Photos by Hadley Fruits
WHEN INDIANAPOLIS Motor Speedway co-founder James Allison began building his brick, arts and crafts–style mansion on Cold Spring Road in 1911, he was one of a few members of the city’s elite putting down opulent roots on what would become known as Millionaires’ Row. His stately masterpiece included a silver globe chandelier imported from Germany; intricate wood- and stonework carved by European artisans; an indoor aviary with white Italian marble walls and floors, a pond, and a stained-glass skylight; an indoor pool; a music room with a two-story pipe organ; a telephone intercom system; and an elevator. 
Perhaps the most intriguing space is the small, surprisingly whimsical basement room where the windows are made of the bottoms of glass bottles and the walls and ceiling are covered with a gilt, hand-painted mural depicting Allison and two other co-founders of the IMS, Carl Fisher and Frank Wheeler, as young, 16th-century pheasant hunters. It was here that Allison and his friends frequently gathered to play cards, pouring themselves drinks from a liquor cabinet complete with an icebox located behind a pair of Gothic wooden doors. Allison died in 1928, and the estate was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis in 1936, who started Marian University. The home now serves as the office of the president. The adjacent formal garden and the Marian EcoLab, which contains ruins of the Allison estate and a neighboring estate, were originally designed by Danish landscape architect Jens Jensen.
