Italian Heritage Society of Indiana

The area bound by East Street, Virginia Avenue, and Interstate Highway 70 is called the Holy Rosary – Danish Church Historic District and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 13 March 1986. It was Indianapolis’ first district designated not for the grandeur of its residential architecture or setting but because of its significance as an immigrant, working class neighborhood. The district marks the state’s largest single permanent Italian immigrant neighborhood and features three important structures.

Holy Rosary Catholic Church was built between 1923 and 1925 to serve a parish organized for the city’s Italian residents in 1909. Holy Rosary was the first

and is the only remaining Italian national parish of the four founded in Indiana. Many of its parishioners hailed from Termini Imerese, province of Palermo, and were engaged in the produce business.

The Trinity Danish Evangelical Lutheran congregation organized in 1868 and built its church on the southeast corner of McCarty and Noble Streets in 1872. Its first members came from the islands of Moen and Falster and were carpenters and construction workers. The first all-Danish congregation in the United States, the Danish language was used for all services until 1919 and all pastors were of Danish heritage until 1967. In 1956 the Danish congregation held its last service in this building and moved to East 42nd Street. The property is now owned by the Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic Faith.

Horace Mann Public School #13, Buchanan and Noble Streets, built in 1873, was designed by architect Edwin May, who also designed the Indiana State House. P.S. 13 was one of the city’s first schools to offer German language instruction. Closed in 1972, the school was remodeled into luxury apartments, and was listed separately in the National Register on 26 June 1986.