Writer / A. J. Wright
River Road, just north of Main Street on Carmel’s northeast side, offers one of the most pleasant drives in the city. This stretch of road is accessed from Carmel’s first roundabout, constructed in 1997. To the west are the stately homes of the Moffitt Farm at Prairie View subdivision. To the east are the bluffs overlooking White River. But what makes the drive so unique is the shady archway formed by trees lining the median and both sides of the road.
A little more than a century ago, the leading streets of Old Town Carmel had a similar appearance. In 1876, a correspondent to the “Noblesville Ledger” wrote:
“The improvements going on [in Carmel] are wonderful, and everybody seems to be imbued with new life and energy. Westfield and some other places must keep a sharp lookout, [or] else the bright little village of Carmel will get far ahead of them in general improvement. One thing I noticed in particular, and this was the great number of beautiful shade trees. They are small yet, but in a few years more, if well taken care of, will look magnificent. There is not a village in the state so well shaded as Carmel.”
The shade trees were the idea of John F. Mendenhall. Born on a farm along Cool Creek on Carmel’s east side in 1844, he was the grandson of Benjamin Mendenhall, the first Quaker to settle in what is now Carmel. John attended common school in the Rural Valley neighborhood, located in the present-day area of Cool Creek Estates, and Union High School in Westfield, from which he graduated in 1866.
It was at Union High School that he developed an interest in botany. The summer after graduation, he enlisted the help of his father, Ira, along with Frank Gallagher, Sylvanus Carey, Isaac Harold, Thomas Carey, and others to gather maple trees from the woods and replant them in neat rows along Carmel’s streets. By the turn of the century, the trees had grown tall, and the shady archways they formed gave the town a picturesque appearance — but their days were numbered.
In 1917, Indiana’s newly established state highway commission chose to route the state’s first highway along Range Line Road. The highway promised to be a boon for Carmel, but residents faced a difficult decision. In preparation for construction, the town board passed an unpopular ordinance requiring the removal of all branches and limbs that cast shadows over streets and sidewalks. Many residents wished to preserve the trees and reached out to Richard Lieber, director of the Indiana Department of Conservation. He wrote a letter on their behalf to the “Carmel Standard,” encouraging the town board to rescind the ordinance:
“A few days ago, citizens from Carmel, Indiana, called at the department regarding the protection of your superb shade trees, explaining that the town board intended to issue an order to have the same topped. … It seems to me a duty of the citizens of Carmel to resist, if necessary with an injunction, the disfiguration of the street’s silhouette, the sure but slow strangling of the trees and the commitment of an aesthetic offense. One of the chief highways of the state is going to pass by these trees, and it seems to me that Carmel, as a matter of self-interest, should do everything to encourage the further growth instead of interfering with it. The branches should form a natural vault over the highway, and the picture of the town would remain pleasing upon the minds of the many tourists that will pass through it.”
Unfortunately, the ordinance stood, and the shady archways were removed. Even if the trees had been spared in 1920, it is unlikely they would have survived a century of development to shade Old Town Carmel today. Shady lanes still exist in Carmel, just not downtown. They can be found in many older subdivisions or on the pleasant drive along the bluffs on River Road.
A. J. Wright, historian at the Carmel Clay History Museum, has written several books on Carmel’s history, available at the museum’s website: carmelclayhistory.org/books.
