Circle center mall5/17/2023 ![]() Ralston appointed squares #12, #19, and #20 “for religious purposes,” which apparently were not used as that designation is absent from the updated 1831 plat. Close to each public building was a half square reserved for a public market. He designated one square on the east side for a county courthouse and another on the west side for a state house. Within the Mile Square, Ralston set aside specific squares for public use. Early resident James Blake later suggested that these border streets “would make a pleasant four-mile drive around the city in fifty years or so.” North, South, East, and West streets were not present on the original 1821 plat but were added later to provide defined boundaries for the town. The only alteration to the grid occurred in the southeastern corner of the Mile Square to accommodate Pogue’s Run, a creek that meandered through the survey. Four avenues radiated at 45-degree angles from Governor’s Square. ![]() The four central blocks of the plat were designated as “Governor’s Square.” It featured a raised area with sugar maples for the governor’s residence, surrounded by an 80-foot-wide circular street. The main east-west street-later Washington Street-would be 120 feet wide. The plat had nine north-south streets and nine east-west streets, all 90 feet wide, thus forming a grid within the square. Clearly, the legislature expected the town to grow. The route was surveyed in 1827, construction began in 1829 and was completed by 1834. In addition, the General Assembly in 1821 began to petition Congress to appropriate funds to extend the planned National Road through the new capital. Local lore claims that Ralston placed his design there because he never envisioned the town to become larger, although the commissioners who had selected the capital site along White River anticipated growth in coming years due to its location on what they perceived as a major waterway. His design called for a one-mile-square plat located at the center of the four-section Congressional donation. ![]() Indianapolis, from its beginning, was a “planned” town, originating with the design developed by Ralston. Interestingly, Harrison had met Ralston in Salem, Indiana, where Ralston had relocated after working on Pierre L’Enfant’s plans for laying out the nation’s capital. Fordham and Scotsman Alexander Ralston to survey the proposed site. The Assembly established a commission to plan and lay out the town, appointing Christopher Harrison, James Jones, and Samuel P. Each section equaled 640 acres or one square mile. Following the Indiana General Assembly’s decision to relocate the state capital from Corydon in southern Indiana to the central part of the state, Congress donated four sections of land for the site. ![]()
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