Formerly the location of John Steinmetz’ blacksmith shop, Frederick and Ellen Sanders purchased this lot in 1877 and constructed the present two-story brick building in 1885 that you see before you. The Sanders were both German immigrants who lived at an old brick homestead located at 2130 Prospect Street. Frederick came to the United States in 1849 and Ellen followed in 1851. In 1863, Frederick purchased seven acres of land along Prospect Street which contained clay of good quality for brick making, so he began manufacturing bricks on site. Successful in business and real estate, Sanders would go on to be one of the founders of the German Protestant Orphan’s Home, also known as the Pleasant Run Children’s Home, just a few blocks away from their homestead. Is it possible the orphan’s home used Sanders’ bricks? We may never know. 

The first occupants of the new building at 1102 Prospect Street were George Barnett, a blacksmith, and Gottlieb Dollman, a carpenter and builder. In 1904, Frank Feeser started a harness-making business for horse transportation, but changed course to manufacturing auto accessories by 1920 due to the increasing popularity of the automobile. Later in the 1920s, the Fountain Square Realty Co. had an office in the building, as well as the South Side civic club. The Victory Cafe restaurant occupied the building in the late 1940s-early 1950s. Following that, a loan office and then a real estate mortgage office took over the space. In 2010, New Day Meadery moved in while a landscape and environmental firm occupied upstairs. Today, the building is occupied by Fountain Square Tattoo.

The pink building right at the intersection of Prospect Street and Dillion Street (what Shelby Street was previously called), two years after construction.
Credit: 1887 Sanborn Map, MapIndy, City of Indianapolis.

The building in 1912; note the Frank Feeser painted sign on the side of the building.
Credit: “Intersection of Prospect and Shelby Streets and Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana, Circa 1912,” Eileen Schneider Collection, Indiana Album, 1912.

Portraits of Frederick and Ellen Sanders
Credit: ”Married Fifty-Five Years,” Indianapolis News, July 17, 1909,

The building in 1927 – note its cornice, or the decoration at the top of the building, is still attached.
Credit: “Fountain Square Looking Northeast, 1927” Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Indianapolis Power & Light Co. Distribution System Photographs, Danita Davis, IUI University Library.