MARKTOWN UPDATE A publication of the Marktown Preservation Society March 2005 Snow Snarls Region But Not Tiny Marktown Or E.C. Like a Currier of Ives painting of the early part of things. of the last century, snow once again blanketed the On Saturday night one of our young residents Calumet Region, East Chicago and yes, tiny little had left to visit her mother at St. Catherine Hospital. Marktown. Soft gentle drifts of pure white snow cov- Upon her return she recruited the assistance of the ered virtually everything in site. As the winds in- Rodriguez boys to clear out her parking place for creased so too did the size of the snow drifts in the her. But again, that's what has happened in Mark- yards, parks and streets of our neighborhood, remi- town for the past 85 years. People pitching in to help niscent of days long people. Neighbors ago when a snow fall helping neighbors as if such as this would they were family. close streets, schools About six and governmental of- years ago in mid fices for a day or two. March, the area had The week of been struck by a major January 20th brought ice storm. Marktown the first major snow suffered a power loss storm to the Chicago that lasted several area in a number of days. As a result, the years, and with it came pumps went out at the a test; a most important pump station and our test of the viability of a basements backed up new city administration. with ground water and While we did not ven- sewage. It was a disas- ture out into the entire ter. Because of this, the city to inspect the piles pump house was re- of snow and freshly built and backup sys- plowed streets, we did tems were put in place. make contact with vir- Fortunately, during the tually every neighbor- storm of 2005, power hood in this city and the wasn't lost and the answer was the same basements didn't flood. from everywhere in What did hap- E.C. The streets were pen though is just as maintained during the storm and cleared again on important. The city of East Chicago, the workers, Sunday morning. the residents, and yes, the residents of Marktown From the standpoint of someone who re- worked together to make sure that emergency ser- members the great snow storm of the 1960s, this vices continued; that the streets were plowed and wasn't much to speak of. But is was enough to see that senior citizens and others less fortunate were just how well the city works with a new mayor at city looked after. hall. Simply said, it works well, very well indeed. As we have said before and will continue to From a Marktown perspective things went say "With TEAMWORK all things are possible." I about as well as usual during the entire week of snow. thank you for being not just neighbors, but for being While Judy Hicks and Ms. Maria Perez had to shovel good neighbors and friends in this most isolated, yet out the community center one morning due to a mix- promising of neighborhoods. Let's all work TO- up in communications at the Parks Department. City GETHER for the betterment of all. Let's make Mark- workers managed to shovel out the senior citizens town a better, cleaner and safer place to live and to and keep the streets plowed even through the thick raise our families. Paul A. Myers, Editor visit us on line at www.marktown.org Cultural Connections Exhibit To Include E.C. & Marktown Born of steel and tempered in oil: the great mary reason for the early years of East Chicago, city of East Chicago, and yes the Marktown Historic utilizing this never before seen collection of photos District, have a proud and most diverse history of as a backdrop or foundation for the cultural diversity cultural and industrial heritage. That history, heritage of this great city was a natural. and cultural diversity will be celebrated once again Gloria Dosen will be working on a major dis- at the Lake County Welcome Center in Hammond, play of ethnic clothing from some of the more than Indiana with an outstanding exhibit opening on Mon- sixty various nationalities who have made Lake day, March 21, 2005. County and East Chicago their home. While the exhibit includes displays from vir- Thomas Frank has produced a tually all walks of life, past and present in Lake power point program that will undoubtedly mix manu- County, the East Chicago portion of the exhibit will facturing and mankind together in a most unique fash- stand alone. Working to- ion. Drawing upon early gether on the exhibit this year movies and still images, this are Gloria Dosen of the East portion of the presentation Chicago Room of the East will be a welcome addition Chicago Public Library, Tho- to the exhibit mas Frank a nationally ac- All in all, this will be a claimed artist, and truly remarkable exhibit that Marktown's own Paul Myers. you and your family won't As a part of this years want to miss. For further exhibit, a rare set of 1920 pho- details contact the Wel- tographs of Mark Manufactur- come Center at 989-7979 or ing Company will be dis- Paul Myers at 397-2239. played. As steel was the pri- Hope to see you there! We Support Our Troops! What About You? Friday, January 21st marked an important say "We have a tradition in Marktown of supporting day for the children of Marktown who frequent the those who serve in the armed forces. We've done it Community Center. Mrs. Eleanor Uribe, the mother for decades and we will continue the tradition as long of a young soldier now serving in Iraq, spoke to them as there is a Marktown and a military." on the importance of supporting our troops abroad. Judy and Ms. Maria will be putting together a What Mrs. Uribe didn't know was that the children of memorial to all of those from this community who Marktown had a surprise for her. serve in the armed forces. If you have a family mem- Over the past few weeks the children were ber or friend currently in military service, please make encouraged by Parks & Recreation Department staff it a point of dropping off a photograph and their mail- Mrs. Judy Hicks and Ms. Maria Perez to write letter ing address at the Old Marktown Community Cen- to those who stand in harms way to secure the free- ter. The display will start in March and will be cel- doms for others that we ebrated during Memorial too often take for granted. Day in May. After the letters If you would were presented Mrs. like to write to someone Hicks said "I don't know in service or contribute who was affected the to the care packages most, the children of that the children will be Marktown by the presen- sending overseas, stop tation of Mrs. Urebe or in and see Ms. Judy or Mrs. Uribe when she was Ms. Maria or give them presented with the let- a call at 391-8370. Let's ters." all support the troops. Judy went on to Let's all work together! Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. Vincent Van Gogh - artist Coalition For A Safe Environment Speaks In Marktown Wednesday, January 26th brought Dr. Betty Balanoff, and Marktown's own Jose Bustos to the Old Marktown Community Center for a meeting to discuss the status of the Waterway Management District's plan to dredge the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal. At the December 2004 meeting of the WMD, Paul Myers requested that if the plan moves forward, that air monitoring stations be placed on the east and west side of Marktown. It looks like that may not be necessary, as the January 2005 meeting saw the appointment by Mayor Pabey of a number of new board members and the unprecedented removal of their corporate council and executive director. What does all of this mean? Basically, the project is now on hold until the new board at least hires an executive director. Betty Balanoff and Jose Bustos still took the time out of their busy schedules to explain to a number of Marktown residents ex- actly what has and is going on with this project. The Marktown Preservation Society is working with the national and local preservation organizations to le- verage our historic status into a moratorium on the project. We'll keep you posted on our progress. A Note From A Visitor Of Our Web Page Hi Paul, Editor's note: After receiving this email on Janu- I recently ran across your website about ary 13th we put in a search request for the video Marktown. Good job. tape with the Indiana Humanities Council and the In 1975 I was awarded a grant from the Indi- E.C. Plubic Library. It appears that the Indiana Hu- ana Committee for the Humanities to produce a video manities Council somehow disposed of their copy about Marktown. As you might expect video was very seventeen years ago. The East Chicago Public Li- new in those days. The five part series (30 minutes brary is currently looking for the box of tapes that per episode) was video taped in Marktown and other were donated. We'll keep you posted in Update! portions of East Chicago and Market Square in Lake Below: The famous Rainmaker Mountain at the en- Forest Illinois.