The CCHS maintains two buildings: the Monon Depot Museum and the archives building. Both are located on the Monon Greenway one block south of Main Street. The Museum’s address is 211 First Street SW. The archives are located directly south of the museum. Parking for both facilities is available in the public lot just east of the museum along the Monon Greenway.

To reach the museum and archives, take Range Line Road to 1st Street SW. Turn west and drive two blocks. The parking and the society facilities are on your left immediately before crossing the Monon Greenway.

Hours

Archives

The archives is open year round on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,
8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST

Monon Depot Museum

The museum is open from April 1 through October 31 on the following days: Fridays and Saturdays: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST
Sundays 2 p.m. to 4 pm. EST

* The museum can also be opened for tours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the archives is open. Special tours and large groups can be scheduled in advance by calling 317-846-7117 or e-mailing carmelclayhistory@yahoo.com.
* The museum is closed on the third Sunday of odd months, during which time the CCHS public program is held.

Admission

Admission to the CCHS museum and archives is free, though donations are accepted.

Exhibitions

Come to the Monon Depot Museum for a look at some important parts of Carmel history, including the Monon Railroad and a stoplight invented by local inventor Leslie Hanies’ – who created one of the nation’s first. The 2011 temporary exhibit is Painter with a Pen: Illustrations of Franklin Booth, which highlights many of Booth’s pen and ink drawings of Carmel scenes as well as the fantastic advertisements he created for popular 19th-century publications like Saturday Evening Post, Good House Keeping,Ladies’ Home Journal, and Harper’s.

Booth was a popular illustrator who grew up and lived in Carmel. He credited the billowing clouds in the skies above the Carmel farm fields where he worked as a child for inspiring those in his illustrations. Booth returned to Carmel every summer to draw in his studio at the rear of his North Range Line Road property. Hoosier author James Whitcomb Riley visited Booth there often, and Theodore Dreiser and the illustrator stopped there on their trip that would come to be A Hoosier Holiday. Booth’s charcoal sketches decorate the book and include one scene of downtown Carmel in the early 1900s.

In addition to showing Booth’s artwork, including some original pieces, the exhibit will feature several unique artifacts, such as the custom-made easel on which he drew and a World War I Victory Lamp. The Victory Lamp lampshade, designed by Booth, sits atop an original World War I 75mm artillery shell. It depicts war scenes on the exterior of the shade, but when lit the bulb illuminates images of peace drawn on the interior of the shade.Painter with a Pen will be on exhibit from May 22 through October 31 and is sponsored in part by the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau and American StructurePoint. Booth biographer Tom Rugh is the exhibit’s guest curator.