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Hammond, Indiana: Then and Now
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2024
- Recreating some iconic images of Hammond, Indiana decades later.
0:00:20 - Downtown - Hohman Ave.
0:06:01 - Downtown - State St.
0:08:38 - Downtown - Sibley St.
0:09:41 - Downtown - Rimbach/Fayette St.
0:10:03 - South of Downtown
0:11:05 - North Side (North of the Wabash tracks)
0:12:15 - Woodmar
the worst part of growing old is seeing thing like this and having to admit that your time has come and gone. the places you went, the things you did, the fun you had, its all gone, yielding to those coming up behind you. its ok, it was our time, we enjoyed it, let the future have its own ways.
Oh wow ! I cried looking at this I sure miss our old Downtown Hammond man oh man I really don't like all this change I'am 68 yrs old .Thank you so much for sharing this with us, God Bless you .
Thank you so much for posting this!! My father was born in Hammond and he was so proud of that fact. He loved Hammond, (AKA Hessville when he was really little) and used to tell me stories about growing up in Hammond with his two best friends Max, and Dennis. My father passed away in 2016 and I wish he was here so that I could share this video with him and ask SO many questions about the streets and if he recognized anything, especially the movie theater where he and his buddies would watch the lastest serials and movies coming out, a little person selling Buster Brown shoes in a Woolworths, the Hammond Times where my aunt worked, and playing football for Hammond High. Thank you for the smile, and the memory of his stories I needed it!!
I grew up in Hessville and I really miss downtown Hammond. Hessville had some nice shops too. Everything we needed was there. It's sad to see your town die.
You dad might have known my dad, Roger Sumner 💙 he was Hammond High Scool Class of 1952 - Valedictorian, in fact 🙂
I wanted to take a ride down memory lane this rainy afternoon, and found this!
Thank you for this beautiful labor of love, which evokes both joy and sadness.
Spring is coming, may there be new life for Hammond!
💔💔💔It is very sad to see a city with beautiful architecture in the past and today, the same area is a vacant lot. Great video! Thank you for sharing!
I grew up in North Hammond on Sheffield & 142nd. The whole block was my family. What a great way to grow up.
I am from east Chicago Indiana, Hammond, Indiana was a great city back in the day, great video.
Downtown Hammond used to be great place- Loved going at Christmas time for goldblatts windows
I grew up in St.John in the 60s my grandmother and I would take the bus to Hammond to shop and sight see, riding the elevator at Goldblats, going to the Parthenon, and the Army Surplus store, getting a Hamburger at the quikee stop...it was a great place. St John was a small farm town back then
OMG great video 👍 My Mom would take all of us to Goldblatts to shop all through the 70s. all of us were like " Hurry up ma we gotta get to Waynes Trick Shop 😂🤣😂 he would always show you a magic trick, then we would go to Army Navy surplus and beg her for a tent or a knife 🤣😂🤣😂 OMG those were the days
Hammond and much of the south suburbs of Illinois were killed when the steel mills went belly up. Back in the 50s,60s, and 70s if you had 2 good hands you could find a great job with a pension.
Then politicians allowed foreign steel to surpass domestic production. The domino effect is still a happening. Such a shame.
Hammond, especially downtown, was dying much earlier largely due to the endless trains (freight, often coal going to the mills) that blocked traffic from the surrounding neighborhoods. Shopping centers in Calumet City and elsewhere were built and business utterly collapsed in less than a decade, from the mid-60s to early 70s.
Wow! That overpass really took out a lot of the city.
Very good graphic summary of Hammond, Indiana. It is officially gone...
Hammond was a great place to grow up. I lived in the Robertsdale area, next to Whiting. It was easy to take the bus to downtown Hammond, and visit the Army Navy Surplus store and Goldblatt's. BTW, for those of you who saw the movie "Chritmas story" with Darren McGavin - based on the book by Gene Shepherd, the book was based on his life in Hammond, although they had to substitute Higbees in Cleveland, as the Goldblatt store was already gone by that time. Thanks for a great video.
