Indianapolis is Book Poor

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, February 20, 1921: Indianapolis is book poor! The library is 100,000 volumes short of what a library for a city of this size should have, and with a 30% increase in the number of library patrons in the last three years the high schooler trying to get a book on the required reading list, the club woman trying to get material for her club paper, the child looking for a fairy tale, the “shutin” desiring a little fiction, and the mechanic seeking an engineering book often cannot find what they need on the shelves. At present the remedy cannot come through higher taxation nor through the financially burdened board of school commissioners. It must come from the generosity of citizens through wills, memorials, donations, and bequests as many of the Eastern libraries receive their support.

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“Indianapolis is Book Poor,” The Indianapolis Star, 20 February 1921, Part Two, p. 11:5

12 Negro Women Sit in Jury Box in Damage Suit

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, February 17, 1921: For the first time in the legal history of Indianapolis, and possibly the United States, a jury of twelve black women sat in a jury box yesterday hearing evidence in a damage suit brought by a black citizen. In the case before Justice of the Peace T. Ernest Maholm, Daniel Holt sought damages from Mr. and Mrs. Eugene M. Fife, alleging his coal wagon was rammed in the rear by the Fife automobile in “the gloom of the winter evening” while he was unloading coal. In the resulting chaos, coal was scattered, the wagon wrecked, and the horse “jammed up against a tree.” After hearing the testimony from both sides, the jurors deliberated for twelve minutes before deciding “the whole affair was an accident” and Holt was not entitled to any damages.

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“12 Negro Women Sit in Jury Box in Damage Suit,” The Indianapolis Star, 17 February 1921, p. 11:2

Site for New Athletic Club Home Chosen

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, February 6, 1921: The new home of the Indianapolis Athletic Club will be built at the southwest corner of Vermont and Meridian Streets pursuant to a decision made yesterday by the club’s board of directors. Currently, the Fahnley Home occupies the site. With its façade of Indiana limestone and ornamental carvings of fruits and flowers suggesting very strongly the Italian palace style and interior of white walnut, the house is one of the two or three most imposing residential structures in Indiana. Eighty-two year old Frederick Fahnley, the present owner, said, “We all have to give way gracefully to the city’s progress…The athletic club typifies the new spirit of Indianapolis and I am glad to have my old home site identified in this way.” Construction of the clubhouse is expected to begin in early summer.

“Site for New Athletic Club Home Chosen,” The Indianapolis Star, 6 February 1921, p. 1:1