(bright music) - [Presenter] On Delaware Street, in downtown Indianapolis, is one of the city's more interestingly named buildings.

- The Propylaeum.

- Propylaeum.

- Propylaeum.

- [Presenter] The Propylaeum is the name for both the Indianapolis organization that connects and celebrates women, as well as the gorgeous mansion they call home.

- [Speaker] It's one of the city's choicest landmarks.

- [Presenter] Founded in 1888, the Propylaeum provided space for women to meet, learn, and organize.

(soft music) - Well, I want to say that the Propylaeum is the home of women's suffrage.

It's one of the first places that women were able to organize.

Indiana, by the way, it was the first state to have an organized women's suffrage movement, and it actually started in Richmond, Indiana, before the Civil War.

- [Presenter] One of those early leaders was May Wright Sewall.

- She went beyond being just a local figure.

She was a national figure.

Was friends with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

- When I talk about the Propylaeum, I talk about suffrage.

You can't have one without the other.

It's the reason why May Wright Sewall founded, is because she went to all these other organizations and they said, "Oh, we don't talk about politics."

And she said, "Oh, but I do."

So she started her own.

- [Presenter] And from the jump, the group ran into systematic obstacles.

- When the six founders got together, they realized women couldn't buy property.

But we needed a place, so they looked at the law and said, "Huh, women can't buy property, but corporations can."

So they went and formed a corporation so they could buy property.

It's the story of women overcoming barriers that were set up in front of them.

Not just for themselves, but for the next generation.

- [Presenter] In 1923, the organization's building was bought by the city for what is now the World War Memorial.

So the group purchased the place they still call home today.

- They chose this building and it really fit with who the organization became, because at the same time, they also voted to become a private woman's club.

So they came into this space here and it became their clubhouse.

Women needed that fourth place.

You know, the first three places are home, work, and family, and the Propylaeum became that fourth space.

- [Presenter] And what a beautiful fourth space it was.

Just ask this guy.

- This building, The Schmidt-Schaf House, is one of the largest houses of the late 19th Century left in the city of Indianapolis.

It's remarkable because of its architecture.

It's an example of English Queen Anne architecture, with touches of Romanesque architecture.

And the scale is truly monumental.

I would point to the tree sculpture on the front doors, which I've never seen anything else like that.

It's really an artistic highlight of the house.

And then the flamingo fireplace surround in the family dining room is wonderful.

- [Presenter] Over the years, the house has been a literal and metaphorical home for Indianapolis women.

- They wanted to use all of this space.

They had women living in the bedrooms upstairs, and Mrs. Gates, the iconic dance teacher, who taught thousands of children the Fox Trot, and their social niceties, had a studio in our third floor ballroom.

And she was there from the late 1920s until the late 1950s.

- [Presenter] It's also been the original home of some of Indy's other claims to fame.

- Our carriage house was the first home in the Children's Museum.

They needed a space to get started.

They occupied our carriage house for about six months.

- [Presenter] And yes, it may also be home to a ghost, (spooky music) but he's friendly though.

- According to some children who have been in this space.

they've talked about a character they play with upstairs, named Johnny.

Well, there isn't a Johnny.

Nobody has seen Johnny except children.

And these were two separate incidents.

Now, the first owner's name was John Schmidt, and I'm not sure, he might've had a son named Johnny.

But supposedly these children come into the house, they go upstairs to the third floor, and they have a playmate named Johnny.

- [Presenter] So how does an organization as old as the Propylaeum (soft music) continue to evolve in 2023, over a hundred years after the passing of women's suffrage?

Sometimes it's by necessity.

- COVID gave us a chance to really try out some new things.

One of our missions is historic preservation, So we started a Historic Neighborhoods of Indianapolis series.

We started that during COVID.

We had it online, and we've had such a following with that, we're continuing with that, online.

- [Presenter] Sometimes it's by taking a hard reflection at who you've left behind.

- This organization has historically been a white woman's organization.

We have to do what we can to not only bring in as many people in from different, diverse backgrounds, different races, LGBTQ, different ages, disabilities, all that kind of stuff.

We have to bring those together, 'cause if we're not serving all women, we're not serving women.

So that's really important.

But we also have to reflect back on how suffrage was on the backs of Black women.

And we left them behind.

I mean, literally, in the March on Washington, they told Ida B.

Wells that she had to walk in the back, that she couldn't walk with Illinois.

You know, we have to confront that.

We have to look at how we got to where we are and we have to open the doors.

We cannot make up for our past, but we can do everything we can to make a brighter future.

- [Presenter] Today, the Propylaeum hosts a variety of cultural activities for the whole community, including discussions with authors, lectures with local historians, and even concerts on their front porch.

In the past, it was an exclusive club, but today... - The best thing about the Propylaeum is we welcome everybody.

Everyone's story comes through this building.

Everyone is welcome here.

We're not a shrine or a monument.

We're a living, breathing organization that carries the weight of our past and uses that to affect the future.

Whether you're here with an open mind to learn, or you've got your own history you'd like to learn about, or you wanna learn about our members, or you just wanna come in and see our beautiful building, this place is welcome to all.

We're very excited to bring in anyone into the building and teach them about the history of women's suffrage, here in Indiana, and the history of the Propylaeum and where we're going from here.

- [Presenter] Find more stories at wfyi.org/acrossIndiana