What a difference a year makes! Beginning in late fall 2024 through fall 2025, city crews, land stewards, restoration professionals, community volunteers, and city and elected officials engaged in an all-hands-on deck effort to improve the aesthetic and environmental quality of Skiles Test Nature Park.

From 1913 to 1964, the park’s property served as the hub of a large estate owned by Skiles Edward Test, a prominent businessman and unconventional innovator. During this time, Test lived on the property, and the land became dotted with an assortment of barns, garages, workshops, industrial facilities and one-of-kind structures—the most famous of which was an elaborate three-story brick, glass and marble bathhouse.

The first major cleanup of the property that is now Skiles Test Nature Park was a three-day affair that attracted some 50,000 spectators and required a skilled auctioneer and the backing of more than a dozen security officers, several concessionaires, a volunteer fire department, and a 20-acre meadow that was converted into a parking lot.

Enabling the prairie to become a woodland again helps protect and expand the remnant forests that are a part of the landscape in northeast Indianapolis. These fragmented forests have long endured punishing disturbances from urban development and human activity.

The five alcoves along the Skiles Test Trail got a good scrubbing last month to remove nearly two decades of dirt, grime and organic matter, and the transformation is striking. Before the cleaning, the concrete pads and benches were dark and discolored and looked rundown and neglected. Today, the unsightly grime has been replaced by bright, clean concrete that enhances the appeal and beauty of the park.