3603 Watson Road

Year Built: 1927

Architecture Style: Colonial Revival

Key Features:

• Clapboard Siding
• Portico with Column Supports
• Symmetrical Facade

This colonial revival home has a clapboard exterior, whereas the majority of the houses on Watson Road are brick. There is another clapboard Colonial revival diagonally across the corner of McCord Park. The current family has lived in this home for more than 45 years. They moved in just as the demographics of owners on the street was shifting significantly.

Watson Road neighbors were originally all white. The street remained that way until about 1965, when the first black family moved onto the street. Following that, many of the homes were sold to black families by white owners who moved outside Indianapolis' city limits. About 30 years ago, gay men began purchasing well-built houses needing some “tender loving care.” Having updated the homes, they began to be appealing to a more diverse group of buyers. In the past 15 years, younger couples began buying houses for many of the same reasons that Watson Road developed in the first place.