MARKTOWN UPDATE A publication of the Marktown Preservation Society February 2007 Marktown Participates In Wolf Lake Conference

Left: Betty Balanoff spoke on the influx of African American Workers to the Calumet Region. Above: Mike Boos discussed the Wolf Lake Initiative Right: Rod Sellers addressed the history of the Illinois side of Wolf Lake No man is an island and nei- the Environmental Education Cen- While there hasn’t been ice on ther is a neighborhood, not even ter on Calumet Avenue in Ham- Wolf Lake during the past three tiny little Marktown. There are two mond and the afternoon session conferences, Rich Ogrentz, the major regional plans that people at the Southeast Sportsmen’s Commodore of the Illiana Yacht are working toward. The first is the Club in Hegewisch, Illinois. Club discussed the history of ice Marquette Plan and the second is A number of organizations, boats on the lake. the Calumet Heritage Project. including the Marktown Historic At the end of the afternoon Both can be considered quality of District provided tabletop displays session a group discussion was life based initiatives and both in- including historic photographs, held lead by Mike Boos, Execu- clude the Marktown Historic Dis- articles and handouts for the par- tive Director of the Wolf Lake Ini- trict. ticipants at the conference. tiative. During the discussion, pre- Another area that is mutual to The list of speakers was quite senters and the public exchanged both plans is the Wolf Lake Initia- extraordinary and most diverse in histories and ideas brought for- tive and for the 6th year they cel- topics. Leading off the presenta- ward during this most remarkable ebrated their natural environment tions was Paul Myers who spoke one day event. and our shared social history at in reference to the Marquette The day came to an end with their bi-state Winter Wonderland Plan, the Calumet Heritage Corri- a bonfire coordinated by Mike and at Wolf Lake. The one day event dor and the need for both environ- Dennis Brennan of Chicago’s East was held on Saturday, January mental remediation and historic Side and Calumet City, Illinois, 13th with the morning session at preservation throughout the Calu- respectively. met Region. Betty Balanoff spoke in refer- ence to the history of steelwork- ers in the various Wolf Lake Com- munities. Her knowledge and ex- pertise in the field is truly amaz- ing. Robert T. Kay of USGS dis- cussed the introduction of slag to Wolf Lake.

visit us on line at www.marktown.org Planning That Marktown Garden This past summer a relatively cide to do this, then the best thing back year after year, but the initial new resident of Marktown noted to do is work with the neighbor purchase price will probably be a that they were going to put in a next door so that the garden con- bit higher than the annuals. garden this year so they could tinues from one front gate to an- You may want to consider have a photo of their house in other. planting perennials closer to the Marktown Update. Outstanding! For ideas on the street side house or fence and then adding With that in mind we decided it is gardens drive or walk past 402- the annuals in front of them. This never to early to plan that garden, 406 Prospect Street and you can combination works well in most especially considering the size of see two outstanding examples of gardens and provides both stabil- most Marktown yards. gardening and neighborhood co- ity in the garden and a greater Let’s start with the fact that operation. variety of color throughout the most Marktown yards are rela- The same type of street side spring, summer and fall. tively small. Since the average lot gardens are scheduled to be in- One of the things that you is 40’X40’ (i.e. 1600 square feet) stalled on much of Spruce Avenue need to remember is that some and the average home has a foot- in mid to late spring of this year. flowers do better in shade than print of approximately 600 square As for your in the yard garden sun, while others prefer the sun feet, by the time you take out the the best you can do during the over the shade. Pay close atten- square footage for the residential winter months is think about it, do tion to how much sun your yard sidewalk and the basement win- a little research and monitor the gets and then decide what you dow pit you are probably down to sun. want to plant and where. about 600-700 square feet. There are two basic types of If this is your first garden in That doesn’t leave a great flowers that will be relatively avail- Marktown START SMALL. Noth- deal of space for a lawn, let alone able this spring. They are annu- ing looks worse that a garden full a garden. But gardens don’t have als and perennials. Annuals re- of weeds, and yes, starting with a to be huge, nor do they have to quire that you replace them each large garden can take a consid- take up the entire yard. year. This gives you the opportu- erable amount of time, effort and You may also have the option nity to totally change your garden money to install and maintain. For of installing a street side garden each year. The second type are further gardening ideas visit the adjacent to your yard. If you de- know as perennials. They come East Chicago Public Library.

