers of Billy and Dave Shepherd, Mark Herrmann, Eric Clark, Dick Dullaghan, Jim Belden and more.

All are invited to attend CCHS’s Annual Meeting at noon on October 17. This year’s meeting will be held in the Wilfong Pavilion at Founders Park (11675 Hazel Dell Parkway).

At the meeting we will share an update on the new museum. Executive Director Deb Gangstad will also present our Year in Review as well as what’s in store for 2022! The meeting will conclude after a vote is taken on changes to the by-laws and for the slate of officers and board members.

Officers (1 year term)

President: Dan McFeely 

Vice President: Nick Davis  

Secretary: Christine Owens 

Treasurer: Deb Teets

Board Members (3 year term)

Meg Osborne

Julie Kingston

Lily Pai

You can review changes to the by-laws here.

The Carmel History Museum building design is nearly completed, and we have been told by Clay Township officials that the groundbreaking will take place in October! The City of Carmel has offered to fund an exhibit designer and fabricator. CCHS will soon begin its capital campaign for other museum needs. Many of our longtime members initiated this opportunity forty years ago by purchasing the land where the museum will stand. We are grateful for their foresight!

The Depot will close during construction due to safety issues and accessibility to the construction site, but we want to assure you that the Depot will remain! The Depot will undergo some necessary renovations during that time, and when it reopens it will showcase a new train exhibit!