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Martinsville History
Martinsville,
the county seat of Morgan County, was platted in 1822 on the east bank of
the White River. Both Centerton and Waverly were first considered as the
county seat, but several influential citizens donated land in Martinsville
for public buildings if it would be located there.
The town is thought to
have been named in honor of John Martin of Washington County, Indiana, who
served as one of the first Morgan County Commissioners. A total of 42 blocks
were included in the first plat, with block 18 reserved for the courthouse
square. The first public sale of lots was in June 1822.
The area's first settlers
were the Jacob Cutler family, who came in the years preceding the town's
founding. The first hewn log house in Martinsville was built in 1820 by
Jacob Cutler just north of the northeast corner of the square. By 1822, some
six families resided in the new county seat. Among the first merchants in
town were Joshua Taylor and John Sims. Two early industries included a
tannery, established in 1824 by John Sims, and the Cutler family distillery.
Between the years
1835-1850, Martinsville shipped a large volume of pork and grain via the
White River. Several coopers established shops here as a result of the
shipping industry. By the 1850s, the town had grown significantly and
included a woolen mill, sawmills, flour mills, a wagon shop, and several
furniture shops. Religious congregations included Presbyterian, Methodist
Episcopal, and Baptist.
The railroad arrived in
Martinsville prior to the Civil War, linking the town to Indianapolis and
Chicago. In the antebellum years, new
vernacular and
Italianate
style commercial buildings reflecting a growing prosperity soon lined the
courthouse square.
Main
Street, west side of courthouse square, c.1915
A number of prominent
industries were established in Martinsville during the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries. During the 1850s, Giles Mitchell established a
brickyard on the western edge of Martinsville; he later moved it to North
Main Street. Brick for the Morgan County Courthouse was produced at his
brickyard. In 1895, the Adams Brick Company was formed from a consolidation
of three smaller brick companies. The Adams Company utilized the shale found
in the cliffs along Blue Bluff Road in the northern part of the town. In
1909 the Poston Brick Company was formed and built a plant next to the Adams
Company. Neither complex remains today.
Shale
cut, North Main Street
Another prominent
business was the Old Hickory Furniture Company. The company specialized in
making furniture out of bent hickory poles, a popular form of porch
furniture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The factory was located on
Cherry Street in the west part of town. It no longer exists.
Child's
bow back rocking chair manufactured by Old Hickory
Furniture Company of Martinsville
Perhaps the most famous
industry in Martinsville was
sanitariums. Mineral water was discovered in
1889 by Sylvanus Barnard while drilling for natural gas. His discovery
helped Martinsville become one of the nation's leading health resorts. At
one time, Martinsville contained 11 different sanitariums.
Among the earliest
mineral water spas was the Martinsville Sanitarium, located in the northwest
part of town. It originated in 1892 with two predecessors. The Nutter and
Webster/Major/Artesian Sanitarium and the original Martinsville Sanitarium,
were frame structures built side by side. In 1897 and 1898, W. K. Bellis, an
Indianapolis bicycle manufacturer, bought both structures and combined them
into one large, rambling facility he named the Martinsville Sanitarium.
Linen postcard, c1940.
In 1916, Walter A.
Kennedy bought the sanitarium and embarked on an ambitious expansion plan.
By 1927, he had torn down and replaced the two early sanitariums with a
massive
Tudor Revival structure. Kennedy promoted the new and
improved Martinsville Sanitarium as "One of the Three Best Known Watering
Places in America." Today, only about one-fifth of the Martinsville
Sanitarium exists. The surviving building was the first hotel structure
built in 1925-26.
The other surviving sanitarium is the New Highland
Mineral Springs Sanitarium, founded in the late 1880s. The first structure
was built in 1896 by W. C. Banta and Dr. C. J. Keegan. A one story brick
annex was built in 1924 incorporating a new feature: an inclined interior
ramp linking the two buildings. A five story brick addition was completed in
1929. On March 11, 1929, the original frame section of the complex was
destroyed by fire. What remains is a large part of the 1920s brick building.
New
Highland Sanitarium (1929), North main Street
The access to
transportation routes, the development of a diversified industrial base and
the popularity of the town's sanitariums combined to produce a thriving
economy for Martinsville during the early-twentieth century. A number of the
downtown's most significant buildings date to the early twentieth century.
The Martinsville City Hall is one of the county's only examples of the
Renaissance Revival style. The
Neoclassical First National Bank
of Martinsville is representative of many small town banks of this period.
An unusual object in the downtown area from this period is the neon sign on
top of the
Italianate building at 22-28 East Morgan Street. It was
restored in 2001.
Today, Martinsville
remains as an economically viable community. With the growth of the
Indianapolis metropolitan area, the town has balanced its dual identity as a
bedroom community and a typical Indiana small town.
Neon
sign (c.1925), on the roof of the Norman T. Cunningham/Buskirk Building,
corner of Morgan and Main Street |
