Lockerbie Square

This is the oldest intact residential neighborhood in downtown Indianapolis — platted between 1847 and 1850, and still built around genuine cobblestone streets. It's a National Historic District, and the homes (Federal, Italianate, Queen Anne) are the real thing, not reproductions. Living here means owning a piece of Indianapolis history, literally — poet James Whitcomb Riley's home is preserved a block away — and it draws buyers who specifically want historic architecture and don't mind the maintenance that comes with a 170-year-old house, in exchange for a location that's a five-minute walk from Mass Ave and Monument Circle both.

Historic district status protects the cobblestone streets and the architecture, but it also means renovation comes with real restrictions on what you can change — worth knowing going in if you're the type who wants to gut a kitchen without a preservation review. That same protection keeps supply small and mostly static, so prices here don't move much with the broader market; you're buying into a fixed, genuinely historic inventory, which is either the whole appeal or a dealbreaker depending on how much flexibility you want.