My Grandmother dated Gene Shepherds brother in High School.
@@frankrizzo1239 I read his book in college, watched him on TV, and visited Flick's bar more than a few times. What a great personality.
@@crabbyhayes1076 Is Flick's Bar still open? I only come to the area during the holidays. Joined the Navy 13 years ago, so I don't get to come home as often as I would like. When I do I make sure to stop over in Hessville where my uncle lives.
@@frankrizzo1239 Sorry, but I left the Calumet Region a long time ago, and seldom return to the Woodmar area. Flick was old in the late 60s, and even then only visited infrequently. As I recall his place (with the "Booze" sign) was around 165th and Kennedy.
@@crabbyhayes1076 Next time I'm in the Region I'll see if it's still around.
WOW!!! Could not watch this without tears in my eyes!!! Great stuff!! 😔Ilene
Kind of depressing! I have lived most of my life in Hammond and was downtown during my teens up until it all went away, 1970's and on. There were some great shops!
I am proud to have been born in Hammond and also raised in Hammond. I wish I could time travel back in time and see it when it was thriving❤️
I live in Hammond rn. Wish it looked like how it used to look and not how it looks like now
Sadly, down town Hammond was done once Goldblatts closed. I remember my mom taking me and my brothers to downtown Hammond. We'd hit about all the stores. From JC Penney & Jupiters to Goldblatts. I remember having lunch with my mom at the diners in Jupiters and Walgreens. My dad took us to see The Poseidon Adventure at the Paramount back in 1972..... My last memory was skipping school with friends and taking the bus up to Goldblatts in about 1980 or 81, when I was in high school.
Do you remember Goldblatts used to have the super old timey elevators, with an operator who sat in the car and opened and closed the gate manually with a little crank?
My mother has all of the interior parts of that elevator. The stool, crank, switch plate, railings, the bell chime, even the brass frame that held the inspection certificate.
It had turned into a flea market when i was a kid, and we'd go there to buy junk like fake swords and cheap cassettes. The elevators were closed by then, I've never been in them myself, and the building was just falling apart. By the end, you weren't allowed on the upper floors. But as a kid, our stairwell in our town house was the Goldblatts elevator. My mother put all of the elevator stuff in the stairwell's landing so it looked just like a real elevator.
The politicians said that they needed to build the overpass to save downtown Hammond. They managed to get millions of dollars budgeted into a congressional bill but we would see a penny of it for ten to twenty years, because that's how money is appropriated at the federal level. By the time the overpass was completed downtown Hammond was dead and no overpass was going to save it. The overpass stands there today as a monument to the absurdity of trying to avoid the inevitable. Downtown Hammond died because we didn't need it. We had the new Malls. Then the Malls started dying because we have Amazon. Someday Amazon will be replaced by something else. Someday we'll learn that we can't stop change.
Can’t stop change or maybe political corruption
@@calebgamer1720 Yes you can't stop political corruption but in this case I think it more wishful thinking. People try to stop change from happening and at the time the long trains threated the lives of people who lived north of downtown Hammond because sometimes the trains would stop amublances from reaching St. Margaret's Hospital. They had noble intents but you never understand that change is going to happen whether it's welcomed or not.
Downtown Hammond was destined to die off because of its poor location. River Oaks and Woodmar helped kill it off for sure, but being so far from 80/94 and 90, and being split down the middle with railroads made it a pain in the ass.
The overpass did come way too late, but what it did do was save the people who owned businesses near it. They got bought out to make room for the overpass, took their money and got the hell out.
They're now trying the same thing with a southern overpass in the Hessville area. The trains are so terrible and park for hours and hours, cutting the city in half and making it impossible to get around them. They used to be able to fine the railroad companies for blocking a crossing for more than 15 minutes, but state legislature overturned that and made Hammond refund something like $600k in fines to the railroads.
