Three stories tall, there were enormous elevators that moved the automobiles below up and down.

 

From the research I did for How Indianapolis Built America, it was from the location noted here that not only did Carl Fisher build the first auto showroom in America in 1909 (technically it began in 1903, three blocks away at 330 N. Illinois St.), but it also kicked off the world’s first Auto Row. From what is now the back left corner of the Kroger/Axis lodging complex (as you look at the entrance),  for about five blocks, Capitol Ave, all the way to the huge, 4-story  Stutz Building on 10th, all manner of car related goods and serrvices were for sale.

Besides a Cadillac dealership and the first automobile college across the street, where a blood plasma center is now, there were also tire and battery dealers, upholstery, auto body and radiator shops, etc. You could even get your car painted here. Just like Harry Stutz’s early days on Auto Row, the Chevrolet brothers also had the shop here that they used to be competitive at the Indy 500 Motor Speedway which is five miles away.

People came from all over the Midwest, even the East Coast, to look at new cars and/or get the ones they owned serviced on Auto Row!

 

Here, also, Carl Fisher laid out plans for what would become the first car highway across America, the Lincoln Highway. It was the Lincoln that took the building of America that the Transcontinental Railroad of 1869 began, to a whole new level..

2020 Aerial view HERE

More Info About Fisher and Auto Row HERE.

 

Other posts about Indianapolis history Martin Krieg created as he wrote "How Indianapolis Built America" are at this link HERE