The marker, titled “Gallaudet Station: The Town That Never Happened,” is located at 5605 S. Franklin Road. The unveiling featured special speakers and a catered luncheon.
The town of Gallaudet was the idea of mid-1800s landowner James S. Brown, a Franklin Township resident who was superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf. Brown named his town for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, co-founder of the first school for the deaf in North America.
A post office was established there in January 1854, and Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad trains dropped mail at the depot twice a day. A store, a coal yard and sawmill were established, but Brown’s hoped-for town never fully developed.
Local historian and author Sylvia C. Henricks, a longtime president of the society, is mentioned on the marker. She died earlier this year just short of her 95th birthday. Her granddaughters, Samatha and Molly Hansen, helped to unveil the marker.