[7] Six parkways extending for 34.8 miles (56.0 km) and containing 2,153.5 acres (871.5 ha) link the various parks and major city streets.

In its first 40 years, Indianapolis did not see much need for organized park land because the pastures and other open areas in and near the still small town were easily accessible by the inhabitants.

[11] In 1894 the Commercial Club, which later became the Chamber of Commerce, hired Joseph Earnshaw, a landscape architect from Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop a park plan for the city.

He recommended construction of a boulevard lined with parks running along the White River and Fall Creek from Washington Street to the Indiana State Fairgrounds, but this plan was rejected as too extravagant.

[12] Despite the opposition to the Olmsted plan, the city under Mayor Thomas Taggart purchased 1,100 acres (450 ha) of land during the early 1900s, including much of what became Riverside Park.

[14] By 1907 the Parks Board realized that it needed a new comprehensive plan, and from 1908 to 1915 it engaged George Edward Kessler as a consulting landscape architect.

In 1909, after a year of study, Kessler presented his Park and Boulevard Plan combining the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement with practical functionalility.

[11] Kessler retained many of the elements of the Earnshaw and Olmsted plans, including the linear parks and boulevards along White River and Fall Creek.

[16][17] Decorative stone-clad arched bridges spanning White River and Fall Creek are an important component of Kessler's plan.

His plans for Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Terre Haute all incorporated the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement.

[20] In 1922 the Board of Park Commissioners again hired Kessler to design extensions to the boulevard system in what was then the far northern reaches of the city.

Lawrence Sheridan, who had graduated from Purdue University and attended the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture, took over as city planner for Indianapolis.

The system of parkways and boulevards reinforced the perception that the northern and eastern sides of town were the most desirable places to live.

One of Kessler's recommendations in 1909 was for a court of public buildings and green space leading west from the Indiana State House to the White River.

This was realized in spirit about 80 years later with the construction of the Indiana Government South Building and the development of White River State Park.