New Circle Church - 3421 North Park Avenue

Year Built: 1922
Originally the English Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer

Architecture Style: Gothic Revival

Key Features:

• Parapets
• Central Tower
• Decorative Tracing on Windows

The Watson Park tour primarily focuses on Watson Road, since it winds through the center of the historic residential district, from southwest to northeast. Much of the neighborhood was previously a tract of land owned by Watson J. Hasselman (1853-1927) and his wife Ida Lucy (Blood) Hasselman (1855-1938). Their home was located at 3445 Central Avenue.

Many of Watson Park's original residents were notable figures in Indianapolis. Among them were the Secretary-Treasurer of Eli Lilly and Company and a Vice President of American Fletcher National Bank (now CHASE). A number of attorneys, doctors, CPAs, a United States Congressman, and an architect also made their homes in the neighborhood. Others were the owners of prosperous businesses, some of which are still operating today. The men frequently were members of the Indianapolis Athletic Club, which at that time typically meant they were politically progressive and members of the Democratic Party. Before many women began working outside the home, they were active in charity work, their children's schools, and the churches and synagogues of their families' faiths.

Most of the houses on the tour today were built in the 1920s and 1930s. The notable exception is the very first home you will encounter, on the northwest corner of Fairfield Avenue and Watson Road. The home at 3502 Watson Road was completed in 2019. For nearly a century prior to that, it was intentionally kept as an unimproved parklike spot.

At the time the majority of homes were built, the architectural trends that homeowners often chose were revival styles like Colonial Revival, Tudor Cottage Revival, and country French Revival. That meant they incorporated some of the visual cues from the original period styles in just enough detail to give an impression of the original ideals. There are also some American Four Squares and a Mediterranean Palazzo Revival.