History

"Interestingly, the Indianapolis 500 is NOT located in Indianapolis. The entire 539 acres which comprise the Indianapolis Motor Speedway property is located within the perimeters of a town called Speedway."

In early 1909, Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler, Arthur Newby, and real estate speculator Lem Trotter selected a site seven miles northwest of Indianapolis as the location of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Also, they purchased land to the south and west of the actual course. Their vision was an industrial community, with residential and commercial lots to support the factories. Thus, Speedway was one of the first planned communities in the nation.

"Speedway City" was platted in 1912 west of the new Prest-O-Lite plant and between the rail corridors leading to Crawfordsville, Indiana and Champaign, Illinois. The town attracted workers and managers of the new plant, as well as those who commuted on the Ben-Hur interurban rail line to Indianapolis proper.

On July 14, 1926, The Town of Speedway was incorporated in the State of Indiana. One of the first orders of business was to purchase the water works and sewer system from Trotter and Allison, godfathers of the town. Industries at that time included Allison's Engineering Company (airplane and auto engines), Prest-O-Lite (acetylene auto headlamps), Electric Steel Castings Company (foundry products), Esterline Angus (instrumentation), and American Art Clay (modeling clay). Today all of these industries or their decendants, along with a Coca-Cola bottling facility, still form the core of Speedway's employment.

Present Day

Geographically, Speedway is a nearly square community, two miles on a side (See Speedway Map). The town is about seven miles west-northwest of downtown Indianapolis (See Area Map). Speedway boasts its own schools, police, fire, and street departments, water works, and sewage treatment. Speedway's governing town board is elected, and until recently, was non-partisan. The school system is one of the finest in the state, offering a traditional curriculum to its students. Though close in proximity to the city center, Speedway citizens enjoy a quality of life found in more distant suburbs: two parks, little leagues in six sports, a developed commercial center, good traffic flow, and quiet evenings. It is not uncommon to see residents walking young children or pets, even after dark, during favorable weather.

Speedway residents have a special pride. Often, citizens will insist their address is Speedway, instead of Indianapolis (ESPN even shows this in their graphics during their race shows!). Children who were raised in Speedway often prefer to reside there when starting their own families. Though the high school is the smallest in the county, townspeople continue to turn out at band & choir concerts, attend drama club musicals, and applaud the efforts of the sports teams.

And each May, every resident is reminded of the town's roots with the sound of exotic automobiles touring the great race course nearby...

My Home

My house was built in 1996 on one of the few open lots left in the town.  It has three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a large combined living/dining room, and an attached garage.  The exterior is vinyl siding on sheathing.  Right behind my house is an alley adjacent to the old B&O railroad right-of-way that will someday be a paved trail.  I am approximately 6 blocks (1km) from the Turn 1 Gate to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

** opening quote from "Spotlight on Speedway", by Betty Pakcard, The Story of Speedway, 1976