ANDERSON — Janet Flamion never planned to live in the heart of the city, but she was tired of her daily commute from Middletown.
Flamion also never expected to fall in love with Anderson’s downtown, an area that has lost about 23 percent of its population in the past two decades.
“You are close to everything; the mall, restaurants, grocery stores. I am four or five miles from everything,” she said. “I love it.”
Twenty years ago, Flamion thought about moving closer to her job at Big Lots. A co-worker told her about a home for rent on Brown-Delaware Street. She decided to live in the home for four years and eventually bought it from her landlord.
“People think it’s not safe to live downtown. But I don’t have any trouble, and I’ve never had any trouble,” she said.
Her only complaint: the paucity of retail stores downtown.
“Like in the old days, when there was a Penney’s or Sears,” Flamion said. “If they had more stores in the downtown area, people would shop here more.”
Flamion hopes city leaders get creative in bringing businesses downtown by offering free rent or utilities for a year.
“Parking might be a problem, but walking is good for you, and we are only talking about walking a block or two."
Marisa Mamazza agrees that downtown Anderson needs more retail and other attractions. But she notes that some of the downtown's assets are often overlooked. Mamazza, a registered nurse who works in Indianapolis, has lived near downtown Anderson on West Eighth Street for 10 years.
Mamazza said her family moved to the area because her husband wanted to live in a historic home. The family had lived in Fishers and was house-hunting in Noblesville and Indianapolis when they found their home in Anderson.
“We couldn’t pass it up,” Mamazza said.
Though she didn't say how much her family paid for the West Eighth Street property, it's likely they got far more home than they could have purchased for the same price in Fishers, Noblesville or Indianapolis. In September, according to Propetylinx Statistics, the average home sale prices were:
- $266,539 in Hamilton County (where Fishers and Noblesville are located)
- $136,794 in Marion County (Indianapolis)
- $85,426 in Madison County (Anderson)
Mamazza said more restaurants and more family activities, as well as the reopening of the Athletic Park Pool off Eighth Street, would draw people to the downtown. An indoor splash park near the river would be a creative addition to the city, she noted.
“I think downtown Anderson gives the city character,” Mamazza said. “The homes, the university, the old buildings, I think those all contribute to our downtown and give it a sense of oldness, but there is so much new, too."
Her husband, Chris Mamazza, said the combination of new and old make downtown Anderson a great place to raise children. The couple spends time enjoying biking trails in the downtown area, walking to Anderson University and visiting the farmer’s market.
“I enjoy taking the kids on walks along the river,” he said. “People think downtown is rundown, and that is their biggest misconception.”
It’s often difficult to envision people living in a downtown that doesn’t have a full-service grocery, regular entertainment like movies or a strip of restaurants and bars.
Yet in Anderson, there were 678 city dwellers living in the downtown area when the last U.S. Census was conducted in 2010. Numbers were added by The Herald Bulletin in an analysis of each city block in the area bounded by Brown-Delaware Street, Central Avenue, Fifth Street and the railroad tracks south of 14th Street.
That total includes the prisoner population on the day the census was taken, which is a generally consistent number but not exactly the dwellers who spend cash at downtown shops.
Those numbers were also recorded before the closing of the Delaware Court Apartments, 120 W. 10th St., following a fire in 2013; in that block there had been 45 residents in 2010. The census was also taken before the high-rise Tower Place Apartments closed in 2011. At the time of the census, 42 people lived in that city block.
The area of highest concentration, with 231 residents, was a census block including the Madison County Jail and the United Faith Housing apartments for seniors and those needing assisted care along White River known as Vermillion Place and Harter House. Jail officials give census takers information and some inmates are interviewed but officials aren’t told what happens to those interviews.
The second highest block, with 122 residents, was bounded by East Ninth and Tenth streets, between Main and Central. That area is home to a number of apartments located over businesses.
Throughout downtown, there were 286 housing units – all were rented except for six that were occupied by the owner. There was a downtown occupancy rate in all housing units of 63.9 percent.
Overall, most downtown residents are white (76 percent) and male (71 percent) with a median age of 35.