The new overpass will go between 173rd and 169th, because the trains park there for up to 8 hours at a time and block every crossing from Kennedy Ave. all the way into Gary.
True
Yupp. When the government says they are going to do something to "improve ______," they are lying because there's always a private interest with their hand controlling that something.
Born at St Margarets in 1947. This town breathed its last gasp into the last generation of the Industrial Age. It's like watching my own death from the distance I placed between me and my hometown.
While I do have fond memories of living in Northern Indiana, I do not regret moving to the south…ever.
Old hammond I really miss those times.
I moved to Colorado Springs it's very beautiful here where I retired but hammond will always be my favorite place
Thank you for preserving the memories...So many memories!
I was a kid in the 1980s, and the best Halloween's I ever had we're going from house to house in Hammond, Indiana. I don't know if they still do it, but they used to have this little Fall/Harvest Festival that look like a block party. Or that's at least how I interpreted it being a kid.
I was born in Hammond in the late 2000's (2008) I sure miss living there...
If anyone see's this
Here in 2022 to tell you that Downtown is getting remodeled into a modern downtown. New businesses, apartments, restuarents and more!!!
How? Where are funds coming from? Some foreign guy? Blackrock? Mmmm gonna research this!!
This video brought back so many memories! Born 1961, graduated 1979. I grew up in Munster and lived along the Little Calumet River (just across the little bridge on Northcote) I went to church at the Woodmar United Methodist Church and had lots of friends from Gavit. I would walk across the Woodmar Country Club golf course to get to Topps and then Kmart with friends. My mom would take us to downtown Hammond to Christmas shop. We all loved Wayne's trick shop and the Army Navy Surplus store where I got my Survival Jacket to wear all winter! I didn't realize that the highway ramp took over so many stores! Looks like the city was bustling and then got real bad and now hopefully will get better. Way too many fond memories to list! Thanks for making this awesome then and now video!
Thats really sad. Once a booming town, and now a ghost town.
Not exactly. We have business coming in and some reinvesting into existing buildings
Not to mention, new homes being built
Looks like Hammond is a slight upgrade above Gary. IN.
I'm delighted to have found this! My eventual husband and I went on a random road trip in 1985 or 6 and got a room at the Hammond Howard Johnson motel. Coming from a place of stability and comfort, Hammond's emptiness, graffiti and boarded-up windows was a serious culture shock. The few people we interacted with, however, were open and friendly. That is until, as we relaxed on our balcony with a beer and snacks, a dozen or so cops...armed to the teeth & wearing flak vests...advised us from the ground that "you may not know it, but your vulnerability is risking both your lives. Go inside and close your drapes." I'm not a fan of blind obedience, but this seemed fair advice, seeing that we were total strangers not only to the area, but to hardship at all. (Note: I still have fond memories of that trip. Never looked into the REASONS for the so-called "risk" till today. Thanks for this fascinating "then/now" illustration.)
Very well done! I would give you five thumbs up if I could. I grew up on Calumet Ave, in Hammond and remember many of those places well. I remember when the Woodmar shopping center was built as well as the Minas parking garage. Sad to see what has happened to downtown Hammond but it is being cleaned up nicely and maybe will make a comeback some day.
Thank you. Brings back so many memories and things before my time.
I grew up in Calumet City, so it was just under a mile walk to downtown Hammond. In the late 50s and early 60s my mom always used to take me shopping. Her first stop was always Goldblatt's. The one thing I remember about shopping there was seeing elevator operators. Women with long sticks who would make sure your feet were inside the gates and doors before they closed. Next stop was Woolworths. The one thing I remember about that was getting lost when I was 5 years old. It was only a couple minutes, but it seemed much longer than that. Last stop was Minas. No memories there, but down the street on the corner of Hohman & State was diner called Johnny's and we would stop there for a burger.
