Daniel Kirkwood was the last guy you'd expect to run into at a bar.\nYet ironically enough, Kirkwood -- a world-class astronomer once described as the "(Johannes) Kepler of America" by one admirer, and the "dean of American astronomers" by another -- is now the name synonymous with Bloomington's hot spots, wild weekends and seemingly endless taps of beer. \nDaniel Kirkwood, whose achievements include discovering spatial gaps that affect the orbit of asteroids, chaired the IU mathematics department for nearly 30 years in the mid-to-late 1800s. A pious and mild-mannered man who devoted his life to mathematical astronomy, he was admired by students and reached celebrity status during his tenure -- so much so that IU named its observatory after him and made Kirkwood Hall the first building on campus named after a living man.\nStill, Kirkwood's most recognizable honor came in 1885, when a portion of East Fifth Street (running from the west edge of campus to the now-abandoned railroad tracks near Morton Street) was renamed Kirkwood Avenue, serving as the melting pot of culture in Bloomington and functioning as the chief portal connecting (or separating, depending on your point of view) the campus and the community.\nIn one of the earliest accounts of strained town-gown relations, the renaming move was initially unpopular with city residents, and remained unpopular for many decades afterward. In 1938, IU President Emeritus William Lowe Bryan defended the renaming of the street in a column for the Bloomington Evening World. Kirkwood, he wrote, was widely respected in the community and "strode with a gold-headed cane in hand and a tall silk hat on his head, and people spoke to him as if he was the president of the United States."\nNow drunken students trying to get home accidentally throw up on the street named after this man, who was once spoken to as if he were the president of the United States.
THE EVOLUTION OF AN AVENUE\nThe fact is, East Fifth Street almost didn't become Kirkwood Avenue.\nIn 1884, there was talk of renaming Fifth Street as University Avenue. East Sixth Street was going to become Kirkwood, while East Fourth Street was to be named Wylie Avenue, either after Dr. Andrew Wylie -- IU's first president -- or his cousin, Dr. Theophilus Wylie, a philosophy professor emeritus who donated his 1200-volume library to the University.\nIt's not entirely clear how or why University Avenue was abandoned for Kirkwood. No cohesive, comprehensive history of Kirkwood Avenue exists. The segments of its history have been collected by the Monroe County Historical Society and the Monroe County Public Library, and the history lies within newspaper clippings, errant photographs and city directories, which list the businesses and residents of any particular year but don't go any further than that. \nBut what is known, even without consulting historical texts, is that with its close proximity to campus, Kirkwood -- commonly nicknamed "the Main Stem" -- has always remained a major thoroughfare for Bloomington (before it was East Fifth Street, it was "South Main Street"), helping to instill its status as a Bloomington tradition. \nOne century ago, city directories show Kirkwood Avenue was primarily a place of residence and necessity, offering mostly apartments, homes, grocery stores, bakeries, confectionaries and churches. Much of that has held over now, but city directories show an inverted relationship between homes and businesses over the past 100 years. Today, for most people, Kirkwood is seen primarily as a place you go to in order to escape your home; back then, Kirkwood might have been your home.\nIn 1880 the avenue saw its first appearance of street signs. The city began putting numbers on houses in 1888. At the turn of the 19th century, Kirkwood remained a tree-lined dirt road, and was dusty when Bloomington was in a dry spell or muddy when it rained (the street was highly unpopular with women around this time, who complained that the mud ruined the hems of their dresses when they went down to Kirkwood for business or fun). The Bloomington City Council ordered the street paved in 1912, meeting some initial controversy, according to newspaper accounts.\nThe Allen Building, located between Washington and Walnut Streets, was erected in 1906 and became home to the first Bloomington National Bank and a number of upstairs apartments. Letters from local historians speculate, but do not confirm, that owner W.J. Allen used the address "East Fifth" to rent out the building, utilizing the anti-University sentiment as a way to lure potential renters.\nKirkwood was also home to a number of IU fraternities in the early parts of the 1900s. The Sigma Nu fraternity occupied the Kirkwood Manor building on the southwest corner of Kirkwood and Grant, where very unfraternity businesses such as Soma Coffee House, Cactus Flower and Laughing Planet now reside. Phi Omega Pi, Sigma Pi and Zeta Tau Alpha all occupied houses on Kirkwood at some point.\nKirkwood's entertainment scene has been continually evolving and reinventing itself with the times. While today you can pull up a bar stool and watch IU basketball games on big-screen televisions, Kirkwood at the turn of the century provided fewer, simpler options that eventually expanded as technology advanced. \nThe Irish Lion and Crazy Horse -- both of which appeared on Kirkwood Avenue in the 1890s -- showed reels of film around 1910 with nickelodeons, live entertainment and sing-a-longs. The Mandrin Inn, located where the Monroe County Public Library is today, showcased live big-band style music played four nights a week for dancing. By 1925, Thos Huff Billiards opened, allowing students and city residents a chance to unwind.\nRelaxing at restaurants, a tradition confirmed by Kirkwood's numerous establishments which cater to the diner's comfort, as well as many outdoor dining areas, was as popular then as it was now. Students and the community had the chance to dine at King Tut's Hut lunch room or sip warm beverages at Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. in the late 1920s.
