|
Location Found
Searching the local newspaper archives and city directories my first big find was this article;
Indianapolis News, 29 October 1889 To Make Playing Cards and Stationery "Several months ago the plant of the old Shaw Carriage Works was purchased in an ostentatious manner by an Eastern company, and recently a large amount of new machinery has been put into it. The firm is the “National Card Company of Indianapolis and New York”. Secretary of the company Samuel J. Murray, will be Superintendent when business begins. About 100 men will be employed." I found that the Shaw Carriage Works was an old established company that had financial problems and was sold to another company that only lasted a couple years. The building was located just outside of the then city limits near the newly established Garfield Park. The Belt Rail Road had also just completed their rail service around that side of town and had added a spur to the factory. Most citizens lived north of the tracks near the area known as Fountain Square where the trolley lines ended. Between there and the tracks was a stream, Pleasant Run, that further impeded travel to the factory. The actual address for the factory was known as "Gatling Street and the Belt RR". By 1898 Gatling was renamed to Barth which remains today. The location is now covered by an apartment complex. The address in the Hochman was mistakenly the address, at that time, of the United States Playing Card's location in Cincinnati. |