[5] On October 11, 1994, the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza was designated a National Historic Landmark District.

[10][11] Various architects were invited by an appointed War Memorial Board, led by professional advisor and trustee Thomas Rogers Kimball,[12] to submit designs for a memorial intended to honor all who fought in World War I and also to provide meeting places, archives, and offices for the American Legion.

[3]The Vietnam and Korean Wars Memorial (1996) consist of two semi-circular limestone and granite monuments divided proportionally to represent the number of casualties from each conflict.

[9] The inscription on the north face of the cenotaph memorializes James Bethel Gresham, a Hoosier who was the first member of the American Expeditionary Force to be killed in action in World War I.

The inscription on the south side reads "A tribute by Indiana to the hallowed memory of the glorious dead who served in the World War.

"[23] The Veterans Memorial Plaza, also called Obelisk Square, is located on the third block, south of American Legion Mall.

[9] Although its interior was incomplete, it was dedicated on November 11, 1933 (Veterans Day) by Governor Paul McNutt and Lt. Gen. Hugh Drum, Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

The blue lights that shine between columns on the side of the War Memorial make the monument easily recognizable.

[9] The cubical structure is clad in unrelieved ashlar Indiana limestone on a high, lightly rusticated base, and is topped with a low pyramidal roof that sheathes its interior dome.

On each face, an Ionic screen of six columns, behind which are tall banks of windows, and is surmounted by symbolic standing figures designed by Henry Hering: Courage, Memory, Peace, Victory, Liberty, and Patriotism.

On the south side, standing on a pink granite base in the center of the grand access stairs, is Hering's colossal exultant male nude bronze Pro Patria (1929); it is 24 feet (7.3 m) high, weighs seven tons, and was the largest cast bronze sculpture in the United States.

"[3] On the north side is the building's main inscription: To commemorate the valor and sacrifice of the land, sea and air forces of the United States and all who rendered faithful and loyal service at home and overseas in the World War; to inculcate a true understanding and appreciation of the privileges of American citizenship; to inspire patriotism and respect for the laws to the end that peace may prevail, justice be administered, public order maintained and liberty perpetuated.

[30] The main entrance of the Indiana War Memorial Museum[31] is on the north façade, which opens into a large hall with Tennessee marble floors and Art Deco Egyptian themes.

The museum is housed mainly on the lower level of the monument and honors the efforts of Hoosier soldiers in a timeline from the American Revolutionary War to modern conflicts.

An exhibit replicating the radio room of the USS Indianapolis includes original equipment from World War II was opened on November 7, 2009.

[33] The Grand Foyer main level features the 500-seat Pershing Auditorium, built and decorated with materials donated from several states and World War I allies.

In 2009, the rooms were renamed in honor of Hoosier veterans: Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, General David M. Shoup, and Major Samuel Woodfill.

[34] Above the main level is the Shrine Room, nearly a vertical double cube, 110 ft (34 m) high and 60 ft (18 m) on a side, clad in materials collected from all the allied nations of World War I. Accessed by two staircases from the Grand Foyer, the Shrine Room Stairway's American Pavonazzo marble walls bear the names of all Hoosiers who fought in World War I.

On the east and west sides are paintings by Walter Brough of the leading soldiers of France, America, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, and Serbia.

Surrounding the room are sculptor Frank Jirouch's plaster frieze depicting events of World War I.

[3] At the center of the space, beneath a giant hanging 17-foot (5.2 m)-by-30-foot (9.1 m) American flag, is the Altar of Consecration, flanked at the corners with cauldrons on tripod stands.

The museum had formerly been housed for almost 20 years three blocks south in the basement of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, but water leakage there forced the removal of all artifacts in 2018.

The park was originally reserved for a state university in 1827; however, it became the site of a seminary, the city's first high school, and a training ground for Union troops during the American Civil War.

[14] Benjamin Harrison (1908) was designed by Henry Bacon and Charles Niehaus and is located at the south end of the park facing New York Street.

[37] Other features include benches, tree plantings,[5] and street lamps designed with acorn globes and fluted shafts.

When Mrs. Depew died in 1913, she had bequeathed $50,000 from her estate to the city of Indianapolis for the erection of a fountain in memory of her husband "in some park or public place where all classes of people may enjoy it.