Mass Ave Cultural Arts District

The Mass Ave Cultural Arts District, colloquially known as Mass Ave, is one of seven designated cultural districts in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The district centers on 0.86 miles (1.38 km) of its namesake Massachusetts Avenue, from its southern terminus at New York and Delaware streets to its northern terminus at Bellefontaine Street. The avenue is one of the four original diagonal streets included in Alexander Ralston's plan of 1821. Mass Ave also contains the Massachusetts Avenue Commercial District, a historic district included on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.

Mass Ave Cultural Arts District
Indianapolis Cultural District
300 block of Massachusetts Avenue The Athenæum Old National Centre Bottleworks Hotel
Interactive map of the neighborhood
Coordinates: 39°46′30″N 86°8′55″W
Country	United States
State	Indiana
County	Marion
City	Indianapolis
Area code	317 / 463

Today it lies at the heart of the city's arts district. It offers some of the city's most visible theaters and art galleries as well as a number of shops and eateries.^[1]

Gentrification in the 1990s propelled the area from squalor to one of the city's more fashionable addresses. Currently, redevelopment of Mass Ave focuses on fostering locally owned shops, theaters, and restaurants.^[2]

Massachusetts Avenue Commercial District

Massachusetts Avenue Commercial District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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Location	Roughly bounded by one block to either side of Massachusetts Ave. from Delaware St. to Interstate 65, Indianapolis, Indiana
Architectural style	Art Deco, Islamic, Italianate, Modern Movement, Renaissance Revival, Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	82000064 (original) 100004725 (increase)
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 2, 1982
Boundary increase	December 4, 2019

Landmarks

• Athenæum (Das Deutsche Haus): building houses Young Actors Theatre and the Rathskeller Restaurant, the city's oldest restaurant still in operation.
• Hammond Block (Budnick's Trading Mart) is a building on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Old National Centre: is the headquarters of the Indianapolis Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.^[3]