All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz
Perhaps the most iconic landmark in Garfield Park is the pagoda, built in 1903 on land described at the time as the park's highest point.
The structure was put together with stone, cement and steel and its eaves were accented with elaborate wrought-iron ornamental trim. In the middle of the pagoda is a spiral staircase that led to an upper-level platform once used as a bandstand (the upper level has long been permanently closed off).
The pagoda actually was the second building on the site; the first, a wooden edifice, had burned down that same year, and architect Daniel Deupree, an Indianapolis Parks Department engineer and grandfather of John Nackenhorst, a Garfield Park area resident and husband of Margie, the park’s longtime unofficial mayor, was asked to design a shelter that also could serve as a bandstand.
Deupree died April 4, 1927, at the age of 68. In 2017,
Friends of Garfield Park dedicated a park flagpole in his honor.
The pagoda had
a scare in 1973 when it was condemned as unsafe, but Margie Nackenhorst led a campaign
to raise enough funds to save the structure then worked successfully to
have the pagoda listed on the National Register of Historic Places, solidifying it as a permanent park fixture.
Please note that you can click on any photo in this post to view a larger and sharper version.
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