The settlement was called Mapleton due to the large number of maple trees in the area.
38th Street, which now forms the southern boundary of the neighborhood, was originally called Maple Road.
Tarkington lived in the neighborhood on his North Meridian Street estate for 23 years until his death in 1946.
Butler University moved from Irvington on the city's then-far east side to the Butler–Tarkington neighborhood in 1928 when it acquired what had been the community's 300-acre (1.2 km2) Fairview Park.
[3] In 1939, St. Thomas Aquinas parish opened its school (which serves kindergarten through eighth grade) at 4600 North Illinois Street.