More information, links and articles about the history of North Judson, Indiana.
About North Judson. A quick background introduction to North Judson.
Map of North Judson [79K]
Memory Lane Street: a photo history of North Judson's downtown, on bigEastern.com.
"We're nosy," says project director Jane Ellen Felchuk, when asked why the North JudsonWayne Township Public Library is tracing the history of rural North Judson, Indiana. Her library received an Indiana Heritage Research Grant from IHC (the Indiana Humanities Council) and the Indiana Historical Society to conduct "A Walk Down Lane Street: A History of Downtown North Judson."
But nosiness isn't the only reason. "In the 1920s, North Judson was known as Little Europe," says Felchuk. "In the 1930 census, North Judson ranked third-behind New York and Chicago, as the city with the highest population of native Italians." The town also attracted Poles, Czechs, Germans, Bohemians, and Japanese to create the proverbial melting pot. "I'm hoping this project will give this community pride in itself and will inspire others to respect us and our history," says Felchuk.
Scholar, Joyce Sheets, is busily interviewing town elders about their memories of downtown businesses, buildings, and the multi-ethnic traditions of North Judson. The project will result in ten hour-long oral history audio tapes, maps and other materials that can be used by local fourth graders as they study Indiana history. Sheets and Felchuk hope to gain insight into "why immigrants chose North Judson, what made this community tick, and what makes it unique," Felchuk says.
This is the second of two $2500 Indiana Heritage Research Grants in North Judson. IHRG grants may be used for primary research, oral histories, editing, cataloguing, and conservation of materials pertaining to Indiana's history.
from the Indiana Humanities newsletter, November 1996.
Indiana Humanities Council,
1500 N. Delaware Street,
Indianapolis, IN 46202
e-mail ihc@iupui.edu
