Window Treatment for SoBro

Local Window Treatment Experience in SoBro

A cultural identity with no parcel record

There's no SoBro plat, no SoBro home count and no SoBro median sale price, and we're not going to manufacture any of them. What exists is a boundary most people agree on and a set of constituent neighborhoods that do have records. Meridian-Kessler runs a $462,500 median sale price and Broad Ripple, immediately north, runs $345,000, so the area sits between two well documented markets without having a published one of its own. For a project that's less of a problem than it sounds, because what we price from is your opening schedule rather than a neighborhood average.

The name has a real history even if the boundary doesn't. Crazy Al's, the pizza venue at 54th and College, anchored a punk and new wave scene until it closed in 1982, and the Jazz Kitchen took the same space in 1994. That corner is still the commercial spine, and residents describe the area as a quieter alternative to the Broad Ripple bar scene a mile north. It's the only entry on our neighborhood list that's a cultural identity rather than a legal or platted boundary, which is exactly why it's worth writing about: the search term exists and the parcel record doesn't.

Four vocabularies under one informal name

The window conditions here are inherited rather than native. In the Forest Hills portion you get leaded units and arched openings on brick Tudor cottages, and the leaded work that opens inward can't take an inside mount at all. In the Foursquare portion you get symmetrical openings with a wide front facing pair and a stair window on the half landing. East of College Avenue the bungalows carry banded groupings under broad eaves that want a single continuous headrail. The Colonial Revival houses add fanlights, sidelights and the occasional Palladian stair window. Knowing which of those you have is the entire opening conversation.

The area sits on the north side grid, a rectangle between Kessler, 46th, Meridian and Keystone, so the long north south streets carry houses with east and west fronts and the afternoon side of each street is predictable. Winthrop and Guilford run that way, and College Avenue is the commercial spine through the middle at 54th Street. The frontage there carries storefront glass with transom bands, the same physical condition as Broad Ripple Avenue and Virginia Avenue, and like Broad Ripple it sits under no historic design review at all.

What we specify most in SoBro

Because the housing is inherited from three constituent neighborhoods, the product shortlist depends on which one you're in more than on anything else. What's constant is the era: pre-1940 wood casing, generous head heights, plaster walls and no open plan glass except in recent infill. National figures put custom shades at roughly $250 to $2,600 a window, stock $60 to $600, and shutters $175 to $800. Nothing in this area needs a certificate first, so exterior product is genuinely on the table wherever it makes sense.

Getting around SoBro

The area sits between Kessler Boulevard, 46th Street, Meridian Street and Keystone Avenue, which puts Broad Ripple directly north and Meridian-Kessler overlapping the southern half. College Avenue runs through the middle and 54th and College is the corner people name when they describe where they live. The Jazz Kitchen occupies the space Crazy Al's held until 1982. The Monon Trail runs along the eastern edge of the constituent neighborhoods and Broad Ripple Park is a short way north. Schools split by address between MSD Washington Township and Indianapolis Public Schools, so North Central and Shortridge both serve parts of the area.

No body with authority over a name

There's no mandatory homeowners association covering SoBro and no organization with architectural control here, which follows from the fact that SoBro isn't a legal entity. It's an identity laid over several platted neighborhoods. No part of it appears in the IHPC layer, so no certificate of appropriateness is required for exterior work anywhere inside the boundary, including the portion that falls inside the Forest Hills National Register district. Indiana Landmarks is explicit that National Register listing alone imposes nothing on an owner spending private money. The only thing that could restrict you is a covenant recorded against your own deed from whichever original plat your house belongs to, and that's worth a look before you order anything fixed to the outside of the building.

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