MULTIMEDIA

Reflections of Rome in Indy architecture

Launch a slide show of the buildings discussed in this article by clicking the link to the right.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art has been touting treasures of the Roman empire from the Louvre for several months now, but other Roman treasures have been in place in the Circle City for decades.

Just look around -- the old United States Courthouse, at 46 E. Ohio St., and the Indiana World War Memorial (right), at 431 N. Meridian St., are good places to start.

Thick yet elegant columns, triangular pediments and walls decorated with pilasters -- they're the hallmarks of Classical Revival architecture in America. The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 made the style all the rage in American public and institutional architecture for decades.

"Probably the fact that a lot of things (in Rome) have survived for 2,000 years has imbued these buildings with a sense of permanence and continuity," said local architectural historian Mary Ellen Gadski. "People liked that, and they were built with impressive materials, limestone and marble."

James T. Kienle, another local architect with a keen interest in this style, says Indianapolis has several fine examples because the city hit its stride economically at about the time that the Columbian Exposition's influence spread across the country.

We asked Kienle to help us identify some of the examples of neoclassical architecture locally. A sampling of his picks follows, with brief comments.

Birch Bayh Federal Building and United States Courthouse

Where: 46 East Ohio St.
Built: 1905.

"It represents a highly refined neoclassical design. It's the proportions, the level of detailing, and really the kind of rigid adherence to that style. It's one of the best -- if not the best -- pure Classical buildings in the city."

Especially notable is are the railing all around the plaza all around the building and the winding staircases and fully tiled arcade on the inside. Architects were John Hall Rankin and Thomas M. Kellogg.

City Hall (later, housed Indiana State Museum and most recently the Interim Central Library)

Where: 202 N. Alabama St.
Built: 1910.

"It has a little different character than the federal courthouse. If you look at the base element, it's sort of a Renaissance building. It's a bit of a mix, the way that rusticated base is with those deep reveals. But it is Classical Revival."

The building also is notable on the inside for full balconies surrounding a center court and faux-marble columns that really are painted metal.

Indiana Freemasons' Hall

Where: 525 N. Illinois St.
Built: 1908.

This often overlooked gem is clearly built up in three main stages or levels, not so unlike a column itself. The deep grooves in the lower stone blocks are called rustications and give a bold, exaggerated look.

The substantial upper portion of the boxy structure has many "blind windows," that is, window frames with stone in place of actual glass or breezeways. The effect is to hide the eight stories inside the building. Then there are the topping off elements. "It's the progressive layering" of the external architecture that makes it neoclassical, says Kienle.

J. Edgar Law Offices

Where: 1512 N. Delaware St.
Built: Early 1900s.

Distinguished by a curved portico with four columns and two flat pilasters (faux columns) in the corners. There's also an elliptical arch over the front entry; Roman arches usually were rounded. Building shows later Florentine and Italian influences. Originally designed as a residence.

"This is a Roman temple, but it's curved. It's very distinctive. I don't know where the curving (came from). "See the way the trim has the big pieces of the stone, then the brick, then the big pieces of stone on the doorway. That's a very Florentine thing to do."

Private Residence

Where: 4245 N. Meridian St.
Built: 1909.

"It's just such a good Classical Revival example. The portico is very well-executed. It's faithful to the proportions. It's reminiscent of Jefferson's University of Virginia. It's always been more popular in the South. It was more popular in institutional buildings. My guess is that the house was built when there was great interest in looking back at the Colonial period in America."

SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral

Where: 1347 N. Meridian St.
Built: 1906.

"It's got a portico that everyone would recognize as neoclassical. The niches would usually have had statuary in them in Roman times, but they were alcoves, a very common classical motif. The disc motif in the architrave is very classical, also the projected cornice."

Note also the balustrade at the very top. Corinthian columns in front may be the best in the city. Bronze doors are faithful reproductions. Roman originals often would have sculptures right inside the pediment.

Indiana World War Memorial

Where: 431 N. Meridian St.
Built: Begun in 1926.

"It's monumental in form. It is Beaux Arts, but it's Classical Revival, too. The colonnaded elements, the Ionic columns, the treatment of the base and the shaft and the cornice, are much more literally Classical than the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, which is more of a pure, later Beaux Arts building."

The urns, the balustrade and lions all are authentic, but not "over the top," says Kienle. The memorial was designed by Walker and Weeks of Cleveland, Ohio.

Abe Aamidor / The Indianapolis Star