Class and Color at Municipal Gardens

Johanneson Cannon II

In 1916 the first Indianapolis Canoe Club structure on Lafayette Road burnt where Municipal Gardens sits today.

The Indianapolis park now known as Municipal Gardens has hosted several buildings at the site along Lafayette Road.  The site was first home to the Indianapolis Canoe Club, an exclusive boating club.  Club lore was that the idea for a White River riverfront club was hatched by a circle of veterans while serving in Puerto Rico with the 27^th Battery of the Indiana Volunteer Army, which was in the Spanish-American War in 1898.  The club originally was located near Riverside Park, where the club opened in September, 1900.  During the winter of 1912-1913 the club built a new building on  Lafayette Road, with Indianapolis Speedway developer Carl Fisher providing land and some financial support for a new facility that opened in May 1913.  Membership flagged by 1916, when the club launched a membership drive and changed its name to the Indianapolis Athletic and Canoe Club in April, 1916.  In December, 1926, though, a fire burnt the clubhouse to the ground.

Selling the Suburbs: Marketing Suburban Indianapolis with Sid Woods

Tarena Lofton

Woods hosted a concert at the Walker Casino in December, 1961 not long after arriving in Indianapolis.

Having the ability to relate to people will open many doors in life, and Sid Woods possessed such qualities and used them to help sell some of Indianapolis’ earliest African-American suburbs. Living in an era of American history where opportunity was limited to those of color, Sid Woods managed to become a prominent figure in the African-American community.

In June, 1963 Woods appeared in an ad for Grandview Estates showing the progress of sales in the northwestern Indianapolis suburb.

Woods joined the African-American radio station WGEE in June, 1961. Prior to his move to the Indianapolis station Woods had 11 years of background in the radio industry. He started off working as a disc jockey in Norfolk, Virginia for three years. After Virginia he moved to Tennessee to work as a disc jockey at the leading African American radio station in the state. Prior to moving to Indianapolis, Woods had already made a name for himself; he was known as “The Gospel King of Tennessee” during his time in Tennessee.