When I was 12-14, I got into music and Aurora HO cars. I would buy 45s and pick up WLS Top 40 List at Millikan's. Just before Millikan's was Pla-Time toy store. There I would buy my HO cars. Later I found a better place for HO cars in North Hammond. It was Central TV on Calumet Ave and 144th. A lot of memories for me in Hammond.
I'm currently a Hammond / Hessville resident/ Home owner. It's definitely not what it once was! The crime is so out of control and it's changing so drastically its overwhelming at time.
Where, in the city, do you think crime is the worst? Curious about that. Hammond has never been a major crime center like Gary but has poor reputation as a bad place to live and work.
@@sardu55 its pretty bad everywhere. I grew up in hammond in the 90s/00s and by the time i got out of there it was nothing like it was even in the 90s. My parents lived there until 2020 when my mother passed, and going there before her passing just never felt like it did when I was growing up.
I grew up east hammond (mlk park by hammond high school) in late 90s / early 00s and drive by shootings everyday. Had my house broken into twice as a kid. My car broken into parked out front as a teen. So many of the friends and ppl i grew up with were killed. Even lost my cousin in 2020 who got shot in the head sitting in his car. I left hammond after my bestfriend was shot and killed on his 20th bday and now only go back to visit family.
Not much left. Sad. It was when I moved away in 1998. So sad that it was booming in the past and no one has bothered to build it back up again.
It's not that Hammond died because no one bothered -- dying and dead Rust Belt cities are all sad. The comments from Roy that "DT Hammond died because we didn't need it", and from sardu55 that "Hammond lived and died like most old mill towns" are spot on. Hammond thrived when it filled an economic need in booming industrial times but as the world significantly changed in the 1960s and beyond, it was difficult for Hammond, like the other Rust Belt cities, to change to remain economically competitive.
The rise of the suburban malls, the decline in the steel industry (dying Rust Belt) and the resulting decline in the city's tax base (although Hammond's economy was more diverse than EC), and industrial pollution drove people away. Even proximity to the 3rd largest city in the nation (Chicago) wasn't enough (although South Chicago, which bordered Hammond, suffered from the same problems that Hammond did). Notice that the affluent Illinois bedroom suburbs north and northwest of Chicago mostly escaped the problems that steel-industry-dependent cities bordering Lake Michigan (Hammond, EC, Gary, etc) suffered from, although Robertsdale / Whiting seem to have fared a bit better.
I am a third gen Region Rat -- my grandparents arrived from Europe in the early 1900s, my parents were born and raised in EC and Hammond, my brother and I were born and raised in North Hammond. I graduated from Clark in 1966, and left for college, never to return. Hammond hit its peak in the post-war 1950s / early 1960s but by the mid 1960s the decline was slowly but subtly beginning. The trains helped build Hammond and ironically, eventually the traffic-stopping train tracks just north of downtown, along with the rise of the shopping malls, helped kill it. The city fathers talked about building a Hohman Ave overpass for YEARS but never did anything. In the end, it was finally built -- too little, too late.
There were tracks--busy tracks--south and west of downtown as well. My family lived in Hessville but rarely went downtown post-1970 because getting stuck by a train was almost inevitable and getting stuck by two was a frequent occurrence. Really sad.
Great place growing up. Lew Wallace , Eggers, Hammond High , a lot of my family is still there.
This was great..brought back many memories!
Hammond, In. My old stomping grounds. Loved going to Wayne's Trick Shop, Army Navy Surplus, and the Good Stuff Store. 🤣😆
I grew up in Woodmar, graduate of Gavit high school class of 1969. Gavit also is a victim of new development, Closed down in 2021? I left Hammond in 1972 for Illinois, and still reside there in the town of Frankfort. I have many fond memories of Hammond, But was glad to leave and start my life with my wife from Steger Illinois. I do go back from time to time, and can not believe the changes to my old neighborhood, or 172nd st and Southeastern. As to Stardust, boy I played a lot of pool and blowed there, IT WAS the place to hang out. Then there were to 2 movie theaters, it was great to catch a bus from 173rd st and get downtown to see a movie without having a car.
