1930s Film of Speedway Highlights Main Street

(posted Nov 10)

Preserving the history of Speedway continues to be the mission of the Old Speedway City Neighborhood Association. OSCNA member Jan Hutchinson is looking for old photos, school photos, paper awards and memorabilia that pertains to Speedway from 1910 to 1950. Hutchinson's announcement was a continuation of the November 5 meeting theme of history preservation.

The group spent over an hour watching a 30 minute film clip from the late 1930s about the Speedway High School Dedication that Charles Bennett discovered at the library . The film clip captured Main Street and the surrounding area. The school dedication showed a sign saying "WPA Inspected". The film clip also showed another WPA project of installing sewers on 14th Street.

Eva Lucid, Dot Phipps, and Helen Kellam were instrumental in naming people and building locations. When Reverend Howard Anderson popped on the screen, Phipps noted "he married my husband and I". Anderson was the first minister of the Speedway Christian Church.

Kellam explained the Speedway Christian Church was built in a day by volunteers prior to the current facility standing today. The parsonage located at 15th and Winton Avenue was torn down to build the parking lot.

Kellam's husband Jim was instrumental in developing the Speedway school's mascot, Sparky the Sparkplug. Students originally had wanted to use the name Trojans, but Jim told his wife that "there are certain items by this name we sell in the drug store that you don't want to be associated with."

Lucid identified several teachers in the film. Lucid remembered her teacher Mrs. Quinn for her words of wisdom of "not to wash your face with soap."

At one time, Main Street had several grocery stores, including Zink's Grocery, The Great Atlantic and Pacific and Speedway Market. Several of the blocks on Main Street were laid out for small shops. The west side of Main between 10th and Ford still has 14 parcels of land on the plat map at the assessor's office.

Backenmeyer's Grocery was located on Crawfordsville Road in the strip center east of Gerrard Avenue.

Speedway Lumber was located at the northeast corner of 10th and Main Street and Culver Coal Company was at 11th and Auburn Streets.

The Speedway State Bank was the former site of Polar Ice and Fuel. The group identified Bill Rosner as the bank president. The film also showed a Chevrolet dealership at 14th and Main and Busard Motors.

The film clip also panned to a water tower. "The water was good then. It came from wells. We didn't have water meters, and the water was $1.50 a month," Kellam said.

The film also showed a canopy of Elm trees that bordered along 15th, 14th and 13th Streets. Kellam described it as driving in a tunnel. She said the Elm trees died from Elm disease. Ed Frazier said they were replaced with Silver Maples.

Main Street had a coffee shop called Dot's Coffee Shop and also a family dining restaurant called Noffkee's.

OSNCA President Elizabeth Frazier said Speedway cable commission member Tony Zishka would like to add a documentary of words with the film to show on WSCA. He is requesting anyone with knowledge of this film clip to share the historical information. WSCA can be contacted by email or by phone at 361.3375.