Ravenswood is a northside community roughly bounded by the on the north and west, Keystone Avenue on the east, and 71st Street to the south. Platted in 1910 by the Marion Trust Company, the community began as a riverside resort community. The electric brought city dwellers for summer outings on the river, where on some days as many as 10,000 people swam, fished, and rented canoes and boats. At night, diners and dancers favored the Wharf House, a restaurant known for its steaks and entertainment. Affluent families built cottages and even some elaborate homes in the Terrace Beach enclave along Fitch Avenue.
In the mid-1920s, however, the river changed course, the beach eroded, and low-lying areas became swampy. The summer crowd moved out and year-round residents moved in, attracted to low-cost cottages and the town’s bohemian atmosphere. By the 1950s and 1960s, the once-posh resort community was a neighborhood in turmoil. Flooding was a continual problem, property values were depressed, and city tax revenues proved inadequate for basic services.
In the 1970s, new residents, lured by the location and affordable housing, began to purchase and restore some of the older homes. Property values rose, and the county undertook flood control projects to alleviate drainage problems. Ravenswood has suffered setbacks, however, in the last few years. Population declined from a peak of 650 in 1970 to an estimated 460 in 1988.
In December 1988, the town council, citing lack of revenue and citizen apathy, voted to dissolve and asked the City of Indianapolis to assume control. Then, in January 1991, a rain-swollen White River overflowed and caused widespread property damage. Most residents, however, expressed an intention to remain in the neighborhood, though looking to the city and the Army Corps of Engineers for eventual solutions to the flooding problems. During the 2000s, the area has experienced some population growth.
One of the stalwart organizations of the community known as the White River Yacht Club (founded in 1938) continues to exist on the west end of the area.
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