Where did all the people go!!!!. Thank you sharing.
Got shot
They left when the business left. Or they died off and the business didnt have enough customers. And then theres Chicago.
Hammond can never compete with Chicago.
So cool to see what the town used to look like. It's a shame that more wasn't done to preserve or repurpose the midcentury storefront architecture. I would love to see what comes of the town in the future.
Ran around downtown area from 74 to 80..it was a magical place for my friends and i to be..they gutted clinton st for the new federal building just prior to us moveing, i got to thinking about the kids in the early 1900s..some potentialy got to see hammond go from horse carriages on mud streets to its pinnacle in the 50s and then demise in the 70s..i wonderd how they must have felt seeing this happen..i miss the hammond i knew..army navys many wonders..waynes trick shop, the copper kettle, the allies..cinder allies ! hated crashin my bike there..jumpin trains..goldblatts..the daily wonders never ceased..nostalgia lives painfully on with me..swore when i grew up id buy the apt house on ogden i lived in or my grandmas house on webb..as i watched the slow death of hammond i realised i couldnt change a thing..ida lost my ass-sets lol..on buying either property..and i need to stop chaseing ghosts, just enjoy forever cherised memories of all i knew saw and loved..
Wow, this gave me flashbacks. I’d forgotten about some of those places. My grandpa worked at the Cousins Jewelers there and when it moved to Woodmar Mall.
And I’m certain I know you 😊
I remember when Stardust Bowl was being built and it was the newest neatest thing. I remember when Woodmar was open air and it was a big deal when they enclosed it. I got my Cub Scout uniform from Carsons. Goldblatt's Christmas window was a sight to behold.
I worked at Barton's ffod center and theb tended bar at Stardust
Little by little, it seems that time erodes the landmarks of our memories. In my 70s now and almost all landmarks in Hammond are gone. I grew up in Hessville and was delighted to see that one landmark, the old Hansen branch library on Martha has been refurbed as a community center--it is a lovely old building. In my youth, I spent many a Saturday afternoon there, the musty smell of the books still is in my mind. I remember that the dedication plaque near the entrance had the name "Roy Rogers" on it.
One thing that doomed downtown Hammond was the trains. You could sit for 15 or 20 minutes at a crossing gate waiting for a slow train to pass. I remember shopping at Goldblatt's and Minas and Marshall Fields. After he retired, Dad did some part time work at Carson Pirie Scott in Woodmar. I remember when it was a big thing when the Woodmar mall enclosed the storefront walkways.
Man this takes me back and blocks from where i grew up like everywhere you showed except woodmar and across the street there was once and arcade but the last place the stardust it brought a tear to my eyes i bowled 196 there on a date and her cousin great times awesome job thanks for memories bringing me back wow
I grew up in Hammond in the 60's. It is really sad so see the once was busteling city in such despair.
Grew up in Hammond..My entire family lived in Hammond..Then some in Munster..We normally went to Woodmar Mall..River Oaks and then Southlake though..Riding bikes to downtown to trick shops was an adventure lol
Just watching this brings back a lot of memories from one I was a kid growing up in the 70s I'm going to all these places in the 80s and part of the brings back good excellent documentation
Super cool video!
Hey I remember a lot of this back when I was growing up in Hammond!
Born at St. Margaret's in 1954, went to K-4th grade at Edison, 5th grade at Kenwood and 6th, 7th and 8th grades at St. Joseph in Downtown Hammond, 4 years at Hammond High and 2 years at Purdue Calumet. Still live here and remember a lot of the pictures you've shown. I remember when downtown Hammond was the place to go shopping and Woodmar was an open mall. Now in 2023, even more buildings are coming down including St. Margaret's Hospital. On the bright side, we have 5 bridges that cost over $1 Million each on Hiking/Biking trails that are rarely used and one more being built over Calumet Avenue, just North of the Little Calumet River.