Gardens don’t happen by themselves. They take planning and work all summer long. They do show that people in the neighborhood take pride in their homes. THE TOWN OF MARK, INDIANA A MANUFACTURER’S HOUSING ENTERPRISE By Ralph F. Warner In considering the ing of the town plan, a progress that has been work requiring a broad made, since the out- appreciation of the in- break of the war in terrelation of a large 1914, in meeting the number of factors not extraordinary press- all directly related to ing demand for indus- architectural design, trial housing, certain that he has, generally interesting and sig- speaking, shown the nificant develop- same grasp of essen- ments are to be found tials and the same thor- by glancing over a list ough understanding of of the names of archi- the fundamentals of tects or architectural good design, that have firms who are, or characterized his ef- have been engaged in forts in the regular the actual planning of practice of his profes- homes for industrial sion. workers. It will In the town plan- be seen that a sur- ning work of Mr. Howard Van Doren Shaw, we prisingly large have a peculiarly fitting illustration of these points. portion of them Mr. Shaw entered the field of community devel- are architects opment about three years ago, with the drafting of whose names the general layout and the designing of the build- have hereto ing for the Market Square forming the entrance to been associ- the town of ated only Lake Forest, with the de- Ill. In many sign of larger ways, the Lake and more pretentious Forest Market Square structures. It is, how- development, which ever, to the was com- credit of the pleted and profession as a published whole, that in last year, is most cases the the most at- architects are tractive and measuring up to complete the trust placed scheme of in them, aided, its kind that it is true, by a has yet been better under- realized in standing of the meaning and importance of indus- this country. trial housing, thanks to the lessons which the war In the development of the town of Mark, a has taught. community for wage earners built by the Mark manu- It is also peculiarly gratifying to find that, facturing Company (now the Steel and Tube Com- where the architect has been entrusted with the draft- pany of America), located at East Chicago, Indiana,

The Architectural Review - November 1918 97 THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW Mr. Shaw has to be filled to a brought the height from same careful four to seven and conscien- feet throughout. tious study to The work of bear on the so- filling is still lution of his going on, as the problem. In photographs fact, it is appar- taken before the ent from a com- development parison of the was completed Market Square show. Due to at Lake Forest, this condition, it with that for the Diagonal view between buildings, showing spacing apart of houses is necessary for new town, that the reader to ex- the former has ercise his strongly influenced imagination in order the design in the lat- to fully visualize ter development -- what the conditions both of which, it will be when the may be said, show streets and lot de- the effect of English velopment and examples combined plantings are com- with a certain twang pleted. When that of continental ori- time arrives, we feel gin, noticeable par- sure that the devel- ticularly in the opment will com- buildings about the pare most favorably square. with any similar en- Not the Typical Arrangement of Block Plans terprise in America least of the difficul- which is governed ties which had to be met and solved in the develop- by the same conditions. ment of this scheme, was the fact that the entire site The task of devising a town plan on a filled of 190 acres was, for the most part a swamp, and had and leveled site, which in outline is rigidly geometri-

The Architectural Review - November 1918 98 THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW

View of Boarding House Howard Van Doren Shaw, Architect cal in form, has been solved by creating families. They will be housed in de- a modified gridiron system of streets, tached, semi-detached and row or group based on a framework of major diagonal houses, of from four to seven rooms; in thoroughfares focusing on the market boarding houses of forty rooms; and in square. Facing on or adjacent to the a number of smaller boarding houses, square are the community and recre- where one family on the first floor will ational buildings -- such as the school, board eight to ten single men, with bed- library, club house, rooms on the sec- stores, public ga- ond floor. rages, and the like, The houses the effectiveness of are generally of which is vastly in- two stories in creased by their height, with cellar proximity and or- and, in some cases, derly grouping. an attic. All the The new houses have run- town of Mark will ning water, toilet provide accommoda- with bath, gas and tions for approxi- electricity, hot air mately eight thou- heat, set wash tubs sand persons, includ- in kitchen and ing male and female sewer connection. employees, and their The houses

Double Six-Room House. Parking between shown, still unplanted. Howard Van Doren Shaw, Architect The Architectural Review - November 1918 99 THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW

Quadruple Four and Five-Room (at left) and Double Six-Room Houses (at right) Howard Van Doren Shaw, Architect

