Roachdale, IN

Roachdale grew at a railroad crossing in Putnam County. The town was first called Langsdale, then renamed for Judge Addison Locke Roach, a railroad executive. Roachdale was platted in 1879, founded in 1880, and incorporated in 1882 as the Indianapolis, Decatur and Springfield Railroad reached the community. The crossing turned farmland into a busy market town, with more than sixty commercial operations in its late-nineteenth-century heyday, including groceries, meat markets, blacksmith shops, hotels, and general stores.

ATTRLeonor Hopscotch / CC BY-SA 4.0

The town's present map still includes churches, an elementary school, local businesses, and the Roachdale-Franklin Township Public Library, a Carnegie library. Franklin and Jackson townships frame the municipal streets, while Putnam County roads lead toward Greencastle and the farms beyond. Since 1981, the annual roach races have added an unmistakably Roachdale tradition to the summer calendar. What began as a railroad town now carries its history through a library, school, storefronts, and a Fourth of July event built around the town's wonderfully literal name.