The Surviving Pieces of the Hetherington & Berner Company of Indianapolis
A few years ago, I published a blog post about the history of Sand Street, on the southwest side of downtown. Part of this post was some history of the Hetherington & Berner, a company which for a time was located along Sand Street. Hetherington & Berner began in 1861 when Benjamin F. Hetherington opened a machine shop after moving to Indianapolis. In 1863 or 1867 (sources vary), he partnered with Fredrick Berner Sr. creating the Hetherington & Berner partnership. The company was perhaps best known for producing “structural iron pieces” for building construction, but they also fabricated a variety of other items, including boilers, general machine items, foundry pieces (cast iron) and later asphalt plants, dredging pumps, and ice machinery, among many other items. Their advertisements, two of which are shown below, detailed some of the products and services available.
The company operated for many years at 19 West South Street (green highlight below) which today is occupied by the downtown Rolls Royce complex, in between Meridian and Illinois Streets. Later, the company would move to the location along Kentucky Avenue and Sand Street as discussed in the earlier blog post. Interesting note, the original South Street location for the company sat atop Pogue’s Run, which, prior to its complete enclosure in 1916, some sections of the waterway were routed under buildings by short sections of tunnel.
While the company's buildings and manufacturing sites at its two locations are now long gone, there are still memories of Hetherington & Berner around the city. As mentioned above, Hetherington & Berner were known for their structural iron pieces, and their name plate can be seen on the iron facades of several buildings around Indianapolis. A few examples include the Yard House restaurant at 15 West Maryland (left below), and a recently found example on the facade of the brick building housing the Epilogue Players at 18th and Alabama (below, right.) Another example may be seen on a section of the Homewood Suites building on south Meridian Street in the Wholesale District (not pictured), and as noted in the Sand Street blog post, the City Market.
These name plates are not the only reminders of a company which had been an industrial mainstay of Indianapolis for nearly 100 years. Recall that the company operated as a foundry and this involved casting of a wide variety of cast iron pieces for a variety of uses. One of these uses was manhole covers. Not that folks will often take notice of a manhole, or utility cover, but if you did, you'll see a wide variety of covers throughout Indianapolis. Many on the streets today are of a more modern design and labeled with the Indianapolis city flag or the IPL and Citizens Energy logos, depending on what utility they cover. Many others are produced by companies such as the Neenah Foundry in Wisconsin, a company which traces its own history back to the 1870s. But here and there in Indianapolis you can spot manhole covers which still bear the Hetherington & Berner name.
When these manhole covers were produced is not clear. I was unable to locate any newspaper source which discussed a city contract for these items and the archive materials for the company at the Indiana Historical Society are focused more on their manufacture of asphalt plants. Nor did I find any discussion in the city's Common Council meeting minutes, which date back to the mid-1800s, specifically addressing these Hetherington & Berner covers. I did find a 1896 reference to the company being involved with a contract for cistern covers, although I do not believe the covers I have seen are for this purpose as cistern covers tend to be larger in size. Hetherington & Berner ceased operations in the 1970s and their manhole covers appear much older than some of the other covers which are visible around downtown. It seems likely the covers with the Hetherington & Berner name are some of the oldest still in use in the city.
So, where are these covers? The first I found was right under my nose in a way. My office is at the intersection of Senate and Washington Street, next door to Loughmillers Pub. Despite working at this location for a combined 12 years (over two different stints) I had never noticed that right outside Loughmillers, was a Hetherington & Berner manhole cover, as shown below.
Other manhole covers in the area are newer, but somehow, the Hetherington & Berner cover had persisted even after the entire sidewalk was torn out and replaced a few years ago. After spotting this cover a few years ago, I began to glance at manhole covers as I walked around downtown, seeing if I could spot other examples of Hetherington & Berner covers. I purposefully took alleyways and different routes to lunch or on my way home to see if I could find others. Turns out the second cover I found is in a spot which may be more heavily traveled than the Loughmillers location: right outside the entrance to the Oceanaire Restaurant on South Meridian Street between Washington and Maryland.
I’m also aware of one other Hetherington & Berner manhole cover which had been located on the property of Jungclaus-Campbell, at 825 North Massachusetts Avenue. However, that cover is no longer in place following construction work on the property.
I will continue to keep an eye out for other examples of Hetherington & Berner manhole covers (and ironwork on buildings) around the city. If a reader spots one of these in Indianapolis, please shoot me an email or tag me on social media, and I will add it to this post. I think the best places to look for the covers are in alleyways or lesser used streets, or in an area which have not undergone significant redevelopment that would necessitate the covers to be replaced. Hopefully there are more of these Hetherington & Berner memories to be found in the Circle City.
Sources
Indianapolis News: August 21, 1874, December 30, 1881, July 22, 1885, September 2, 1885, July 15, 1893
Indianapolis Journal: July 11 1896
Hetherington & Berner Enjoys Increase in Business, Activities of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, June 1926, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/icc/id/1223/rec/206
Hyman's Handbook of Indianapolis: an outline history and description of the capital of Indiana (1897), Digital Indy, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/IH/id/5446/rec/1
Indianapolis City Directories (various dates), Internet Archive
The History of Sand Street in Indianapolis, https://www.class900indy.com/post/the-history-of-sand-street-in-indianapolis
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