Marktown Historic District | |
Location | Bounded by Pine, Riley, Dickey, and 129th Sts., East Chicago, Indiana |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°39′32″N87°28′4″W / 41.65889°N 87.46778°W |
Area | 40 acres (16 ha) |
Built | 1917 |
Architect | Howard Van Doren Shaw |
NRHP reference No. | 75000025 [1] |
Added to NRHP | February 20, 1975 |
Marktown is an urban planned worker community in East Chicago, Indiana, United States, [2] built during the Progressive Era in 1917 from marshland to provide a complete community for workers at The Mark Manufacturing Company. [3]
The Marktown Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. [1]
The community of Marktown was founded by Clayton Mark, a pioneer maker of steel in the United States. The renowned architect hired to design the community, Howard Van Doren Shaw, created a unique design in which the streets serve as walkways and the cars are parked on the sidewalks, as noted in Ripley's Believe It or Not! . [4] Shaw previously designed Mark's estate in Lake Forest, Illinois. [5]
Only 10% of the original design was built, as the building of the community was terminated due to the aftereffects of World War I and the sale of the Mark Manufacturing Company. The industries in East Chicago expanded to the borders of Marktown, surrounding the historic residential island with one of the densest industrial complexes in the world. [6] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, [1] and was listed as one of the seven wonders of Northwest Indiana. [2]
Marktown is regarded as an important cultural resource of architectural and historical significance. In the words of the Marktown Revitalization Plan commissioned by the city of East Chicago in 2008, "Marktown is significant as it is a major work by a significant American architect, Howard Van Doren Shaw, for its association with the driving economic force of industry that served as an identity of the region, and is representative of the planned industrial community movement of the late 19th and early 20th century." [7]
As late as 2011, all of the originally constructed homes in Marktown still stood. [6] However, since then some properties have been bought by BP and demolished. [8] The homes are being evacuated due to air pollution and concerns regarding safety in the vicinity of the expanding crude tar sands processing facility. [9]
In 2022, East Chicago began a Marktown Neighborhood Housing Study to consider renovations of the historical district. [10]
George Mortimer Pullman was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town in Chicago for the workers who manufactured it. This ultimately led to the Pullman Strike due to the high rent prices charged for company housing and low wages paid by the Pullman Company. His Pullman Company also hired black men to staff the Pullman cars, known as Pullman porters, who provided elite service and were compensated only in tips.
Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. In 2020, its population was 498,700, making it Indiana's second-most populous county. The county seat is Crown Point. The county is part of Northwest Indiana and the Chicago metropolitan area, and contains a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas. It is bordered on the north by Lake Michigan and contains a portion of the Indiana Dunes. It includes Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community in East Chicago.
Volo is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It was incorporated as a village on April 26, 1993. Per the 2020 census, the population was 6,122.
East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 26,370 at the 2020 census. Centered around heavy industry, the city is home to the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing activity.
Fredericksburg is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Bethel Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,784 at the 2020 census, up from 1,357 at the 2010 census and 987 at the 2000 census.
Jens Jensen was a Danish-American landscape architect.
The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is an artificial waterway on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, in East Chicago, Indiana, which connects the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan. It consists of two branch canals, the 1.25 miles (2.01 km) Lake George Branch and the 2 miles (3.2 km) long Grand Calumet River Branch which join to form the main Indiana Harbor Canal.
Northwest Indiana, nicknamed The Region after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of the region, it is based on the Gary, Indiana Metropolitan Division, which comprises Jasper, Lake, Porter and Newton counties in Indiana, and the Michigan City-La Porte, IN Metropolitan Statistic Area, which comprises LaPorte, with unofficial definitions also including Starke and Pulaski counties. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and parts of it are in the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census, the largest definition of Northwest Indiana has a population of 866,965 and is the state's second largest urban area after the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area. It is also the home of the Indiana Dunes, parts of which have been preserved through conservation efforts. The town of Ogden Dunes houses the Hour Glass, a museum showcasing the ecological and conservation efforts of O. D. Frank.
The Civic Federation is a Chicago-based non-partisan research organization focused on governments in the Chicago area and the state of Illinois. The Civic Federation's mission is to help local and state governments reduce their costs and improve public services by "Promoting opportunities to reform local tax structures; guarding against wasteful expenditure of public funds; and serving as a technical resource to public officials and opinion leaders through non-partisan tax and fiscal research." The Federation was founded to fight corruption, government subsidies, high taxes, and unneeded public enterprise. However it also wanted government to solve the problems of the metropolis. The newspapers adopted Mugwumpery as a way of building support for municipal reform among working-class voters in the late 19th century and the Progressive Era.
