We can't do it without your support.

This is Your Organization
Emerson Heights Community Organization is made up of neighborhood residents volunteering to preserve the historic, cultural and economic value of our community. In addition to volunteers, EHCO needs the financial support of its residents to operate.

What We Do Costs Money
Although we try to keep our expenses low, there are day-to-day operating expenses for the newsletter, the website, post office box, answering service, insurance, etc.

In addition, special projects require some investment as well. For example: We are very grateful for the pro-bono legal help in closing Dream Weaver’s, but we did have some expenses. The National Register nomination was largely funded by generous grants; however, EHCO is still required to match those grants. EHCO also buys the food after the neighborhood cleanups and makes up the shortfall in donations for the Christmas party. In the past, most of these expenses have been paid for by individual members and/or members of the Executive Committee.



We are Asking Each Household for an Annual Donation
Rather than a few people shouldering the financial burden for the entire neighborhood, we are asking each household to show its support for EHCO by donating $12 per year. We realize not every household will be able to participate – but we would like as many households as possible to contribute. Some people are willing and able to do more and we appreciate that.

We Want to Make It Easy to Contribute
Making your donation is easy – you can mail a check or use a credit card online. See our donation page for details.

Supporters will be listed on the website and in our newsletter unless they wish to remain anonymous.

Due to requests from residents, our newsletter is available online again.
The newsletter is available here.

We often drive past the brick entrance columns to our neighborhood and don’t give them a second thought; however, these columns are important. The columns mark the edges of the community in addition to identifying it. They set our neighborhood apart and are a visible link to our past.

The entrance columns set the tone for the neighborhood – The brick construction with a “limestone” cap is similar to the design of our front porch columns, often even using the same color and style of brick. Being of a more recent era, they are an intentionally less ornate design than the Victorian era entrance markers in Woodruff Place, for example.

These columns were built at the same time the neighborhood was being developed, making them 100 years old. You can imagine how they helped identify the neighborhood for passengers on the streetcar line that ran along Michigan and Emerson. They are also one of the features of our neighborhood that reflect the City Beautiful design movement. You can see early photos of the columns in the photo gallery on our website under “Development Book”. We aren’t aware of any columns ever being on 10th Street.

Unfortunately many of these columns are in poor condition. Some have been altered, poorly repaired or are missing altogether. EHCO has been exploring ways that we can restore the existing columns and replace the ones that are missing entirely. Of course we want to be sensitive to the original columns by using the same type of brick, mortar and methods. We also want to avoid changing the basic design.

The goal is to have the columns completed well in advance of the centennial celebration for our neighborhood in 2012.With a restoration that focuses on staying true to the original intent of these columns, as well as structural integrity, we can highlight the link to the past, mark the neighborhood boundaries and again set the tone of the neighborhood for another 100 years in the future.

The entrance column restoration is a project of the EHCO Revitalization Committee. We need volunteers who will help manage projects like this. To volunteer, contact Rebecca Seifert or Kurt Wiegand.

In addition to the streetcar lines, another large influence on the design of our neighborhood was the City Beautiful movement. And although it’s important to understand and appreciate all of the design elements in our neighborhood, the esplanades are particularly prominent features that are reflective of this movement. These esplanades help to make Emerson Heights unique and they deserve the neighborhood’s attention as it nears its centennial in 2011.

City Beautiful was an urban planning movement prevalent around the turn of the last century. It was a response to what had become crowded, dirty and disorderly cities. It was reform minded with the goal of not only introducing order, improving sanitation and such, but also using urban design to inspire the inhabitants to moral and civic virtue.

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On a recent Saturday morning, a group of Emerson Heights residents met in Joe Wade’s yard to hear about the Adopt-a-Block program sponsored by our partners at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB). Sarah Grain from KIB explained that the program is designed to help neighbors build a sense of stewardship of their block and reduce trash.

How It Works
Residents sign up to become a Block Coordinator and organize other people on their street. Together, these neighbors work to keep the public areas, including the street and alley, free of trash. Representatives from KIB and the city then score the blocks on a scale of 1-4 each month through the warm weather. A block that averages a “2” or better will receive free flowers from KIB in the spring. Sarah also provided participants with gloves, trash bags, brooms, litter grabbers, etc. to help in the efforts.

If Adopt-a-Block participants are successful, for the streets that have medians, the flowers can be used in flower beds at the cross streets. On other streets, the flowers can be used in front yards or in flower boxes / planters to enhance the curb appeal of the neighborhood.

Example: 700 Block of Wallace
Chris Coy is the Block Coordinator for the 700 block of Wallace and he was so excited he rushed and put door hangers on each door on his block. He received a great response. Within an hour of putting the door hangers out he was weeding curbs and was joined by two adults and five kids. Together, they picked up trash for hours!

Chris said, “I am so proud of my block and the young people who worked so hard. I woke up Sunday to find these kids picking up trash again! WOW, what a great feeling.”

The kids, Frankie, Margaret, Jasmine, Courtney, and Cade even named their club the 700 S.C.K.s (Street Cleaning Kids). He rewarded the helpers with ice cream and later they cooled off with a water fight. Besides the kids, Chris would also like to thank the adults, Beth and Barb, and the residents of 714 for supplying the water for the water fight.

They planning on a heavy clean-up on a Saturday in August followed by a Pizza party.


How You Can Help
We are still looking for Block Coordinators on many streets! Please help us keep the neighborhood clean and earn free flowers by volunteering to be a Block Coordinator or assisting one that’s already established. Contact Joe Wade or Kurt Wiegand at 375-0239 or webmaster@emersonheights.org. We can tell you how to sign-up and get started.

