Customer Reviews

Lost Indianapolis (IN) (Images of America)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I live in the Indianapolis area, so this book is extra special. The photographs are amazing. It tells the story of the old Indianapolis and how life used to be in our fair city. The canal is lovely to look at now, but the author takes us back to when the canal was used for trade. You can still shop at LS Ayres in the suburbs, but you can't shop in the store downtown in all it's history and glory. shopping used to be a big event. This book is wonderful. The stories are told in a way to take you back in time. Who knew Indianapolis had interurbans & streetcars? Now I Know....

Loved the book - cover to cover. The pictures are great too. Anyone interested in the Indianapolis area, especially it's beginnings, would do well to buy this book. I have actually purchased 5 additional books to give as Christmas gifts!

I grew up in Indianapolis and really enjoyed reading about all of the things that have gone away since I was a little kid. I used to love Burger Chef, and the downtown Ayres store. I remember the Riverside Amusement Park sitting closed there for years when we would pass it going out to the Speedway.

The author also has a webpage called "Lost Indiana" which talks about some of the Lost Indy topics, but also some other neat sites in the rest of the state. You could google this to find it.

"Lost Indianapolis" is part of the very large "Images of America" series of books that feature historical photos of landmarks of a city or group of people and tell part of the history as well. From time to time "then and now" photos are included as well so that the reader can see how things have changed.

"Lost Indianapolis" is a great book for those with an interest in Indianapolis for two reasons:

1) The photographs. They are interesting and very well-chosen to add to the text. I have seen books of this sort that seem to have random pictures tossed in with the text.

2) The text. McDonald has chosen several interesting topics to tell some of the story of the city. This is not a complete history by any means, but he does a thorough job of telling episodes in the city's history.

Topics covered in the book include: the central canal, Union Station, the Interurban system, the Stutz company, Carl Fisher, Riverside Park, Burger Chef and Market Square Arena.

The Interurban system was an electrical train system that ran from Indianapolis and connected with similar systems all over Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. McDonald tells the story in both a thorough and interesting way, including how the electrical plants required to power the trains eventually started to sell their extra energy to nearby customers and morphed into two modern-day utility companies still operating in the state.

The history of the Stutz Company is interesting because it begins to tell the story of Indianapolis and its love affair with the automobile. The Stutz Bearcat was the most famous car to come out of the factories that still stand on Capitol Avenue (they now house offices and a series of art studios).

McDonald also tells the story of Carl Fisher, an automotive pioneer in many ways - he had one of the first car dealerships in the world, he sold parts, including the first working headlights and the electric starter. Most importantly, he was part of the team that created the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and began the tradition of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. He includes a great action photo of Fisher testing out the track before it was paved with more than 3 million bricks in 1911.

I very much enjoyed the section on Burger Chef as well. I did not realize that one of the warehouses I drive by from time to time on West 16th street was actually the corporate headquarters of Burger Chef! I have fond childhood memories of the Fun Meal at Burger Chef featuring the characters Burger Chef & Jeff - the forerunner to the McDonald's Happy Meal. Lost Indianapolis details the growth of company and the men who founded it. Interestingly, they had made several fast food kitchen devices to make things like soft-serve ice cream, shakes and flame-broiled hamburgers and started the first Burger Chef as a showcase restaurant to demonstrate their products. It was so successful they decided to franchise their system.

"Lost Indianapolis" is marred by several typographical errors, but the good information and interesting stories more than made up for that.

Thanks to all who have made this book one of the best selling titles on Indianapolis. I had a great time writing it, and am working on a couple of follow-on projects, including one specifically about Burger Chef - so send me mail at webmaster@lostindiana.net if you have stories about Burger Chef to share.

About the editing - there is a major typographical error in the book, in that "Ayres" is spelled incorrectly several times. There are also a couple of other editing errors.

What happened? Very simply the final edited version was not the one printed! Though a mixup with the publisher, one of the pre-edited versions was actually printed.

The good news: the next printing of the book has the errors corrected. This is especially good news for those who buy the book now, because you'll have the "first edition", a real collector's item. :)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Lost Indianapolis contains a history of eleven aspects of the city. Loaded with photos mostly from the Indiana Historical Society, it really brings home the feel of life in Indianapolis way back when. Unfortunately, as one other reviewer noticed, the book is chock full of grammatical and typographical errors, which make it somewhat painful to read. Hoosiers are already known for having an exceptionally poor education system, and this book will not lead anyone to believe differently. Definitely worth reading, but not worth the price, as it leaves much of the city's history unexplored and unaccounted for.

I truly enjoyed the concept of this book. I agree with the previous reviewer that the photographs are exceptional in that they often depict the history of a subject as well as the present.

I am quite disappointed, however, in the editing (or lack thereof) of the book. It appears that the manuscript was put together in haste. The editor and/or the publisher really fell short of their job.

Because I was born, and still live in Indianapolis - and my family history began in this city around 1850 - I looked forward to reading each of the chapters. Unfortunately, the frequent grammatical and typographical errors really distracted from the content. If the work had been edited, it would have a home among other treasures on my bookshelf. It is sad, however, that I would be expected to pay even Amazon's discounted price for a piece that could have truly been a treasure - if someone had just taken the time to edit it.