Hammond, a great city
Thank you and bless your heart!
Yep, I remember in the late 70's going to Minas's with my mom and gramma. At the time, I was a toddler, and I remember the elevator would make a loud ring that freaked me out. Later, Goldblatts became a big flea market in the 80's, and I would go there to buy old comic books.
Hammond lived and died like most old mill towns. It started as a meat packing town, attached to Chicago and the Stockyards, developed its own business and manufacturing base then became a sort of close suburb for East Chicago, Whiting and the southside of Chicago. It started to die in the late 60s, ironically attached to the railroad failures nationwide, then got hit with a death blow by the oil crisis in 1973. At one time, in 1970, it had over 120,000 residents and a strong local economy. By 2000 it was pretty much dead or floundering. Who knows where it will end up? I tend to believe its future is attached to Chicago, and it eventually becoming a bedroom community for it as commuters move there to take advantage of low taxes and cheap housing, using the new commuter rail system going into operation. Its old days as a major industrial center are long gone. And, probably for the best.
Thanks. Have not been there in 40 years. I would not know it today. Some what sad.
I used to run the Columbia center projects back in the late 70's to late 80's. It was nothin but Rock
I remember Mom bowling at Stardust in the late 60s, early 70s and being locked in the child care prison. If you got caught running around the bowling alley and that lady saw you she would grab you and drag you to child care. There was a 🌬️ in the hallway and one by the street so free people could observe you like at the zoo. At least my cousins were locked in with me.
I lived and worked in Hammond in the early 80's - downtown Hammond still had most of its buildings (and a lot of its businesses) (Goldblatts, the Parthenon, Penney's, Edward C. Minas Co.)- so sad to see to much of the downtown has been leveled. Same with Woodmar....
Also The Paramount Theater.
I was interested in this town because an ancestor and some distant relatives live in this town.
This video depressed me. I remember as a young girl taking the 4A or 4B bus and spending my babysitting money downtown..Now it is so dreary and dead...sometimes change is not good.
I miss it alot Thanks...
My father would take me to goldblatz or Montgomery Wards to pay bills. He'd tell me to wait upstairs until he got back. One day I followed him downstairs where there was a little food place that served hot dogs & pop! They had a soda jerk that would mix up a grasshopper. All those times I waited not knowing he was grabbing a dog & soda pop!
In 1984-5 there was a teen only dance club called "club soda". We had a small click of various kinds of dancers. We were popular then; knee the bouncers & door people. While everyone else waited in ass freezing cold lines to get in, we'd go to the side door where a bouncer would let us in! It was pretty bad place, lots of gangs & violence. Break dancing was where it was so there were many competitions there.
I wish I knew where it was located. Too many awesome times there! I still have a Club Soda Keychain given as an Xmas gift!
It was such an impressive town.
My Uncle Fred owned a restaurant on the corner of Columbia Avenue and 150th street there, it was called House of Stewart.
I was born in Hammond on April 1954. My family move to Atlanta in 1958 when dad got his job at Lockheed. My dad said he took the job to double his income and half his living expenses. Dad bought his home for $18,500.00 at 3% and when he died in 1991 it sold for $330,500.00. It was on a big lot.
I'm probably a lot younger than folks commenting here. I find that people who think positively on Hammond are usually talking about the 40's-60's. I left when I was about 13 in 1996. A lot of places in this video I remember greatly and fondly, walking around town in the late 80's and early 90's. Part of my soul is still on Wood Ave. And it's sad seeing things like the theater I went to as a kid, Goldblatts, Hammond High School, Woodmar, and even the laundromat where I played Pole Position as a kid (which would eventually lead to me getting a degree in game design) all gone. I miss Hammond. But if I ever were to go back, I know it wouldn't be the same anymore. I can never go home.
