Talbott Street

Talbott Street offers the finest nightlife in Indy. Cool down in the icy-white atmosphere of the Sky Bar overlooking the maze of people dancing below. Sip your favorite cocktails while watching a show of illusion in the Legends Show Lounge. The Talbott Street Theatre opened as a movie house in 1920.  However, the building and four blocks of Talbott Street would become far better known in other ways during the decades to come.  During the mid-1950’s the art festival that would become one of the city’s oldest, the Talbott Street Art Fair, was established.  It began modestly in an alley as a way for students at the nearby John Herron School of Art to sell their creations During the 1960’s, the Talbott area became associated with peace activists and bohemians, as well as artists. By then, the movie house had become the Black Curtain Dinner Theatre.  Along with  the adjacent Hummingbird Café, the dinner theatre was popular through much of the 1970’s.  Today the Talbott Street building is an alternative entertainment venue that opened in the former theatre at 2145 N. Talbott Street in 2002.  However, the area has been known as a welcoming one for the gay community since the early 1980’s.  The current nightclub, which has a Studio 54 style of dance floor, replaced the other gay clubs at the same site. Over the past two decades the Talbott Street Art Fair has exploded in popularity.  Today hundreds of painters, potters, and other artists sell everything from ceramics to macramé wall hangings at the June festival that invariably draws elbow-to-elbow crowds.  Four blocks of Talbott Street are closed to traffic for the annual fair, which is now one of the largest in the city.  And, yes, the Talbott area is still considered a bit bohemian.