Last week, I wrote about my visit to Red-Tail Land Conservancy’s new Hidden Canal Nature Preserve on the east side of Anderson. The group invited me on a hike to explore the work they’d done to restore the property, and I finally got an up-close look at the old Larimore flowing well! Soon, though, I discovered that the well was only part of the story. We had to walk down an abandoned stretch of 10th Street to get to it.
Daleville/Anderson native and reader Alan Mayes, a.k.a. decotriumph, helped a lot in researching this piece. His assistance was appreciated!
I don’t know when 10th Street was first established. There’s no mention of it being an early toll road or turnpike from Anderson to nearby Chesterfield in the county history books I found. Still, it crossed the White River and zigzagged past the Madison County Infirmary on an 1880 plat map.
The history of the Madison County Infirmary, or county home, is tangled. An early location seems to have been established in Richland Township1 on Nelson family land in 18662, but the whole thing moved to Tenth Street in Chesterfield eight years later3. Nothing remains of the old infirmary today except an unmarked potter’s field cemetery that’s invisible to bystanders.
By 1957, Anderson was planning an airport. Officials announced the likelihood that 10th Street would close to make for more aviation space, and that they may reroute it over the Union Traction Company’s old interurban right-of-way immediately north of the property4. The following year, it was determined that 10th Street would be closed east of White River after the airport opened. A “turnabout road” west of the bridge was planned5, but doesn’t seem to have actually been built.
In 1959, the 10th Street Bridge was sold for scrap to Charles Rich and R.W. Richwine. Months later, on January 12, 1960, a unit of the Muncie National Guard requested to blow up the bridge as a training exercise6! Officials approved the idea, but the bridge had a plan of its own: just six days later, the elderly structure crumpled into the White River7.
Today, walk down old 10th Street reveals little facing the river. The road just seems to end! That’s because it angled northeast: if you look closely, you can see what appears to be an old abutment of the bridge off in the brush. I’m told there’s another abutment on the other side of old 10th Street, which is used as a the canoe launch at Mounds State Park. I’ve never launched a canoe to know for sure.
About a mile northeast of the bridge, one part of 10th Street still exists in Chesterfield. It’s the only numbered street in town and connects Otterbein Cemetery to Veterans Boulevard, also known as Anderson Road. Though now bifurcated by the airport, Anderson Road served as an early alignment of State Road 32 until it was rerouted over the old interurban right-of-way around 1960.
Back at Hidden Canal Nature Preserve, there’s still more history to uncover aside from the Larimore Well and vacated 10th Street. I’ll write about the canal itself some time soon.
Sources Cited1 Nelson Cemetery (n.d.). Pioneer Cemeteries and Their Stories, Madison County, Indiana. The Madison County Cemetery Commission [Anderson]. Web. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
2 Bock, G. (1970, May 23). That ‘Nelson’ Cemetery Actually 3 Graveyards. The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 4.
3 Nelson Cemetery (n.d.). Pioneer Cemeteries and Their Stories, Madison County, Indiana. The Madison County Cemetery Commission [Anderson]. Web. Retrieved July 7, 2025.
4 Await Airport Site Okeh (1957, September 25). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
5 Anderson Airport Bids Okeh Given (1958, November 27). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
6 Guard Gets OK To ‘Blow’ 10th Street Bridge (1960, January 12). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
7 Bridge Folds, Blocks Guard’s Demolition Plan (1960, January 21). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
