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 🙂

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.

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.

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.

How? Where are funds coming from? Some foreign guy? Blackrock? Mmmm gonna research this!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

And I’m certain I know you 😊

I worked at Barton's ffod center and theb tended bar at Stardust

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.

Also The Paramount Theater.

The trains and River Oaks shopping center opening in the early 60s killed downtown.

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.

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.

Yup. Those "gravy train steel mill jobs" and those friendly hookers are just memories now.

In Hessville, on Cleveland Street. Google should have the address.