By Sadie Hunter
Noblesville in the 1930s was quite a different scene than today.
Forest Park was still in development and the Firestone plant had just opened in an effort to recover from the Great Depression. And, in 1935, the Noblesville Chamber of Commerce was established.
Evidence from phone-book records at Noblesville’s Hamilton East Public Library show a local chamber of commerce existing in 1916 on South Ninth Street, but legally, the Noblesville chamber was established with the IRS as a nonprofit organization nearly 20 years later.
Starting initially as a men-only club, a newspaper clipping from the Noblesville Daily Ledger on Nov. 7, 1935, which can be seen in the Hamilton East Public Library, where the current office of the chamber is now housed, reads “New Chamber of Commerce Progressing – All Believe a Very Satisfactory Start Has Been Made.”
The article goes on to say that the first monthly meeting “was well attended and a review of the work that has been accomplished in the last 30 days indicated that the institution is progressing the right way.”
Today, the Chamber serves approximately 425 business members throughout Hamilton County and the region.
Each year, members can expect annual State of City, State of the County, State of the Schools and the State of Health in Hamilton County addresses, which are also open to the public, but highlights over the years have included other special events.
Around 1975-76, the Noblesville chamber released “Remembrances,” a Hamilton County bicentennial Keepsake where author John A Foland traced his ancestry in the area to 1821, also filled with art by Floyd D. Hopper, who kept his studio in Noblesville, featuring 10 watercolor paintings that depicted the growth of the county from “primitive wilderness to today’s modern cities,” a brochure and reservation for the book stated.
Throughout the years, the chamber has moved several places within the city, including spots on the downtown square, but in 1970, chamber executives were gearing up to house their office within a railway car. The lead the to Indianapolis News article from April 11, 1970 reads, “When thinking citizens of a small city select a woman as manager of the Chamber of Commerce and move a bright red railways car near the town’s water tower for her office, something exciting is bound to happen,” referencing the newly named director Naomi M. Bush. The same article estimated the city’s population to be approximately 8,000.
Now, the Noblesville chamber has found a new home within the Hamilton East Public Library, where much of its history is documented just one floor up.
