JOSEPH S. PETE

Explore the city of yesteryear

East Chicago, Indiana, was a melting pot. The Indiana Harbor neighborhood drew comparisons to Ellis Island as immigrants flocked from all over the world to work at its steel mills. Once home to more than a hundred nationalities, the “Workshop of America” made metal and many other products. Despite issues like pollution and political corruption, it earned the nickname “City of Champions,” winning state titles, sustaining a historic high school rivalry, and producing greats like Gregg Popovich and Junior Bridgeman.

Award-winning Region journalist and Lost Hammond author Joseph S. Pete explores bygone landmarks like Washington and Roosevelt High Schools, Inland Steel Christmas parties, the zoo, Taco Joe’s, the Mademoiselle Shoppe, movies palaces, the gym where Michael Jordan played his first Bulls game, and more.

In the heart of the calumet region, hardworking Hammond helped build America.

Originally known as State Line Slaughterhouse, the city began as no more than a meatpacking plant for nearby Chicago.In time, the city grew, and at its industrial height, trains, chains, cigars, shirts, candy, nuts, player pianos, commercial wallpaper, concrete roof slabs, gutters, boilers, potato digging devices, screws and steel products poured from its many factories.Meanwhile, its many racetracks and casinos earned it the title of “Atlantic City on the Lake.” The city also nurtured Jean Shepherd of A Christmas Story fame and was even home to an early NFL team.Hammond-born journalist Joseph S.Pete explores bygone landmarks like Phil Smidt’s, Madura’s Danceland, the State Theatre, the Woodmar Mall and the W.B.Conkey factory, all of which now live only in legend.