I worry for the future and threats of the rich mean ones being guided by georgia guide stones. (Smart cities?) "The inscription read: Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity. Unite humanity with a living new language." Guide reproduction? Force kids into life altering surgeries to end future children? Sorry. Its so surreal...
From what my mom used to tell, she told me that downtown Hammond used to be a livelihood of booming businesses until they started building the railroad ever since they started building the railroad and the bridge the businesses began shutting down and or started moving elsewhere.
The trains and River Oaks shopping center opening in the early 60s killed downtown.
Both sets of my grandparents are from Hammond and my dad was Valedictorian of Hammond High School, Class of 1952 💙
Born here. Got out at 18. Came back 2003/4. I mean I worked downtown when I got back because I heard they were trying to get things going down there again. Heard Lofts and Art studios and whatnot. Eat. To afraid to open and flop so they only open for special events. I ran the coffee shop Steel Toe Joe’s and tried working with the theatre and other artists. Old Muellers. Paul Henry’s Gallery. The only saving grace down there. I mean a family dollar and a couple Mexican eateries. The church bought everything and hometown thrift is nice but where’s the progress we want? Law offices and banks. That’s DTH. Sad still
So that's why Eats never fully opened? I did not know.
Yes, I recall an effort at trying to make an art district.
Towel Theater, Paul Henry's - Eats was to be part of that and with live music.
Lofts... and art studios, aren't there one or two studios or has that completely gone by the wayside?
There was an "upscale nightclub" on the west side of Hohman that opened in the 00's but it was doomed from the start. Someone drank way too much and drove back home to Munster, had an accident that killed someone. The bartender was deemed partly blamed by the public for serving a clearly inebriated young person, though I think the person was of age.....
Yep, First Baptist has a large footprint with their buildings, and homeless shelter, thrift store...
Nowadays there's talk of a totally repurposed downtown, with the South Shore putting a line south going into Dyer through Munster having become a reality. Construction begins in a year or two of the line. TPTB want a walkable downtown, with shops and mixed income living, connecting to Chicago... still some talk of also a line going to Valpo.
Changes trying to happen yet again.
Id almost hate to say it, but "arts" isnt going to save a downtown area. The current Mayor has a pipe dream. He cant attract people with small time crap that nobody wants.
He caters to people who have a dream of opening their own beauty shop. Problem is theres a wig shop or a pawn store or a liquor store on every corner. Nobody cares about that shit except a few locals.
Hammond is Dead.
I loved Steel Toe Joes!!
Thanks for trying...even though they never put much effort out.
Walked there from First Baptist Church, where I worked, at least once a week.
Now, everyone buys from Walmart and Amazon. We used to go to downtown hammond often when we were kids with our parents. When I was in high school, we'd take a bus up there on our ditch days.. Those were the days.
Having grown up in Hammond and spending my entire life, so far, in Northwest Indiana, I can say that there were a lot of reasons for Hammond’s demise. A big part of it was no appreciation for the structure and the historic nature of its downtown. The 60’s and 70’s were a time when everyone wanted to tear down everything old. There was a beautiful courthouse that was in the heart of downtown that was an architectural gem. It was torn down in about 1967 and the block stood empty for years, may still be empty. Economics played a big role, as well. The steel industry took a downturn in the 70’s and that hurt the entire region. Too close to Chicago. All the upscale shopping was to Chicago or went to the malls - local retailers were predominantly low-end after 1970. Lots of other reasons, including politics - typical big city corruption and favors to get anything done. No imagination on repurposing or redefining the community. Hammond has done some good things lately like bike trails, improved parks and recreational facilities a marina on Lake Michigan, but there is so much that needs to be done to address the schools and and crime that it will be a tough sell to bring people back to the city in any meaningful way to revitalize it…
Jean Shepherd, the narrator and writer of A Christmas Story and native South Side Chicagoan, set his stories in a fictionalized Hammond, but actually using some real names and places (Warren Harding Elementary School, Cleveland Street). These oldtime pictures remind me of that film (though it was actually shot in Cleveland).
