🌿 RelaxedWeekend · from Indianapolis, IN
Nashville, Indiana & Columbus: Arts Colony and Architecture Town
Two of Indiana's most distinctive small towns sit within an hour of Indianapolis on opposite sides of the hill country. Nashville, Indiana — not to be confused with its Tennessee namesake — has been an arts colony since the 1890s when the Hoosier Group painters discovered Brown County's autumn light; the village commercial block is dense with working galleries, craft studios, and pottery workshops. Columbus, 45 minutes east, is one of the most architecturally significant small cities in the world: beginning in 1957, the Cummins Foundation funded commissions from Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Robert Venturi, and dozens of other major architects, creating a concentration of important modern buildings in a city of 50,000 people.
Day 1 — Nashville, Indiana arts colony and Brown County galleriesDay 2 — Columbus, Indiana modernist architecture walking tour
Day 1 — Nashville, Indiana
Day 1 — Nashville, Indiana
🚗 55 min driving📍 6 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Indianapolis, IN → Nashville, IN
55 min
Brown County Art Gallery
★ Reviews →The oldest gallery in the Brown County arts colony, founded in 1926 by the artists who had been coming to paint the hills since the 1890s — the permanent collection documents the Hoosier Group landscape painters (T.C. Steele, William Forsyth, Otto Stark) who established Brown County as Indiana's painting center. T.C. Steele's home and studio (the House of the Singing Winds, 8 miles south) is the best single site associated with this movement; the gallery provides context before that visit.
~1.5 hrs📍 See location
T.C. Steele State Historic Site
★ Reviews →The home and studio of Theodore Clement Steele, the most significant of the Hoosier Group painters — he built the property on a 211-acre hilltop in 1907 and painted the surrounding landscape until his death in 1926. The studio contains his original easels, palette, and canvases; the hillside garden his wife Selma designed is still maintained. The views from the hilltop property over the Brown County hills are the same landscape Steele painted for two decades.
~1.5 hrs📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Story Inn
★ Reviews →A 19th-century general store converted to an inn and restaurant in the tiny village of Story (population 5), 8 miles south of Nashville — the best restaurant in Brown County by a wide margin, with a menu focused on locally sourced Indiana ingredients and a wine list that takes the region seriously. Saturday lunches are prix fixe; weekday lunch is a la carte. The building's history as a frontier trading post and general store is documented in artifacts on the walls.
~1 hr📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Nashville Village Galleries Walk
★ Reviews →The main block of Nashville has 40+ shops and galleries in 19th-century commercial buildings — the concentration of working artists is the reason to spend an afternoon here rather than passing through. The Hob Nob Corner pottery studio, the Gnaw Bone Trading Company, and several print studios along Van Buren Street are the working studios rather than just retail shops. The Nashville House restaurant on the main block is the historic dining landmark if you want dinner before checking in.
~1 hr📍 See location
🌙
Evening
The Restaurant at Hard Truth
★ Reviews →A well-regarded dinner spot near Abe Martin Lodge.
~1 hr📍 See location
Abe Martin Lodge
★ Reviews →The 1932 stone and timber state park lodge inside Brown County State Park, adjacent to the village — the cabins and modern rooms have forest views; the lodge restaurant serves Indiana comfort food. The ridge walk from the lodge at dusk before the day's light fades over the valley is the right ending to an arts colony day.
Day 2 — Columbus, Indiana
Day 2 — Columbus, Indiana
🚗 1 hr 20 min driving📍 3 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Nashville, IN → Columbus, IN
35 min
Columbus Area Visitors Center — Architecture Tour
★ Reviews →The visitors center on Fifth Street runs guided bus tours twice daily and provides detailed walking tour maps for self-guided exploration — 70+ significant modern buildings in a city of 50,000, commissioned through the Cummins Foundation starting in 1957. The tour covers the First Christian Church (Eliel Saarinen, 1942), the Irwin Union Bank (Eero Saarinen, 1954), the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library (I.M. Pei, 1969), and the North Christian Church (Eero Saarinen, 1964). The architecture concentration is legitimately comparable to Chicago; the scale of the city makes it approachable in a way that Chicago's loop is not.
~1.5 hrs📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Zaharako's Ice Cream Parlor
★ Reviews →An ice cream parlor in continuous operation since 1900 — original 1908 Mexican onyx soda fountains, a 1908 pipe organ, and the best hot fudge sundae in Indiana. One of the most intact commercial interiors from the early 20th century in the Midwest.
~1 hr📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Miller House & Garden
★ Reviews →The most significant private residence in Columbus — designed by Eero Saarinen in 1957 for J. Irwin Miller (the Cummins executive who funded the architecture program), with landscape by Dan Kiley and interiors by Alexander Girard. The result is a total work of modernist design, with Girard's textiles, Saarinen's furniture, and Kiley's sunken garden forming a unified composition. Tours depart from the Columbus Museum of Art; the house is not visible from the street and can only be visited by tour.
~1.5 hrs📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Columbus, IN → Indianapolis, IN
45 min
← All Indianapolis trips
More getaways from Indianapolis
Turkey Run & Shades — Sandstone Box Canyons on Sugar Creek — Day trip🥾Limestone Country — Spring Mill Caves & the Bloomington Hills — Weekend🥾Hoosier National Forest — Wilderness Ridges, Hidden Cliffs & Patoka Lake — Long weekend🥾Conner Prairie & Historic Noblesville — Day trip🏛️Fort Wayne — The Summit City on Three Rivers — Weekend🏛️Classic Cars & Amish Country — Auburn, Shipshewana & Elkhart — Long weekend🏛️Zionsville — Brick-Paved Main Street, Creekside Boutiques & Traders Point Creamery — Day trip🌿Oldenburg & Batesville — The Village of Spires and the Hillenbrand Heritage — Weekend🌿
© 2026 theweekendgetaways.com · All itineraries are original content. Terms
Plan your own escapeExplore more trips →