KIRKWOOD TRADITIONS ARE BORN\nSixteen-year-old Nick Hrisomalos emigrated from Greece in 1916. When he opened The English Hut at 423 E. Kirkwood in 1927, it was as a restaurant. It would be another six years before he could acquire a liquor license due to Prohibition, and even then, it was for beer and wine. (By 1935 Hrisomalos, who lived in a home where People's Park is located today on the corner of Kirkwood and Dunn, was awarded an all-encompassing liquor license.) \nNick's, as vibrant a tradition with alumni as it is with current students, has kept its same location since 1927. Its walls are lined with history: a veritable archive onto itself. Portraits of IU alumni such as Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh and famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle adorn the bar's walls, along side the likes of actor Nick Nolte and author Truman Capote (not IU graduates, but not turned away from enjoying Nick's, either).\nThe Gables restaurant (also known as The Book Nook during its early years) was originally located on the envious southeast corner of Indiana and Kirkwood. When the University was still small, The Gables/Book Nook was a popular spot for college students. It offered sandwiches for five-cents and dinners for a quarter, and is where composer and native Bloomingtonian Hoagy Carmichael supposedly penned "Stardust," one of the most recorded American songs of the 20th century.\nSeventy years ago, in the lot where the empty Von Lee Theater (originally The Ritz upon completion in 1929) sits, was Peterson's Market, which sold imported groceries, a favorite among some IU professors. Fifty years ago, the Three Sisters clothing store was located at 100 E. Kirkwood; today on the very same corner is the Trojan Horse restaurant and the salon A Cut Above. \nKirkwood was in the middle of parts of the counterculture moments of the 1960s. It was a popular gathering spot for hippies, and many bookstores sold popular "black power" books. In the height of the Vietnam War, Kirkwood was also home to a number of protests, including a notorious one outside Bryan Hall in 1970. Relatively quiet at the time, when the Bloomington police detained protestor Gregory Hess for an obscenity-laced statement, the arrest turned into a free speech controversy that went all the way to the Supreme Court, where two IU law professors defended Hess and won.
KIRKWOOD, AS WE KNOW IT TODAY\nThe current appearance of the six blocks on Kirkwood Avenue between Bloomington's courthouse and the campus can be traced back to one man: John Fernandez.\nSince the 1880s, Kirkwood Avenue has undergone a series of incarnations. Its current look is largely a product of the changes that occurred under Fernandez's tenure, designs and changes he said he believes help bring a more eclectic mix of people to an already eclectic avenue.\n"Physically, Kirkwood has changed," said Fernandez, a former mayor of Bloomington who served two terms. "During my administration we had to do a massive storm water project, and we did some significant new landscaping and plantings. In my judgment, I think it really improved the ambiance substantially. We rebuilt People's Park, put in brick walkways, saved the Buskirk-Chumley, put in the lightings. I think from a physical point of view it's really improved dramatically."\nThe Sample Gates were added as a western portal to the University and to the community in 1987. Before they were added, Fernandez said, a car could drive up through the campus. Now Kirkwood has become more pedestrian friendly, he said.\n"I would look at it more as a continuing evolution," Fernandez said. "Fundamentally there's always been a balance of religious institutions, financial institutions and a variety of retail-oriented businesses." \nBut there's still room for improvement, Fernandez thinks. There's certainly room for more redevelopment, he said, such as the empty Von Lee property (which may in the next few years morph into a bar and grill) or the surface lot behind Kilroy's on Kirkwood.\n"I, for one, would not want to see mass demolition and replacement, because you'll lose the character of the place and that's just as important as the businesses," Fernandez said. "But anywhere there's a surface parking lot, to see that filled in as a space where people can shop and work and live above, would be an improvement."\nThe newest addition to downtown is the luxury-sized Kirkwood Apartments, past the abandoned railroad tracks and the Crazy Horse and Irish Lion, which may only be the first sign of similar renovations to come.\n"We absolutely want to make downtown more resident-friendly," Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan said. "We are pleased so many IU students have chosen to live in the city center and want their experience to be a great one. The ultimate goal for downtown is to have a vibrant mix of housing options for students and year-round residents as well as a wide variety of shopping, dining, entertainment and service sector alternatives for residents and tourists."\nKirkwood Avenue will be a part of the city's downtown plan, Kruzan said, which is now coming into fruition and will serve as a blueprint of where downtown will go in the next decade or two. Encouraging more residential options, shopping opportunities, nearby parking and quality of life amentities, he said.\n"Just being on Kirkwood takes me back to my days as an IU student," Kruzan said. "It's actually a great symbolic street in that it transitions from campus to community."\nKruzan said walking around Kirkwood Avenue marked the very first time he had a chance to explore Bloomington, as an undergraduate at IU.\n"The first time I ever walked on Kirkwood was when I got lost on my very first day as an IU student," Kruzan said. "I was supposed to be going to Lindley Hall and overshot it."\nA sentimental favorite Kirkwood locale for Kruzan was an ice cream store called The Penguin, located at Dunkirk Square. Sitting on a wall in People's Park providing what Kruzan called "some of the best free entertainment there was in Bloomington."\nNot surprisingly, Nick's was a favorite spot for the mayor while he was in law school at IU.\nToday nearly all of Kirkwood fills a niche by providing nearly anything a college student could possibly want. On any particular day, you can get a haircut or get legal advice. You can worship at two different churches or do business with four different banks. You can pick up the latest DVD, or catch a classic Hollywood film on the big screen. \nYou can buy ice cream, CDs or vinyl records, trendy clothing that looks vintage, vintage clothing in the process of becoming trendy, coffee and tea, a bicycle, a burrito, a banjo, a bong, beer, deli-style sandwiches, newspapers, falafels, smoothies, gyros, photography equipment, eyeglasses, pornography, a new cell phone, a wedding dress or even postcards with pictures of the avenue.\nAnd that's not to mention everything you can do on the side streets which intersect Kirkwood -- or what's left to come.\nFernandez sees an ever-bright future for Bloomington's most famous thoroughfare.\n"As long as there's an IU and a lot of people working and living downtown," he said, "Kirkwood is going to have a great future"
