Herbert Willard Foltz (1867-1946)

Herbert Willard Foltz (1867-1946)

*A postcard of the Foltz-designed West Entrance. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Album.*

*Architect Herbert Foltz. Photo credit: Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.*

Foltz was born in Indianapolis and graduated from Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, IN (Vigo County) in 1886. He then studied at the Art Institute in Chicago and worked for the Illinois Steel Company in iron and steel construction. He began his architecture practice in 1891 and subsequently designed many of the business blocks and residences in Indianapolis including the current home of Indiana Humanities at 1500 North Delaware as well as schools and churches, like Shortridge High School and Broadway United Methodist.

An avid cyclist, he also designed the Newby Oval, a quarter-mile wooden bicycle racetrack and stadium that once stood at 30th and Central Avenue. But most pertinent to Crown Hill, he designed the Romanesque Revival gate that once stood at the southwest corner.

He was also a civic leader participating in the League of American Wheelmen, organizer of the Little Theater Society, President of the Board of School Commissioners, member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee of the public Library, Mason, and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In the 1930s, he directed Indiana architects in a survey of many buildings erected before 1860.