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El Sol de Tala Restaurant

Maria Taylor opened El Sol Restaurant at 2444 E. Washington Street on March 26, 1978. The restaurant occupied the space where Francisco “Frank” and Axia Poventud had owned a Latin American grocery store for two years called Miami Market. Taylor closed El Sol de Tala in September 1979. Later that year, Javier Amezcua reopened the restaurant, calling it El Sol de Tala and Market. Amezcua had come to Indianapolis indirectly from Tala, Jalisco, in Mexico, in 1972, previously working in Los Angeles and Chicago before moving to Indianapolis. He initially… Read More »El Sol de Tala Restaurant

Gatorade

Doctors Robert Cade, Dana Shires, James Free, and Alejandro de Quesada, kidney specialists at the University of Florida College of Medicine, formulated Gatorade, the iconic sports drink, in response to the problems the university’s varsity football team faced during the particularly hot-and-humid 1965 playing season. Numerous varsity players suffered heat exhaustion and dehydration. Dewayne Douglas, the assistant football coach, first sought advice from Shires about how to thwart the problem. Shires, who had played football in high school, knew well what players experienced under these conditions and approached Cade about… Read More »Gatorade

Hannah House

Hannah House, located at 3801 Madison Avenue, is a historic house full of history and haunted tales. Paranormal experts and fans have dubbed it one of the most haunted houses in Indiana, and it has been featured in many books and articles about Indiana’s spookier history. The house’s namesake, Alexander Moore Hannah (b. 1821 – d. 1895), was a prominent businessperson and farmer. He grew up in Indiana and worked as a harness maker for many years before moving to California in 1850 to make his fortune during the California… Read More »Hannah House

Ikko Matsumoto

(Sept. 14, 1863-Dec. 14, 1935). Ikko Yahe was born in Tokyo, Japan, where he apprenticed with his uncle from ages 12 to 21 to learn how to design and manufacture jewelry. Following Japanese custom, Yahe took the surname of the man from whom he learned his trade, in this case his uncle’s surname, Matsumoto. He came to the United States in 1887, living in San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston, before moving to Indianapolis in 1892 with his wife Frances Piper Post, whom he met and married in Boston in 1890.… Read More »Ikko Matsumoto

Nellie Simmons Meier

(Nov. 10, 1862-Mar. 24, 1944). Nellie Palmer Simmons Meier was an internationally known palmist—dubbed the “Palmist to the Stars”—with a long roster of famous clients, including reformers, politicians, artists, musicians, actors, writers, scientists, and business leaders. Meier was born in New York to Daniel Simmons and Catherine “Katie” Clinton Austin and had one sister. The Simmons family moved to Indiana while Meier was still an infant, and she attended primary school in Indianapolis at Benjamin Harrison School and May Wright Sewall’s Girls Classical School. She first began reading palms in… Read More »Nellie Simmons Meier

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