Jean Sheperd was born on the South Side but was raised in Hammond (Hessville). In the movie he fictionalized it as Hohman, Indiana. He actually did live on Cleveland Street and go to Harding Elementary. The house he grew up in is still there. He actually did have a friend nicknamed Flick, who later opened a bar in the neighborhood named Flicks Tap. I used to go there back when I lived in Hammond (after Flick was gone). It's called Flick's Tequila Bar now.
always our loss.
I graduated from noll in 82'. I remember in 81 ten's of thousands got laid off from those gravy train steel mill jobs. I knew from then that I was born too late in history to have it easy like the baby boomers did. I wish somebody could put up a video showing more of the area from 40 years ago including State Line Avenue. It would be great to see some of the working girls from back then too. A lot of them had class and style and were clean girls. Some had drug and alcohol problems but some were really nice. Some people looked down on them but some just needed help and were trying to make ends meet and I had some great times "having some fun" with them. I remember some cops would watch their back. I have been into scanners since 1977. A couple of times I got pulled over with a girl in the car and the cops on both sides of the state line were cool back then. They would tell me to go home before I got into trouble. I moved out of the area in 1993 and still miss some of the food like SuperSub in Hessville. Remember Quickie Snack in downtown anybody? Steve
Yup. Those "gravy train steel mill jobs" and those friendly hookers are just memories now.
Remembered by many who have never been there via the amazing, picturesque stories of Jean Shepherd.
Destroyed by various de-urbanization forces of post-industrial USA.
I'm from Hammond Indiana too my town I called and still call home
great video, but youre going to have to update again, we are doing a ton of new projects since this was filmed
Sorry to see no pictures of wanes trick shop loved that place when I was a kid
I remember shopping at goldblats with my mom
Sooo sad! Nice to see the past I grew up in!
grew up not that far from Hammond I remember the army navy surplus store goldblatts edwars c minus well.
hammond was a great place to live i was born and raised here as i look now hammond has gone to hell !!..there trying to bring hammond back now in downtown hammond by tearing down and building the new even adding a new south shore line ..good luck hammond is dead just like gary ,ind it will never come back , all the stores and place that made hammond what it was are gone and it will never be the same .
They blew it up.
My siblings and I were all born in Hammond. When I spent a week or two with my gramma summer of 1968, the downtown was still booming. So sad to see how it's declined.
wow soooo sorry this place has so much history wow
I still live here In Hammond'IN, where Woodmar Mall used to be. I will say in the area I'm at it feels less jobs and the state doesn't really care as much. Still growing up here in Hammond for 29 years nearly 30 I seen a lot of good go to bad
Like so many of its midwestern counterparts, Hammond was once a thriving city that died of self-inflicted neglect, tragically so.
Last one out, turn off the lights...
Can you find the? The picture of Bobby Kennedy back in 68, going down Holman Ave. in an open convertible. It was taken in downtown Hammond, right in front of Jupiter. This WAS. only a week or two before he was shot.
I've lived in Hammond, IN for thirty years since I was a little kid. I never saw the city in its prime and it was better when I was a kid. So its still going downhill.
I lived all my life in the section of east side chicago bordering hammond, whiting
And now i own one home in hammond and i was wondering why alot of signs say hessville and also there was a goldblatss where i lived on 90th and commercial ised to walk down with my grandmother and it was so big
Miss that
Kinda depressing, ngl
Im hammond/hessville fom 56 until 2013 ish. Miss so much. What is supporting all the changes? Money wise? It gives me a chill to think outside sources as in other countries. Im so out of it. Like when I learned Spain group owns utlities in Rochester. NY. Owns??😢
grew up in woodmar/hessville in the 70's 80's cant imagine how my commenters i may have known
Mostly locally owned, with the owners name right in front. Lived locally.
Once the money moves on , it seems never to come back.
Downtown Hammond, today, is a freakin Ghost Town.
All gone, all gone.