West Newton

West Newton’s approximate boundaries are Mendenhall Road on the north, Goose Creek on the east, Milton Street on the south, and Mooresville Road on its southwestern tip. 

David Klime settled in the area of current West Newton in 1819; in 1823, Henry Hobbs moved nearby. Both were Quakers and helped establish the Sanders Creek Friends Meeting in 1827. In 1857, the meeting moved to the town Christopher Furnas had platted as Newton in 1851. Newton’s first permanent postmaster, Isaac Hawkins, changed its name to West Newton to distinguish it from another town in Indiana.

Boosted by the construction of the Mooresville Road in 1863-1864, the town replaced the original meetinghouse with a second meetinghouse and school building in 1870. However, the number of residents increased slowly throughout the late 19th century and into the mid-20th . All of Decatur Township grew slowly into the 1980s, and West Newton merely mirrored the pattern of the township. 

Incorporated into the city of Indianapolis by Unigov in 1970, West Newton continues to be a well-populated community in the Decatur Township area. The West Newton Friends Meeting church serves as a reminder of the town’s Quaker heritage.