20th century time capsule

Standard Steel Car - - - Date Line: 1906

standard steel car company Standard Steel
Car Company
-- Hammond Works --		several of the almost 6 dozen structures

One of the largest real estate transactions for the city to date took place on October 19, 1906, when the president of the Standard Steel Car Company, J. M. Hansen completed a transaction for 320 acres for $250,000. This site was chosen earlier by W. D. Webb. land agent for the Standard Steel Car Company, who's home office was located in Butler PA.

Webb choose the Hammond site for several reasons because of it's location, the property was between the Erie and the Nickel Plate Railroads, and it was close to the steel mills of Northwest Indiana and South Chicago.

The actual construction of the main part of the factory did not take place until several weeks later on November 1906. The structures built included the steel mill, planing mill, power house, truck shop and the wood car department. These buildings were completed and up and running in the early part of 1907.

During the building of the faculity, over 10,000 railcar loads of sand were brought to the property to fill in and level out the land and lay the railbed of the track foundations, which covered a large portion of the site.

When the construction was finally completed the railroad tracks and shipping yards along with the 70 buildings covered some 226 acres of the total 320 acre factory site. Some of the buildings were almost a mile long. In a brief time span of just eight months the property was purchased, buildings were erected and the first railcars were completed and ready for shipment in June of 1907.

Shortly after the plant opened a record production level was set at an average of 70 cars a day for one month. The simplicity of the freight cars helped the company set a production record. Later on as railcars became more complex, the number of cars produced dropped to 50 to 60 per day.

birdseye view of the factory complex track bed under contruction in a plant building
one of the many buildings under construction power plant and railyards in background

|| Back to Twentieth Century Time Capsule Main Page ||

Photos from the Hammond Historical Society
Source information from The Times Newspapers located at the Hammond Public Library.

Twentieth Century Time Capsule © 1999 HammondIndiana.com
hammondindiana.com back to the home page top of document comments or questions
|| SEARCH || INDEX || MESSAGE BOARD || WEATHER || HISTORY || LINKS || PHOTOS || POSTCARDS || NEWSSTAND ||