South Garfield Drive

As the neighborhood flourished many prominent lawyers, business people, and doctors built their homes along East Garfield Drive, originally so named because it was east of the park. We see tiles along the street with that name. Today, the street has been renamed South Garfield Drive.

Behind the white house on the Southeast corner was Dr. Roller’s office where he saw patients from the 1930s until the 1960s. Many doctors at the time held office hours in their homes or an adjacent building on their property. It has been rumored that ladies-of-the-night often sought treatment here at Dr. Roller's.

Looking north, we see the three-story brick home built in 1925 by civic leader Frank McKinney, founder of American Fletcher National Bank and owner of several other businesses. Mr. McKinney went on to become chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party and then national Democratic chairman and a close friend of President Truman. After moving out of the White House, Bess and Harry Truman evidently stopped in Indianapolis on their drive home to Independence, Missouri. We don't know if it was because they left government service without a nest egg or because they were such great friends of the McKinney family, or both, but they stayed with the McKinney's while here in town.

As we walk south on South Garfield Drive, try to visualize across the park several greenhouses that supplied much of the city with flowers. The area has been known for years for its sledding hill and a place to view fireworks on Labor Day weekend.