Just after the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. Army bought nearly 2,500 acres in what was a rural area outside of Indianapolis to create Fort Benjamin Harrison. The original 30 structures built north of 56th Street were arrayed around a horseshoe loop with the parade ground in the center, ringed by 400 maple trees. Officers’ houses were built in three sizes according to rank—all with spacious third-floor attic accommodations for servants—as well as barracks for enlisted men. If you’ve traveled across 56th Street, you may have missed Lawton Loop, but you probably noticed the red-brick row of non-commissioned officers’ doubles built in the early 1930s between Post and Franklin roads, and on the south side of the street, the immense Army Finance Center.

The Army closed the fort in 1995, but the structures remain—stately red brick Georgian Revival buildings in a park-like setting, repurposed as private homes, with barracks adapted as apartments and condos. A law office occupies the former regimental headquarters. The base hospital operates as a hotel serving Fort Harrison State Park. A mule barn became a craft brewery. The blacksmith’s shop turned into a restaurant.

Indiana Landmarks’ May 12 guided bike tour will cover 8 miles of the fort, showing you the architecture of historic officers’ homes and mule barns alike, with stories about the life at the fort, then and now. The tour begins and ends at Fortune Academy—formerly the fort chapel—and takes you through Spring Valley Cemetery and residential areas, with a stop at a private residence on “the Loop.”

You’ll also visit the fort’s water pumping station, repurposed as Midwest Studios, a fascinating place where artists, engineers, IT experts, and writers create 3D models, exhibits, animation, video productions, and more for clients across the globe. The ride also includes bucolic Ft. Harrison State Park.

The three-hour bike tour departs in groups of 15 every minutes beginning at 9 a.m., with the last tour departing at 10 a.m. To make sure you have a great tour, we limit each timed-entry group to 15 people.