have tile walls, which will be cov- walls three feet high. ered with various tints of cement The streets are in most cases wash to give variety, color and thirty-two feet wide, with six- gaiety. The woodwork, windows teen-foot roadways, so that the and other frame portions are also houses are in proper scale, and being given various treatments in the whole effect is very simi- color, having the same end in lar to the streets of English vil- view, such as red and black, or- lages, or the old continental ange and black, green and black, towns, such as Prague. The ar- blue and white, etc., etc. chitect has thus avoided a fea- While the houses are lo- ture unfortunately characteris- cated on a uniform building line, tic of many of our American generally about forty feet apart, town-planning developments and cover from thirty-five to forty where small four, five and six- percent of the lot, they are never- room houses are on broad theless disposed upon a some- streets wide enough for the what unusual “pattern” of ar- Chicago Loop rangement. The District, with an lots are in most inescapable loss cases, square, and of proportion and the buildings are scale. The six- “staggered” on room detached each block, on op- houses are to posite sides of the cost from $2,000 street, so that win- to $2,500; the dows of houses double or semi- look out into the detached houses gardens of their neighbors, rather than into their win- of four to seven rooms from $2,000 to $3,000; and dows or the blank walls of adjacent buildings. The the row houses of four, five and six rooms from houses are connected with bush hammered concrete $2,000 to $2,500 apiece. The Architectural Review - November 1918 100 Perception Is A Hard Thing To Overcome Perception according to the dictionary is the helping the residents of this neighborhood under- ability to see, hear, or become aware of something stand our heritage and our potential for a very posi- through the senses. We all perceive things and we tive future. We do so on a monthly basis and we do do so from our own perspective of life. so in print for all to see. An Example: Some (very few) perceive driving At times I look at Marktown like an automobile. through a public park and destroying it as being a If you have a nice car and someone backs into the fun thing to do. Others (the vast majority of us) per- front grill, all some will see is the damage and not ceive such actions as being inexcusable. the overall car or the potential for restoration. From a national standpoint The Region is per- Is Marktown perfect? Absolutely not. Is Mark- ceived as being “the rust belt of the nation” despite town important to the history of East Chicago, the the fact that the steel industry is stronger today than Calumet Region, the state and nation? Absolutely! it has been in the past 50 years. But one thing we need to do is change our percep- Some in the State of Indiana perceive The Calu- tion, the perception we have and that of others. met Region as the home of corrupt politicians who The City of East Chicago is working hard to are only out to line their own pockets, when in fact change how they are perceived and Marktown is there are a number of totally respectable elected doing the same. When we had the street lights in- officials and governmental workers who just want to stalled back in 1990, some said they would be de- do the right job for all of the people all of the time. stroyed by the residents within six months. They If you talk to people in the southern parts of Lake weren’t destroyed and because of that we began County or virtually anyone in Porter County and ask the process of changing people’s perception of our them of their perception of East Chicago, Hammond community. Because of that historic light fixtures are and Gary, you probably won’t want to hear what they not being installed throughout East Chicago. Re- have to say, and yet, not only is their perception of member: Evil prevails when good people fail to act. these three cities probably true to some extent, many Act now and help change the perception of our residents of the three cities will probably agree with neighborhood to a positive one. The neighborhood them. you save is your neighborhood. The problem lies in how do we change the per- Paul A. Myers, Editor & Resident of ceptions? Marktown Update attempts to do so by Marktown and yes, East Chicago Marktown Street Project Nearly Completed Despite the best attempts of everyone involved, those problems have now been fully taken care of it appears that the finishing touches to the long by the two companies. awaited completion of the Spruce Avenue Project So, just what does need to be finished up? A will not take place until the weather warms up. There couple of complaints are still outstanding in refer- were by all means a ence to the fences that myriad of problems were installed. At least throughout the project one home owner has that caused about 60 noted that the newly days of actual work stop- poured concrete is ap- page on the job. With parently cracking. Due to that said, what is impor- the heavy trucks that en- tant to remember is that tered onto private prop- the project is probably erty and the addition of about 95% complete at the garden areas, a good the present time. degree of landscaping In the last newsletter will be needed. They are we distributed a letter also looking into a new from the City Engineer in decorative sign post sys- reference to Comcast tem that would compli- and SBC line problems. Line crews remove the last of the old above ground ment the historic lighting At the writing of this telephone lines before taking down the wooden poles throughout the historic newsletter it appears that that lined Spruce Avenue for at least 5 decades. district. Well done E.C.! Need to reach us? Try our email at [email protected] Teamwork Is What Makes A Neighborhood Work

BEFORE DURING AFTER It’s simply called team- street. Property owner work. It was Sunday after- Jarlindho Naranjo was as- noon in the fall of 2006 that sisted in the removal of the brought four Marktown tree and other debris on residents together to re- the adjacent property by solve a problem that had Jeorge Murillo, Javier Mad- an adverse effect on the rigal and yes, Paul Myers. entire block. The project: to It only took a few short remove a mulberry tree hours to get the job done that had taken over not just and what a difference it two yards, but much of the made for School Street.

T E A M W O R K

Marktown Update is published each month by the Marktown Pres- page at www.marktown.org. Anyone wishing to submit articles for ervation Society, Inc. (MPS) from their office at the residence of consideration in future issues should send them to Paul A. Myers, Paul A. Myers. It distributed free of charge to all of the residents of 405 Prospect Street, East Chicago Indiana 46312 or via email at Marktown. It is also distributed to more than 400 non residents via [email protected]. The contents of this newsletter are the U.S. Mail. An index to all of the past issues, as well as PDF elec- protected under copyright. Reprinting articles or photos is prohibited tronic copies of each issue are available at the official Marktown web without the express consent of the MPS.