If you can’t volunteer right now, try to help out by making a habit of picking up the trash in front of your own home and keeping your part of the alley clean. Remember to put all of your trash in the dumpster since they won’t pick up bags of trash that aren’t in a dumpster. Also, wait until heavy trash days to put heavy trash out. For more info on trash disposal see “Talkin’ Trash”.

The Adopt a Block program dovetails very well with our efforts to make Emerson Heights a more attractive and marketable neighborhood, including our efforts to revitalize the medians. Having a clean neighborhood discourages crime by demonstrating that people care. It also improves property values and helps retain quality tenants in rental property.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. has been a very helpful partner for Emerson Heights including our tree plantings, neighborhood cleanups and the Adopt-a-Block program. We want to thank Sarah and everyone at KIB for their support.

A series of articles about ways that we can reduce energy consumption, save money and reduce the impact on the environment.

There are many features of our neighborhood that help it to stand-out, that make it special and make our homes potentially more desirable and marketable. A priority this year will be to bring more attention to how well our neighborhood lends itself to being “Green”.

To highlight the green nature of our neighborhood, we will feature a series of articles in the newsletter and website about energy saving products, materials and other ways that we can reduce energy consumption, save money and reduce the impact on the environment. This fall, we hope to have an open house to show off at least some of these energy saving products and techniques.

~See: Emerson Heights - A Green Neighborhood~

Click on a link below to view our newsletter, EHCO Voice.

EHCO Voice - January
EHCO Voice - February
EHCO Voice - March
EHCO Voice - April
EHCO Voice - May
EHCO Voice - June
EHCO Voice - July
EHCO Voice - August
EHCO Voice - September
EHCO Voice - October
EHCO Voice - November
EHCO Voice - December


These files are in PDF format. To view a PDF file, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader which is available free of charge at Adobe's website.
Adobe Acrobat Reader

11/13/07 Update! The first phase of this project, from I70 to 21st Street has been awarded funding! Please join us for an Open House on 12/10/07 to celebrate!

The Emerson Avenue Corridor Gateway Project will improve the appearance of Emerson Avenue and create a sense of entry to the eastside of Indianapolis. The project is a collaborative, grassroots effort of neighborhoods along the project length, from the I-70/Emerson Avenue Interchange and south to Washington Street and on to the proposed Pennsy Trail.

This effort will emphasize connectivity—through modes of transportation—pedestrian, bike, bus, and automobiles, as well as access and linkages to parks, trails and other cultural amenities, providing a sense of continuity and place along this corridor.

In all, this project will restore, rehabilitate and promote the community assets of the neighborhoods along the Emerson Avenue corridor, adding further momentum to the revitalization efforts currently underway on the eastside of Indianapolis. It provides a foundation for, and complements, other revitalization projects such as the Irvington National Road Streetscape Project, the Eastside Residential TIF District, the Eastside Redevelopment Zone and the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative.

The design team is headed by the landscape architecture firm of CBA, Inc. CBA has considerable experience with Transportation Enhancement projects and is also the consulting firm working on the Irvington National Road Streetscape. Two of the members of the project team live in Irvington, near the Emerson Avenue corridor. Other members of the design team include the engineering firm of Butler, Fairman & Seufert (BF&S) and 2nd Globe Studios, all of Indianapolis.

The initial application for a Federal Transportation Enhancement Grant was submitted March, 2007. 4/13 Update: The application was forwarded from the MPO to INDOT for statewide competition for funds. We have made it past the first hurdle.

Thank you to all of the organizations that wrote letters of support for the project including:

-Anita J. Harden, President of Community Hospital East
-Community Health Network
-Indy Parks
-Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC)
-Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center (INRC)
-Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. (KIBI)
-The Indiana National Road Association (INRA)
-The National Road Heritage Trail, Inc.
-Near East Side Community Organization (NESCO)
-Near Eastside Collaborative Taskforce
-The Eastside Community Organization
-Little Flower Community Organization
-E. 10th Street Civic Association
-Emerson Heights Community Organization
-The Historic Irvington Community Council
-Irvington Development Organization
-The Irvington Garden Club




For more information about this project—contact Rebecca Seifert, 356-9902 or at rseifert@indy.rr.com

The Gateway Toolbox was used in the initial conceptualizing of this project. More information about corridor gateways and the Rotary Gateways Partnership may be found on their site.

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Emerson Heights, like Indianapolis itself, owes much of its character to the form of transportation that was available at the time it was developed.

The Water Transportation Era
Early Midwestern cities grew along rivers because water transportation was vital for moving people and commodities. In fact Indianapolis was located here, in part, because of the mistaken idea that the White River could be navigated by boat. The Central Canal project (remnants seen downtown and in Broad Ripple) was a failed attempt to remedy this situation by connecting the town to the Wabash and Erie Canal starting near Ft. Wayne and going through to Evansville. The canal project was to provide the landlocked region with a much-needed link to vital commerce. The project was never completed and the idea was abandoned when the state neared bankruptcy in 1839.

Without a transportation link the town grew slowly. And although the National Road— what is now Washington Street— was completed through the state in 1834, it was slow, harsh going (the “road” was originally a dirt path with the remaining tree stumps to be just low enough not to catch the axle of a wagon). It was the railroad that effectively connected Indianapolis to other markets, in a big way, starting in 1847.

The Railroad Era
The railroad provided a way to move goods and people long distances. But once off of the train, they were still limited to a carriage ride or walking. It was this limitation on local transportation that governed the development patterns of the city. While wealthier households could afford the cost and upkeep associated with a horse and carriage; initially, the daily commute for most people in the urban setting was limited by how far a person could reasonably walk in a day. For this reason, older parts of the city tend to be more compact and mixed-use, with residential and small shops in the same area. It would not be until late into the automobile era that it would be practical to have the exclusively residential development on sprawling lots that we see today.

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