Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1908 — CITY OF GARY IS A WONDER [ARTICLE]

CITY OF GARY IS A WONDER

Harvelou Metropolis Being Erected, Everything Painte to a Manmeth City is Another Year. A year ago Gary was on paper. Now Gary is a city of 15,000 people and its founding has been more than begun, and yet when we are told of all that is to take place within the coming year or two years, it seems that what has already been accomplished is only a beginning. The writer was there for a few: hours Wednesday morning and under the qualified leadership of Frank B. Meyer, former postmaster of Rensselaer, we visited many of the new business houses, were introduced to several of the pioneer business and professional men, and were told something of the city and its prospects, or perhaps better than its prospects, its real intentions.

Gary was never an experiment; it was not built to secure investors; it was founded as a great steel city, with almost unlimited capital behind it It was built across the tracks of several great trunk line railroads, and was destined from the minute the stel company announced that it would build its great plant there to become a city of great size and Importance. It was not built on helter skelter or hit and miss plans, but was laid out from the start with wide streets, a perfect water, light and sewage system, and so planned that the fine streets and sidewalks will never have to be torn up for the laying of water mains or sewers. The main business street is Broadway; it Is 100 feet wide, and runs from the Pennsylvania tracks on the south to the Lake Shore tracks on the north and crosses the tracks of the Wabash and the Michigan Central. The street as laid out now is a mile and a half in length. The concrete sidewalks extend on both sides ■ the full length of the street. The walks are 17% feet In width and the srteet is a fine looking one, if a person can Imagine it complete, as was ’ ever' looked upon: It is to be a brick street, underlaid with macadam and the macadam has already been laid and the vitrified brick have been hauled and lay along the side of the street, except' in the extreme north part of the street, where they have already been laid. There are already many fine business blocks and some large stores and two fine hotels, one of them, the Gary Hotel, being finished in marble and one of the handsomest hotels we have ever seen. Probably the best furnished of the business houses is the First National Bank, a very marvel of beauty,with great safes and safety deposit vaults, mahogany counters and railing and private offices. The bank has a capital stock of 1250,000. Right across from this bank is a good two story brick building. It is the property of Attorney C. T. Hodges, who was located tn Rensselaer for some months, as a law partner of George E. Hershman. Mr. Hodges caught the prosperity worm by his early settlemnet there and in addition to a good residence he has three business buildings and is the attorney for all the banks and is just overrun with business, rjid is reckoned one of the foremost citizens. We called upon him and found his offices very commodious, stocked with a fine library and everything having the air of prosperity. He is now the father of two children, his second baby hewing one of the first Gary born babies to American parents.

There are hundreds of. forelgnres there, largely Hungarians, and they are doing the construction work. They are quartered to themselves and do no come in contact with the business people very extensively. Mr. Meyer has charge of the postoffice and , kpows practically every person in Gary. He handles mail for all nationalities on the globe practically and-has no trouble handling the business of that cosmopolitan office. The mail order business of the office amounts to about SI,OOO a day, and of this amount about S3OO is sent to foreign countries, many of the 'Hungarians sending back for relatives, and s4l pays for transportation .Jor two from Hungary to Gary. Everything has the spirit of hustle and every person is right up and coming and alive to every opportunity. It is a marvelous beginning <4 what will be the most remarkable city ever built, and many are now estimating that within three years, It will have a population of 200,000 people Good eating apples down to 15 to 30 cents per peck at the Chicago Bar*