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The site where the Conrad Indianapolis hotel stands at the corner of Washington and Illinois streets was previously home to the 12-story Roosevelt Building, shown at left in the photo, and to Thompson’s Restaurant and Cooler’s Billiard Parlor No. 2. This photo is looking north across Washington Street (from the perspective of the spot where Champps Kitchen & Bar in Circle Centre mall is now located). This photo was taken in about 1925, just a couple of years after the Roosevelt Building was completed. The office building, designed by the Vonnegut Bohn & Mueller firm, was owned by the Libby Realty Co. and changed hands several times over the years. In 1985, Melvin Simon & Associates bought it and then sold it to the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development later that year. In 1990, the city tore down the building with the intent of putting a mall anchor store there. That didn’t materialize. After several other ideas that never came to fruition, the spot was eventually filled by the Conrad, which opened in 2006.
Sources: Indiana Historical Society, HistoricIndianapolis.com
Credit: The photo is courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society and is part of the W.H. Bass Photo Co. collection. More images are available at images.indianahistory.org.
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