Fountain Square is located just southeast of the inner belt with the core of the neighborhood located where Prospect and Virginia Ave intersect. The neighborhood derives its name from the successive fountains that have been prominently featured at the intersection of Virginia Avenue, East Prospect Street, and Shelby Street. The neighborhood developed primarily by German-American immigrants who established a strong German character on the city’s southside. The ethnic mix diversified near the turn of the 20th century as Fountain Square saw an influx of many Eastern and Southern European immigrants. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Fountain Square was the City’s main entertainment district  with several theaters gracing its streets at one time, which is unusual as most city’s entertainment districts are located downtown or on the edge of it. Fountain Square hit a high point of 27K residents in 1950 but like most inner city Indianapolis neighborhoods it declined rapidly after WWII.  After decades of population decline, Fountain Squar lost almost 2/3s of its population and now has just under 10K residents. While the population has still not stabilized, Fountains Square’s revitalization efforts began in the 1980s with the creation of three designated national historic districts (Laurel and Prospect, State and Prospect, and the Virginia Avenue Districts). Serious revitalization efforts really got going in the 1990s focused on stabilizing the historic Commercial District of Fountain Square at Prospect and Virginia. This momentum has continued to the present day as reinvested commercial blocks continue to slowly expand down Prospect and Shelby Street and more and more residential streets stabilize with renovations and new construction. 

While Fountain Square is considered one of Indy’s trendiest neighborhoods and one of the City’s 7 cultural districts there is still a lot of stabilization needed here outside of the core blocks surrounding Virginia & Prospect and in the residential streets especially in the eastern half of the neighborhood.

Click here to view my Fountain Square album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Convenient access to Dwtn being about 2-3 miles away from Fountain Square.
* Good dedicated bike lane system including an off road bike lane running along Virginia to the heart of Dwtn.
* Fountain Square has decent racial diversity at about 65% White and the rest a mix of Black & Hispanic families. Wide divergence in incomes between the more gentrified area in the heart of Fountain Square (closer to Dwtn) and along the edges of the district. Solid generation diversity with a good mix of family households and young professionals.
* Safety in Fountain Square has come a long way since the mid-90s when this was a pretty dangerous neighborhood. Overall the neighborhood is now pretty safe but some crime in pockets of the district likely along the less gentrified edges. Still a good amount of grit and vacant lots remain in these areas.
* Excellent concentration of attractive early 20th century commercial bldgs in the core of Fountain Square. The residential areas are a mix of more detailed homes that have been fixed up and underinvested working housing.
* Solid urban infill in the core of Fountain Square and generally good residential infill.
* Good park amenities including several small parks well distributed across the neighborhood, a couple medium sized parks, the Pleasant Run Trail running the southern edge of the district, and Willard Park, which is a good sized park just to the NE of Fountain Square with a public pool.
* Solid cultural amenities esp. a high concentration of restaurants, bars, cafes, night clubs, live music venues, & art galleries, concentrated at Fountain Square’s heart (Prospect & Viriginia). Limited food & beverage amenities outside of this core.
* Great urban form and esp. Streetscaping at Fountain Square’s heart (Prospect & Virginia).
*  Decent retail amenities mostly concentrated at Prospect & Virginia. This includes a Mexican Grocery Store, good array of boutiques & gift stores, tons of salons, a couple book stores, several dessert joints & bakeries, a couple gyms, a record store. several doctor’s offices and plenty of churches.
* Great array of rentals albeit on the pricier side. Studios lease in the low 1Ks, 1 & 2 beds lease anywhere from $850-2K, and a good # of 3-beds that lease btwn the high 1Ks-3K.
* Significant decent for-sale diversity with a good # of small 1 beds SF homes selling in the 100Ks, plenty of 2-beds selling anywhere from 150K-450K including a mix of condos and SF. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 150K-750K

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Quality Urban form quickly diminishes as you move away from Prospect & Virginia along Prospect and Shelby. The core of Fountain Square does appear to be slowly creeping down these corridors with quality urban infill. Pretty poor urban form & streetscaping along Prospect Park’s other Arterials (Washington & Southeastern). Lots of industrial uses along these streets.
• At 5K residents per square mile this is a pretty low density for an urban neighborhood. Significant amount of vacant lots and underutilized commercial/industrial space remain in the neighborhood.
• Decent access to walkable schools including several k-8 schools of mixed ratings and types.
• Sidewalks infrastructure is good but not excellent. Less than half of all intersections at ADA standard.”