Butler-Tarkington

Butler-Tarkington is a neighborhood on the north side of Indianapolis. This neighborhood consists mainly of working to upper-middle-class households, but one finds wealthier individuals inhabiting the much grander homes along the western edge of Meridian Street, and also portions of Illinois Street north of 40th Street. Butler-Tarkington is known for its attractive residential architecture.

Academics
The neighborhood's name comes from Butler University, which has its campus in the neighborhood, and the famous writer Booth Tarkington who lived in the neighborhood for 23 years in his country estate until his death in 1946. Butler University moved from Irvington on the city's Far East Side to the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood in 1928 when it acquired what had been the community's 300-acre Fairview Park. The first school to come to the neighborhood was IPS School 43, which opened in the village of Mapleton in 1883. The school moved into its present building at 150 West 40th Street in 1909. IPS school 86 was built in 1928 at 49th Street and Boulevard Place, and is currently the International School of Indiana. In 1939 St. Thomas Aquinas opened its school (which serves kindergarten through eighth grade) at 4600 North Illinois Street. The Christian Theological Seminary was formed as an independent educational institution from Butler University in 1958, and in 1966 it opened its own campus next to Butler University.

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