as the Crooked Creek bridge in Riverside Park and the filled spandrel concrete foot bridge in Brookside Park over Pogue's Run. The historic district includes 29 contributing sites, 20 contributing buildings, 109 contributing structures (other than buildings), and 7 other contributing objects. Most of the contributing buildings are within the parks, but some, such as the Heslar Naval Armory located on the White River just north of Riverside Park, are not. History Background In its first 40 years, Indianapolis did not see much need for organized park land because the pastures and other open areas in and near the still small town were easily accessible by the inhabitants. As the city gained population during and after the Civil War, the desire for parks grew. In 1864 the city took operative control of state-owned Military Park, University Square, and the Governor's Circle after previously rejecting, during the preceding five years, offers of various citizens to donate land to be developed as parks. The land that would become Brookside Park was purchased by the City Council in 1870, and in 1873 Southern Park, later renamed Garfield Park, was acquired. However, neither site was developed until the 1880s, when citizens working at times privately and at other times in conjunction with the city, began to make improvements. Early plans In 1894 the Commercial Club, which later became the Chamber of Commerce, hired Joseph Earnshaw, a landscape architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop a park plan for the city. He recommended construction of a boulevard lined with parks running along the White River and Fall Creek from Washington Street to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, but this plan was rejected as too extravagant. The next year (1895) the Parks Board, which had been established under auspices of state legislation initially drafted by the Commercial Club, hired John Charles Olmsted, stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., to develop a plan for future parks. His plan was similar to Earnshaw's, with a focus on the waterways and including boulevards, small parks, and several large regional parks. However, opposition soon arose, especially from the south and east sides of the city because those areas would not benefit from the new park system even though they would be taxed for it. In 1897 the state law enabling the creation of the Parks Board was declared unconstitutional; a new law was enacted in 1899, but the controversy over the plan