Dr. J. A. Houser residence, Indianapolis, Indiana, circa 1908
| Description: |
Called The Island of Dreams, Dr. James A. Housers four-acre $50,000 house is pictured as the future site of a sanatorium. The back of the card, postmarked 1908, informs his patients of summer hours at his office in the Pythian Building on Massachusetts Avenue.Dr. James A. Houser (1847-1919) was described in 1890s ads as the greatest living phrenologist and phrenological lecturer. In the 1870s-1890s he lectured across the country about the topic, as well as temperance, marriage, and medicine. In 1882 he opened the Arcadia Lung Institute in Hamilton County and moved to Indianapolis in 1891, where he specialized in lung disease.Houser had plans to build a Phrenopathic Sanatorium this site, but we find no evidence that it was constructed. He bought the large frame house on the northeast corner of Central Avenue and 36th Street from George W. Powell in 1907 for $15,000. At that time it was quite a drive from the city center and Central Avenue was known as Sugar Flat Gravel Road or Sugar Flat Pike due to the many sugar maple trees lining the road. Houser and his family lived in this home until 1911 when he sold it to developer Harry M. Johnson, who in 1913 advertised 21 undeveloped lots in Johnsons Central Avenue Heights. |
|---|---|
| Origin: | 1908, circa |
| Source: |
http://indianaalbum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/9C76FC72-D79A-45F8-A844-123570665372 |
| Collection: |
Indiana Album |
| Rights: | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ |
| Geography: |
3600 Central Avenue, Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, United States |
| Subjects: |
Evan Finch Collection Houses Sanatoriums Indianapolis (Ind). Marion County (Ind.) Watson Park Neighborhood (Indianapolis, Ind.) |
Further information on this record can be found at its source.
This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Indiana State Library.