Visiting Indianapolis, United States: Top Sights on Foot

The best things to do in Indianapolis include exploring Monument Circle, discovering museums and historic neighborhoods, and following the city’s connections to art, African American history, literature, and sport. Indiana’s capital is especially rewarding on foot, with major landmarks and quieter cultural sites spread through a walkable center. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Indianapolis with 155 narrated places.

What to See in Indianapolis

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Begin at Monument Circle, the symbolic heart of Indianapolis. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument rises 284 feet 6 inches above the center of the circle and honors Indiana’s soldiers, including those who served in the American Civil War and earlier conflicts.

Designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz, the neoclassical monument was built between 1888 and 1901 and publicly dedicated on May 15, 1902. Its oolitic limestone came from Owen County, Indiana. Broad steps, terraces, pools, fountains, bronze doors, and sculptural groups give the memorial a presence that is both civic and ceremonial.

Newfields and Oldfields

Newfields is a 152-acre arts campus whose centerpiece is the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Its encyclopedic collection includes more than 54,000 works from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, with notable strengths in Neo-Impressionism, Japanese art from the Edo period, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, French modernism, J. M. W. Turner, contemporary art, textiles, fashion, and modern design.

The campus also includes gardens, the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, and Oldfields, also known as Lilly House and Gardens. Oldfields is a twenty-six-acre historic estate with a French Châteauesque mansion, formal grounds, and landscaped features such as the Grand Allée. The house was built between 1909 and 1913 and became the home of Josiah K. Lilly Jr. in the 1930s.

Madam Walker Legacy Center

On Indiana Avenue, the Madam Walker Legacy Center occupies the historic Madam C. J. Walker Building. Built in 1927, it was the headquarters of Madam C. J. Walker’s manufacturing company and became a major commercial and cultural center for Indianapolis’s African American community.

Its unusual triangular form combines African, Egyptian, Moorish, and Art Deco influences. Designed by Rubush and Hunter, the building is one of the few remaining African Art Deco buildings in the United States. After facing the threat of demolition in the 1970s, it was saved and restored. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

Crispus Attucks High School

Crispus Attucks High School tells another important story of Indianapolis’s African American community. Opened on September 12, 1927, it was the city’s only public high school designated specifically for African American students at the time. The Crispus Attucks Museum is housed inside the school.

The red-brick campus features terra-cotta and limestone details, combining Collegiate Gothic, or Tudor Revival, with Classical Revival design. The complex was built in three phases and includes the original building, a later addition, and two gymnasiums. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

For a family-focused experience, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis offers hands-on exhibits across five floors. Recognized as the world’s largest children’s museum, it explores natural sciences, the arts, humanities, cultural life, and American history.

Highlights include simulated Cretaceous and Jurassic dinosaur habitats, a carousel, and a steam locomotive. The four-story Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling, created by Dale Chihuly, is another distinctive feature. A spiral ramp connects the museum’s levels and helps visitors using strollers, wheelchairs, and walkers move through the building.

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

The Eiteljorg Museum brings Native American art and historical artifacts together with paintings and sculptures of the American West. Its collections represent Native life across different tribes and include works by women artists. The museum also places strong emphasis on Native contemporary art, with a collection described as one of the finest in the world.

Indiana State Museum

At the Indiana State Museum, the state’s science, art, culture, and history are presented in a story stretching from prehistoric times to the present. The institution began in 1862 as a cabinet of curiosities created by State Librarian R. Deloss Brown. Its collections now contain more than 500,000 objects, including material connected with geology, natural history, culture, and the Civil War.

Indiana Medical History Museum

The Indiana Medical History Museum occupies the former Old Pathology Building of Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane, later known as Central State Hospital. It preserves the oldest surviving pathology laboratory in the United States and is connected with the early study of disease and psychiatric medicine.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 25, 1972, under the name Old Pathology Building.

James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home

In historic Lockerbie Square, the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home preserves the nineteenth-century house associated with James Whitcomb Riley, the poet known as the Hoosier Poet. Riley was invited to live there in 1893.

Built in 1872, the house is an example of Italianate architecture, with two brick stories, a stone foundation, a slate-shingled hipped roof, overhanging eaves, a central tower, and tall windows. Inside, hand-carved hardwood details reflect the craftsmanship of the period. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

NCAA Hall of Champions

In White River State Park, the NCAA Hall of Champions explores collegiate athletics through interactive exhibits. Its grand hall celebrates athletes from 24 NCAA-sanctioned sports across three divisions, with banners representing every member institution.

The two-floor museum forms part of a complex designed by Indianapolis-born postmodern architect Michael Graves. A 2021 panel from the American Institute of Architects recognized the complex among the ten most architecturally significant buildings in Indianapolis built since World War Two.

Old Indianapolis City Hall

Old Indianapolis City Hall, also known as The Hall, is a broad limestone building in the Classical Revival style. Built in 1909 and 1910, the four-story structure was formerly known as the Indiana State Museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Ray Bradbury Center

The Ray Bradbury Center is a publicly accessible archive devoted to the writer’s work. Its collection includes more than 100,000 pages of published and unpublished writing, forty years of personal and professional correspondence, author’s copies of his books, and a working library of about 4,000 volumes.

Explore Indianapolis with a Self-Guided Audio Tour

Neywo’s Indianapolis audio guide lets you explore the city independently. It includes eight walking tours, one bus route, and one bike route:

• Around the Circle: Indianapolis’s Beating Heart — 1.57 km, 84 minutes, 12 stops
• Memorials, Marble and Markets — 1.93 km, 73 minutes, 10 stops
• Canal Walk: Vonnegut, Walker and the White River Museums — 2.41 km, 94 minutes, 12 stops
• German Indianapolis and the Hoosier Poet — 1.43 km, 57 minutes, 8 stops
• Statehouse to Union Station: Statues, a State Stone and Indy’s Oldest Bar — 2.03 km, 64 minutes, 8 stops
• Old Northside: Presidents, Cathedrals and Crispus Attucks — 3.49 km, 79 minutes, 6 stops
• Newfields: Pop Art, a French Chateau and the Indianapolis Museum of Art — 0.79 km, 39 minutes, 5 stops
• Fountain Square: Lady Spray and Indy’s Italian Parish — 1.35 km, 37 minutes, 4 stops
• Route 11: From All Saints to the City Market — bus route, 3.9 km, 17 minutes, 8 stops
• Cycle the Canal and White River State Park — bike route, 1.7 km, 8 minutes, 6 stops

Each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Indianapolis with 155 narrated places, from Monument Circle and the canal to Newfields and the city’s historic neighborhoods.

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana, in the United States.