Photo: Houses on the eastern side of the 2200 block of North Ninth Street . The District was on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Photographed by User:Nyttend (own work), 2011, [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, accessed August, 2025.
The Collett Park Neighborhood Historic District [†] is located approximately two miles north of downtown Terre Haute. Its boundaries are roughly defined by 7th Street, Maple Avenue, 11th Street, and Florida Avenue. The district encompasses about 22 residential blocks and surrounds the historic Collett Park.
The area is characterized by lush, tree-lined streets with mature maples and a park-like atmosphere that extends throughout the neighborhood.
Collett Park
Collett Park, also, separately listed on the National Register, was donated to the city in 1883 by Josephus Collett, a railroad magnate. The park was designed by Louisville landscape architect Benjamin Grove and retains key original elements such as carriage roads, tree groupings, and open lawns.
Historical and Community Development
The park's donation stimulated a wave of residential development in the area, guided by the requirement that the surrounding area remain exclusively residential and free from commercial enterprises. Collett himself platted "Collett Park Place" to the north and east of the park. Other adjacent subdivisions soon followed, creating a coherent residential neighborhood that was annexed by the city in the early 20th century.
Throughout its history, the area hosted a diverse range of residents, from affluent community leaders, professors from Rose Polytechnic Institute and Indiana State Normal School, to railroad employees, coal workers, and various service professionals. 9th and 10th Streets became known as "Professors' Row" due to the concentration of academic staff living there.
Architectural Styles
The neighborhood showcases a variety of early- to mid-20th-century American residential architecture. Notable styles include Queen Anne (and its Free Classic variant), Craftsman Bungalow, American Foursquare, Colonial Revival, Cape Cod, English Cottage, and Dutch Colonial Revival. Large, high-style houses are most common around the park, with more modest homes along cross streets and 7th Street.
Distinctive architectural features include asymmetrical facades, wrap-around porches, decorative gables, exposed rafter tails, brick and stucco exteriors, and hipped or gambrel roofs. Twin or mirror-image houses, porte-cocheres, and Revival styles add to the neighborhood's visual interest.
The district contains a few early post-World War II ranch-style houses, such as the well-known 701 Delaware (built in 1946), which reflect the transition to more modern suburban forms while still adhering to the established scale and character of the district.
Social and Economic Context
The neighborhood's planning and growth are closely tied to the region's educational institutions, the coal and railroad industries, and the urban expansion of Terre Haute. It has housed not only professionals and executives but also salespeople, store clerks, and other workers, a testament to its mixed but stable community composition.
Noteworthy residents include Josephus Collett, architect Juliet Peddle, labor leader Philip H. Penna, and several other prominent local figures.
Integrity and Distinction
Out of 305 buildings in the district, only 16 are classified as non-contributing due either to significant alterations or construction outside the period of significance. The original platting, setbacks, landscape character, and architectural integrity remain largely intact, which illustrates the success of the original community planning vision.
Significance
The district's historic significance lies both in its representation of development patterns rooted in deliberate planning around a civic park and in its exceptional range of period domestic architecture. The planned restriction against commercial use and the exclusive residential zoning established by Collett's foundational gift have preserved the area's character for well over a century.
The period of significance for the district covers the years 1883 to 1950.
References and Documentation
Research for this document included information from city directories, census records, local histories, original architectural plans, and period publications among other sources. The district's boundaries enclose nearly all of Collett's original plats and adjacent Barbour Place, directly encompassing most residential development associated with the park.
Concluding Note
The Collett Park Neighborhood Historic District remains an important and well-preserved example of late 19th- and early 20th-century suburban planning, community development, and residential architecture in Terre Haute.
† Adapted from: Laura Thayer,, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Collett Park Residential Historic District, 2005, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Street Names
10th Street North • 11th Street North • 7th Street North • 8th Street North • 9th Street North • Barbour Avenue • Collett Avenue • Delaware Avenue • Florida Avenue • Indiana Avenue • Maple Avenue