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Indianapolis was founded as the site for the new state capital in 1820 by an act of the Indiana General Assembly.
Indianapolis has designated six official Cultural Districts. They are Broad Ripple Village, Massachusetts Avenue, Fountain Square, The Wholesale District, Canal and White River State Park, and Indiana Avenue. These areas have held historic and cultural importance to the city. In recent years they have been revitalized and are becoming major centers for tourism, commerce and residential living.
Indianapolis is the home of the following colleges and universities (in alphabetical order): Butler University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Marian College, Martin University, Oakland City University Indianapolis campus, The Art Institute of Indianapolis, and the University of Indianapolis.
The city lies on the original east-west National Road. The first railroad to service Indianapolis, the Madison & Indianapolis, began operation on October 1, 1847, and subsequent railroad connections made expansive growth possible. Indianapolis was the home of the first Union Station, or common rail passenger terminal, in the United States. By the turn of the century, Indianapolis had become a heavy automobile manufacturer, rivaling the likes of Detroit. With roads leading out of the city at all directions, Indianapolis was on its way to becoming a major hub of regional transport connecting to Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis, as is befitting the capital of a state whose motto is "The Crossroads of America." This same network of roads would allow quick and easy access to suburban areas in future years. Natural gas and oil deposits in the surrounding area in the late 19th century helped the economy of Indianapolis prosper. City population grew rapidly throughout the first half of the 20th century. During this period, rapid suburbanization began to take place, and racial relations deteriorated throughout the 1960s, although, on the night that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Indianapolis was the only major city in which rioting did not occur. Many credit a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, who was in town campaigning for President that night, for helping to calm the tensions. Racial tensions heightened in 1970 with the passage of Unigov, which further isolated the middle class from Indianapolis's growing African American community. Court-ordered school desegregation busing by Judge S. Hugh Dillon was also a controversial change.
