Traders Point - A Branding Proposal

(Almost made it to Pecha Kucha Nov. 12, 2009 event - www.pkindy.org)

In 2009 an 1800 acre section of Pike Township known as Traders Point/Eagle Creek was designated a Rural Historic District by the National Parks Service. The award gives Indianapolis the distinction of having the largest Rural Historic District in a metropolitan area in the nation.
The Rural Historic District runs alongside Eagle Creek and is adjacent to one of the largest municipal parks in the country. The district is nestled within a concrete triangle of interstate highways. The entire triangle is often referred to by long-time residents as Traders Point. This “rural place in the city” is accessible, distinctive, and now, nationally recognized.
Yet, there is no signage at ground level to inform residents and travelers of the area’s significance. This is a request for signage to be designed and placed in coordination with the area residents who funded the award. The $10,000 gift is to be devoted to the creation, installation and maintenance of signs to be located throughout the triangle. Nationally known artist and area resident Nancy Noel has agreed to donate an artistic design for the signs, insuring a distinctive visual branding for the area.
Traders Point blends rural and suburban living just 15 minutes from the Mile Square. It has two family-operated dairies, including the Traders Point organic dairy which brings a national eco-tourism following. It also is known to competitive triathletes; challenged by the district’s terrain. The area boasts the historic Lafayette Road toll house, as well as a cemetery with the grave of a Revolutionary War Veteran, and a covered bridge original to the area.
The township’s first property owner, William Conner of Conner Prairie fame, also chaired the site committee that moved the state capital to Indianapolis. His only Marion County purchase, in 1823, was 80 federal acres where an Indian trail crossed Eagle Creek. A few years later, this path became the first road through the township, Lafayette Road. Conner’s parcel may have been a spot where trade was taking place between the Indians and the white settler. Nearly 150 years ago a few acres within the 80 acres were platted as a village named Traders Point. In the 1920s the area attracted urban motorists whose vehicles could be serviced in Traders Point by two separate service stations. Today motorists still enjoy its scenic, pastoral two lane roads named for area farmers. Important figures of their day lived here. Residents included J.K. Lilly, Jr., Industrialist Herman Krannert, William Fortune and artist Cassilly Adams. In 1963 the Traders Point hamlet surrendered to the creation of a public reservoir.
Today the name Traders Point, and the Eagle Creek Valley within it, have been recognized by the National Park Service. It is fitting that a brand identity campaign be embraced by thought leaders within the city. Artistically designed, professionally constructed and well-placed signs will call attention to one of the city’s largest geographical areas of national distinction.


http://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/files/hp-TradersPointEagleCreek.pdf