Another mysterious blast rocks the city. Thursday, July 18th, 1929 --- the third blast in two years damages yet another building in the city, leaving police and fire officials puzzled. The two story brick building home to the Goldie's Department Store, located at the corner of Columbia and Fields Street in the heart of the Maywood/East Hammond business district. The other two blasts of recent, damaged or destroyed the State Theatre and the Indiana Pottery factory.

The explosion or series of explosions shook the east Hammond neighborhood around 4 o'clock in the early morning hours. The total loss was estimated at some $40,000, which included some of the contents of the department store on the ground floor. The top floor of the structure was vacant and was formerly home to a coffee shop and was not occupied prior to three weeks before the blast.

This one the latest in a series of explosions over the past two years was believed to the result of a gas leak or build up of highly flammable naphta or gasoline fumes. The ensuing blast forced the damage to be lifted upwards as the roof and top part of the structure was blown skyward. Authorities believe that a bomb would have resulted in the explosion being down and outward, thus completely destroying the entire building.

Electric, telephone and streetcar lines were all knocked down as bricks and steel beams fell to the ground. Oddly none of the plate glass windows in the neighboring stores across the street were the least bit cracked. While the top half of the building was almost completely destroyed by the blast and the ensuing fire that followed, damage to the bottom half of the building was limited to smoke and water damage. The metal ceiling of the department store was almost intact, only a few of the windows of the store were broken, in fact many were not even cracked. Thus adding to the oddness in this the latest in a series of explosions in the city.

|| Back to Twentieth Century Time Capsule Main Page ||
Source information and photo from The Times Newspapers located at the Hammond Public Library.

Twentieth Century Time Capsule © 1999 HammondIndiana.com

|| SEARCH || INDEX || MESSAGE BOARD || WEATHER || HISTORY || LINKS || PHOTOS || POSTCARDS || NEWSSTAND ||