Allisonville is a suburb centered near the intersection of 82nd Street and Allisonville Road, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Indianapolis. John Allison brought his family from Kentucky to clear and farm the area in 1819. Fourteen years later he platted 40 town lots along the Winchester State Road, later renamed the Noblesville State Road and then as Allisonville Road.
By the 1850s, Allisonville was a village of shopkeepers and craftsmen serving nearby farmers and travelers on the toll road. Dr. Ambrose Ruddell came in 1833 and practiced medicine in the village for 40 years. (In the 1970s, the Ruddell home was moved to and interpreted as a 19th -century doctor’s house.)
The brick home (ca. 1830) of another early settler, John West, still stands at its original location along Allisonville Road, north of 75th Street. The railroad bypassed Allisonville in the early 1850s and boosted , just three miles to the east. Although the village continued to serve travelers, it remained small. About 50 people lived there in the 1880s.
Post-World War II housing construction swallowed up Allisonville, then 1-465 construction and the Castleton Shopping Mall brought traffic congestion and commercial development to the area. By the 1990s, there were few reminders of the little town of Allisonville.
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