Roscoe Harold Zook was an American architect best known for his work in suburban Chicago, Illinois. He received a degree in architecture from the Armour Institute of Technology in 1914. In 1916, Zook married his first wife, Mildred Barnard. They divorced in the late 1930s. They had one son, Harold Barnard Zook, who followed in his father's footsteps to become an architect in Corona del Mar, California. In the early 1940s, Zook married his second wife, Florence (Barkey) Nissen, whom he met through mutual friends. Zook died in April 1949, just short of his 60th birthday.
Woodruff Place is a neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana, located about a mile east of downtown Indianapolis. It was established in the 1870s by developer James O. Woodruff as an early suburb of Indianapolis. Woodruff Place's boundaries are: 10th Street on the north, Woodruff Place West Drive on the west, Michigan Street on the south, and Woodruff Place East Drive on the east. Woodruff Place was incorporated in 1876 and remained an independent town even as the city of Indianapolis grew and expanded around it, enclosing the community well within the city limits. In1962 it became one of the final municipalities to be annexed by the city of Indianapolis prior to the merger of city and county governments under Unigov in 1969.
Howard Van Doren Shaw AIA was an architect in Chicago, Illinois. Shaw was a leader in the American Craftsman movement, best exemplified in his 1900 remodel of Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He designed Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community in Northwest Indiana.
Lockefield Gardens was the first public housing built in Indianapolis. Constructed during the years 1935 to 1938, it was built exclusively for low income African-Americans in Indianapolis. The complex was closed in 1976, and a number of structures were demolished in the early 1980s. The only original structures remaining are those along Blake Street.
Herron–Morton Place is a historic district in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The boundaries of the neighborhood are East 16th Street on the south, East 22nd Street on the north, North Pennsylvania Street on the west, and Central Avenue on the east.
Prairie Avenue is a north–south street on the South Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in the Near South Side to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins as a major trail for horseback riders and carriages. During the last three decades of the 19th century, a six-block section of the street served as the residence of many of Chicago's elite families and an additional four-block section was also known for grand homes. The upper six-block section includes part of the historic Prairie Avenue District, which was declared a Chicago Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Clayton Mark and Company was a manufacturer of steel pipe and water well supplies located in Evanston, Illinois.
Clayton Mark, one of the pioneer makers of steel pipe in the United States, was an industrialist in the Chicago area who founded the Mark Manufacturing Company in 1888, a firm for the fabrication and sale of water-well supplies and Clayton Mark and Company in 1900. In addition, Mark founded Marktown, a planned worker community in Northwest Indiana on the National Register of Historic Places. He was known for his philanthropy and civic contributions.
Cyrus Mark was a prominent early advocate of nature conservancy in the state of Illinois. Mark served as the first Executive Director of the Illinois chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He was instrumental in the first Nature Conservancy acquisition in the Chicago area; Volo Bog. In 1958, Mark, along with George Fell, the first president of the Nature Conservancy, negotiated the purchase of Volo Bog by The Nature Conservancy.
Morse Dell Plain House and Garden, also known as Woodmar, is a historic home located at 7109 Knickerbocker Parkway in Hammond, Lake County, Indiana. The house was designed by noted Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw and built in 1923. It is a large two-story, Tudor Revival style brick dwelling with a 1+1⁄2-story service wing. The landscape was designed by Jens Jensen in 1926.
The West Park Neighborhood Historic District is a residential historic district surrounding West Park in Lake Forest, Illinois. The district includes 149 contributing buildings, most of which were built between 1907 and 1930, and West Park. Originally known as the Green Bay Addition, the neighborhood was planned in 1907 as the equivalent of a company town for the service workers at Lake Forest's many estates. Lake Forest was a popular home for the Chicago area's most wealthy residents in the early twentieth century, who typically built large estates that required teams of support workers to maintain. Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, who also designed many of the estates, planned the neighborhood. While Shaw intended for the development to mainly use Tudor Revival architecture, few houses were designed in the style; the Colonial Revival, Folk Victorian, Craftsman, and American Foursquare styles were more common.