The HISTORIC significance of the Indianapolis Park and Boulevard Plan resulted from a combination of early park planning efforts (1873–1907), the visionary planning and leadership of nationally known landscape architect George Kessler from 1908 to 1923 and, after Kessler's death in 1923, others, notably Lawrence Sheridan, who built on Kessler's legacy with continuing implementation and informed expansion of his plan to the Marion County limits.

The Parks and Boulevard Plan united individual parks and curvilinear watercourse-based parkways with an array of east-west and north-south boulevards to create a county wide network of transportation and recreation corridors. Those corridors were established to "guide the city's growth, conserve the natural environment, limit water pollution, and provide flood control". This historic landscape architecture-guided urban plan, by stated design intent, improved the quality of life for Indianapolis residents, fostered economic growth, equated Indianapolis with other world-class cities, and preserved the natural environment for sustained, long-term growth and development of the city and the region. It continues to do so today, having become the framework for a regional greenway system, and the basis for an innovative regional pedestrian plan currently in development.

Significance of the National Register Listing

The National Register status is intended to keep that vision alive. Through it the system achieves enhanced identity, a measure of protection from incremental degradation, and eligibility for preservation grant funds to rehabilitate and restore its features. It is one of eighteen park and boulevard plans that Kessler completed for cities across the United States. It is the first Kessler park and boulevard system in Indiana, and was subsequently followed by his plans for South Bend, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute, Indiana.

Accomplishments of the Indianapolis Park and Boulevard National Register listing

At 3,474 acres, it is the largest single nomination to date in Indiana.

It lists over a dozen historic Indiana bridges on the National Register of Historic Places, more than any previous single effort in Indiana, recognizing them as endangered resources by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

It recognizes the lasting contribution of one of the great American landscape architects, George E. Kessler, as a pioneer in the shaping of the profession of landscape architecture during a significant period in American history.

It demonstrates how Kessler and his successors applied the discipline of landscape architecture across a broad spectrum that ranged from the planning of urban systems to detailed planting considerations and creates a nationally recognized model for future nominations in Indiana and across the nation.

And finally, as a result of the Nomination and successful National Register listing, the Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System plan has become the focus of broad ongoing discussion about the historic and cultural landscapes movement and its ability to inform and have positive impact on future urban growth and renewal. These discussions and debates range from community groups working through issues of appropriate improvements within the system, to planned conferences at the state and regional level that will focus directly on the importance of our historic landscapes.

The Role and Process of the Landscape Architect as lead consultant to its Parks Department client was to assemble and lead a team of landscape architects and historic preservation consultants to prepare a National Register Nomination for the "Kessler" system. The landscape architect worked with the state Department of Historic Preservation and Archaeology to achieve a mutual understanding of the project’s historic significance. The project required an understanding of the Park and Boulevard system in a national context as well as its local and regional influence. The team identified, evaluated and nominated the properties that, when combined, constituted the body of work known as George E. Kessler’s Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System. Project activities included the compilation and review of existing park and boulevard system documentation, historic plans and sketches, microfiche, historic photographs, and Kessler’s voluminous Annual Reports to the Board of Park Commissioners compiled over the extensive period of significance. The historic research and working team sessions resulted in the identification of the major components of the system including parks, parkways and boulevards. This three-part organization was used to perform field identification, evaluation and verification of planned features. The features were photo-documented to confirm their implementation and survival. All performed within the Department of Interior's stringent standards for research and documentation.

Research and field investigation formed the basis for the nomination’s in-depth narrative that explained and evaluated the system, and made the case for its extensive scale of inclusion. The nomination narrative explains and describes in detail the individual components of parks, parkways and boulevards, the overall system, as well as some review of the historic objects within the system such as bridges, sculpture, views and viewsheds, and other landscape architectural components that combine to form a comprehensive system. Complementing the text are numerous maps and images which designate the boundaries of the National Register listed project. Because of the impacts of time and encroachment upon the planned system, the text and maps were carefully compiled to reflect the intent of the planned system.