Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis, Indiana)

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The Martindale-Brightwood area was settled in 1872-1874 by railroad workers who found employment in machine shops and manufacturing. Industrial growth in the neighborhood was supported by the nearby railroad lines and the area quickly became a working-class suburb of Indianapolis.

Martindale, in the west, continued to develop as an industrial and residential area centered around Martindale Avenue. The street was lined by a mixture of private homes, churches, and industries. Among the businesses operating in the Martindale area were the Indianapolis Gas Works, Wm. Eggles Field Lumberyard, Hoosier Sweat Collier Factory, the National Motor Vehicle Company, and the Monon Railroad yards.

African-American churches continued to be built in the area and Martindale Avenue became the home to many African-Americans. The African-American population of Martindale was also provided with a school and Douglass Park was dedicated in 1921. By 1927, the park also operated a swimming pool. During the formative years of Martindale-Brightwood, the railroads continued to be the basis for the economy, however, following the relocation of the “Big Four” to Beech Grove in 1908, industry slowly began to decline.

The original plat for Brightwood area (east) was drawn in 1872 when a residential community was envisioned by town planners that would surround the "Bee Line" Railroad that passed through the area. The revised version of the Town of Brightwood was finally incorporated in 1876, in honor of John Bright, a local railroad figure. The neighborhood boundaries of Brightwood, Indiana, were: Massachusetts Avenue on the south, East 30th Street on the north, North Keystone Avenue on the west, and North Sherman Drive on the east.

Brightwood was annexed into the City of Indianapolis in 1897. It continued to be known as a "railroad town" for many years after its annexation, despite its no longer being a separate municipality. In the 1950s and 1960s, Brightwood underwent a transition, as the use of passenger trains declined and many white residents relocated to new suburbs farther out from the center of Indianapolis. The population of Brightwood went from being virtually all Caucasian to virtually all African-American. Like many urban Indianapolis neighborhoods, Brightwood is today struggling with poverty, urban decay, high crime, and blight.