Speedway was laid out in 1912 as a residential suburb by Indianapolis Motor Speedway founders Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby — a "horseless city" for auto-industry workers. The Speedway Historic District (41.6 acres, 304 contributing buildings, NRHP September 15, 2005) built out from about 1912 to 1955 in Foursquare and Craftsman bungalow styles; the town then more than doubled, from 5,498 people in 1950 to 14,523 in 1970, and new single-family construction has been close to nil since the 1990s. That's the thing that decides what a american elm here is likely to be — a mature specimen over a roofline, or nursery stock still establishing. Removing an american elm around Speedway runs roughly $400–$1,900, and in Old Speedway City (Speedway Historic District), Speedway Manor and Main Street corridor access is usually what decides where in that range you land.
What's actually growing in Speedway
No public street-tree inventory has been published for Speedway, so species counts are UNVERIFIED. Because the residential core finished building out by the mid-1950s and has barely been rebuilt since, much of the yard canopy is likely of comparable age and large enough to close over narrow streets and 40-to-50-foot lots — an inference from build-out dates, not a measured finding. The exception is Main Street, where a town streetscape reconstruction installed all-new landscaping, so those trees are recent.
Speedway's housing stock, and what it means for tree size
Speedway was laid out in 1912 as a residential suburb by Indianapolis Motor Speedway founders Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby — a "horseless city" for auto-industry workers. The Speedway Historic District (41.6 acres, 304 contributing buildings, NRHP September 15, 2005) built out from about 1912 to 1955 in Foursquare and Craftsman bungalow styles; the town then more than doubled, from 5,498 people in 1950 to 14,523 in 1970, and new single-family construction has been close to nil since the 1990s.
What's specific to american elm
Still common statewide as a volunteer and in fencerows and creek bottoms — what is gone is the mature street elm, not the species. Both Dutch elm disease and elm yellows (phloem necrosis) are established in Indiana, and elm yellows is the one nobody knows about because it kills DED-tolerant selections too; if a customer wants to replant elm, the tolerant American elm cultivars ('Valley Forge', 'New Harmony', 'Princeton', 'Jefferson') are tolerant and not immune, with 'Valley Forge' and 'New Harmony' carrying the longest test record.
Marion County rules
Indiana has no statewide tree removal permit, and no Speedway ordinance requiring a permit to remove a tree on private property is documented in the sources reviewed. Important caveat: Speedway is an excluded town under Unigov and maintains its own municipal code separate from Indianapolis, and the full Speedway code text could not be retrieved, so the exact local text is UNVERIFIED. Marion County's zoning ordinance does state a purpose of protecting and enhancing tree cover and the countywide code carries a "Trees and Flora" chapter, but the section citations are unconfirmed and whether they bind Speedway is unconfirmed. Call the Speedway Street Department before touching anything near the street line.