BRICK OF THE MONTH: Sweet Adelines

Walking around the Circle, you may have noticed the faint etchings of names in the bricks. In the late 1970’s, Commission for Downtown began a revitalization project that included re-bricking Monument Circle and allowed citizens to have their names engraved there in return for a small donation. These are the stories of the individuals, families, and companies whose names can be found engraved along the most famous streets in the city.

Capital City Chorus, a division of the international group Sweet Adelines, is an all-women chorus currently made up of 85 members, with a repertoire of songs ranging from Broadway tunes to country ballads. Toula Oberlies, the group’s business manager, describes it as “Glee for adults.”

“We don’t just stand there and hold a piece of music and sing,” she says. “We actually perform it—we move.”

Oberlies has been a member of the group since 1974, and she was in charge of purchasing the Capital City Chorus’s brick, located on west Market Street, in the late 70’s. When the brick was finally laid, Oberlies and some of the girls from the chorus made a trip downtown to take pictures of themselves standing in front of it (see right).

“It was just a quirky thing to do,” she says of buying the brick. “We also named a star. After we got notification that told us where it was, we went to Butler’s conservatory and found that, too.”

And while Oberlies and her chorus mates haven’t thought about the photo of them with their brick in years, they’ll have an opportunity to recreate it next year. “Next May, we perform at the 500 Festival Memorial Service on the Circle,” she says. “We’ll have to troop on down there and find that brick again!”

Know a story about one of the bricks? Contact Elyse Causey at ecausey@indymonthly.emmis.com.