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The lot at the corner of Camp
and St. Clair Streets appears to have first been occupied around 1880. At
this time the lot now numbered 806 was the home of steer-driver Daniel
Birney and his family. In 1898 the lot at 800 (then numbered 802) was a
grocery store run by William A. Smith and his wife Mary, who lived at 711 W.
St. Clair . The Smiths had previously owned a store at 2 Camp Street. The
next year the Smiths moved to 918 Indiana Avenue and opened a store there. By 1900, the lot at 806 was home to the family of machine hand Charles A. Doolittle and his wife Mary. Their daughter Bertha was a milliner (hat maker), son Charles was an offbearer for a printing company, and 11 year-old Agnes attended school. Mary Doolittle's father John immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1846 and also lived it the house. The 802 was still a store, now run by Margaret E. McGuffin. Her husband, Charles N., helped run the store in 1900 and 1901, where the Indianapolis City Directory lists his occupation as "grocer." Margaret continued to run the store until 1910 and Charles worked as a yardmaster at 814, 812, and 805 Camp. The store was briefly run in 1910 by Louis W. Butler and Maurice L. Shaffer. The house at 806 is recorded as being occupied by 23-year old Black widow Susan Neely and her 16-year old brother Arthur, who worked as a tailor out of their home. In 1911, Martha J. Miller became the owner of the store and also occupied the house at 806. Miller was a 44 year-old single woman who had immigrated to the U.S. from Canada ten years earlier. By the time the 1920 census was taken, five other people were listed as "roomers" in her house--Charles Wyatt and his wife Mabel, Will Leach and his wife Mirtie, and Anna Poole who was apparently the mother of one of the wives. Both Wyatt and Leach worked as moulders. The 1920 City Directory listed Poole's address as 806 1/2 Camp Street so it is likely that the house may have been subdivided. The City Directory record of a store at 802 Camp Street ends in 1935, although neighborhood residents remembered the lot being used as a corner store until around 1960. After that, the structures at 800 Camp (the lot formerly numbered 802) were all removed although the home at 806 Camp continued to be occupied. A home still stands today at 806 Camp which appears to be this house in somewhat modified form; the 800 lot is now landscaped. In the summer of 2000, the lot at 800 Camp Street was the site of an archaeological field school conducted by the Ransom Place Archaeology Project. Click here for more information about the excavation. Click on the photos below for a larger view of some of the artifacts found during the excavation at 800 Camp Street.
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