Maple Crossing

Music resident Emma Hall discusses her song “Rising to the Same Sun” about the Maple Crossing neighborhood.  

So much of my life revolves around 16th Street that I rarely spend time north of it. I live on the southside, but I spent many of my childhood weekends at the Harrison Center, went to Herron High School, and now I am an intern at the Harrison Center. So, I was excited when I was given the opportunity to write about Maple Crossing, which is located at 38th Street and Meridian. It was a chance to learn about a part of my city that was unfamiliar to me. To learn its history, and then celebrate its future.

What is interesting about Maple Crossing is that it’s the meeting place for the Butler-Tarkington, Crown Hill, Meridian Kessler, and Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhoods. In some ways, Maple Crossing is a melting pot for the northern Indianapolis neighborhoods. The four neighborhoods all have their unique influence on the place.

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The North United Methodist Church is a cornerstone of the Maple Crossing. It serves and unites people from all walks of life. If you’re in the Maple Crossing neighborhood at the right time of day, you may get a chance to hear St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun” played on the church's bells. The overall message of the song is one of unity. We are all fundamentally the same. We breathe the same air, walk on the same streets, and rise to the same sun. That is a beautiful message to broadcast out into an emerging neighborhood, so it’s the message I wanted my song to have as well. We should not be afraid to be neighbors, and to share our lives with new people. Our social groups should not be so rigid, but ever-expanding. We always have more in common with strangers than we first think.