Notable Cities and Towns in Indiana

Indiana's notable small cities reflect its manufacturing heritage, frontier history, and Amish communities.

Columbus
Internationally famous for architecture — Columbus (population 50,000) has the highest concentration of significant modern architecture per capita of any US city outside of New York and Chicago. Beginning in the 1950s when J. Irwin Miller (Cummins Engine CEO) subsidized architectural fees to attract top designers, Columbus accumulated works by Eero Saarinen (First Christian Church, 1942 — the first modern church by a major architect in the US), I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, Eliel Saarinen, Kevin Roche, and Robert Venturi. The Columbus Visitors Center (self-guided architectural tour map) is the starting point.

Madison
Indiana's finest antebellum river town — the Ohio River waterfront, the Lanier Mansion, and the intact 19th-century commercial district make Madison one of Indiana's great historic experiences. The Madison Regatta (hydroplane boat racing on the Ohio River, July 4th weekend — one of the oldest hydroplane races in the US) adds spectacle.

Shipshewana
The center of Indiana's Amish community in LaGrange County — the Shipshewana Flea Market (Tuesday and Wednesday, May–October, one of the largest in the Midwest), the Blue Gate Restaurant and Theatre (Amish cooking and Amish-themed musical productions), and the surrounding horse-buggy landscape give Shipshewana a character entirely unlike the rest of Indiana.

Nashville
The arts and fall color capital of Brown County — a small town (population 850) that generates enormous tourism, primarily through the fall foliage season and year-round arts galleries, craft shops, and restaurants. The Bean Blossom area (Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival — the oldest bluegrass festival in the world) adds music heritage.

Terre Haute
The childhood home of Eugene V. Debs (labor leader and five-time presidential candidate) and Paul Dresser (songwriter of "On the Banks of the Wabash" and brother of Theodore Dreiser). Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (consistently ranked #1 undergraduate engineering college in the US) is here.