The Keeley Institute Building Houses Deep Local History
Writer / Jamie Hergott
Photography Provided
What do an alcohol rehabilitation center and The Indianapolis Star/Indianapolis News have in common?
They’ve both been housed in the Keeley Institute, a historic brick building located in the heart of Plainfield. But those are just a small part of the long list of owners and businesses the building has housed over the past 150 years.
The Keeley Institute stands tall on the corner of West Main and South Center streets. Owned by Indy Pillar LLC, it is a staple in Plainfield’s landscape today as the home of many businesses, including a co-working space, a contracting business, a barber shop and a real estate office.
The building has been through many different names (the Johnson Building the Barlow Building among them) and many different purposes since it was built in 1874. Much of what we know can be found in “50 Historic Buildings of Plainfield, Indiana: The Places and the People” by Sarah Wright. Because of the longevity and uniqueness of the Keeley Institute’s presence in the building, it’s often referred to as the Keeley Institute for simplicity’s sake.
One of the building’s very first uses was a hotel called the Hamlet House, after its owner, James Hamlet. In fact, the words are still emblazoned on the building along with the year it was built, on a ceremonial cornerstone on the front of the building. Hamlet, ever the entrepreneur, tried his hand at many different business ventures in this location before finally selling the building to Samuel Cook in 1876.
Cook decided to keep the hotel, change the name to the Mansion House, and run a grocery store out of the lower floor. Cook and his wife operated this home base for travelers for many years before selling the building in 1892 to Citizens State Bank. The hotel continued to operate in the upper floors, and a hardware store was added to the lower floor, turning the building into a multifunctional place.
Probably one of the most famous uses for the building was the Keeley Institute, which replaced the Mansion House in 1893. 
During a pre-Prohibition, an Illinois doctor named Leslie Keeley had the revolutionary idea of treating alcoholism as a disease. He opened the Keeley Institute as a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Some of his methods were questionable, but once Prohibition hit Indiana in 1918, it was closed.
After the Keeley Institute closed, the building underwent renovations so Citizens State Bank could inhabit the whole building. One famous addition to the bank was a reinforced, fireproof concrete vault with a steel safe that was touted as burglar-proof. Maybe they should have tested it first – the 1920s ushered in a rash of bank robberies, leaving Citizens State Bank a victim in 1924 to burglary at gunpoint. The burglars locked hostages in the vault while they ran with $4,000 cash.
A suspect was arrested, but the trial came too late. The bank shut down in 1935 and was sold again to new owners.
This is where things really pick up, as the building ran through a plethora of owners. The smorgasbord of businesses that called the building home include an electrical and appliance store, insurance agencies, a license branch, boutiques, a gift shop, and even a satellite office for the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News for a brief period. It housed a barbershop twice, and Leland’s Barbershop still occupies a spot on the southeastern corner of the building.
Reann Poray, manager of the Indiana Room at Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library, is well-versed in Plainfield’s history and has a soft spot for this simple brick building.
“What I love about this building is it looks like Plainfield’s history,” Poray says. “It has the date when it was built at the top of the structure. Anyone walking by today can look up and know that they’re looking at something original. You’re walking by history. It’s fun to imagine what went on 100 years ago in that exact same building.”
Have Plainfield photos to share? The Indiana Room is always looking for pictures to add to their physical and digital collection. Contact the Indiana Room at askindiana@plainfieldlibrary.net to donate or scan/return your piece of Plainfield’s history.
