City's Massive Sewer Project

It was a monster of a task, one of Hammond's biggest single construction projects to date. But it was a job that had to be done, if the city was to grow and expand in the years to come. This grandiose task was taken on by the administration of Mayor Smalley at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars.

Construction first started on the city's ever growing east side in 1916 (Calumet Avenue Deep Sewer Project) and later continued into the 1920's when older sections of the city were included in the project (Michigan Avenue and north side Deep Sewer Project).

This gigantic project was completed by the United Construction Company of Hammond. The company gave steady employment to some 75 to 115 men, who were paid no less than $3 a day. From the start to the end of the project there were some thirty-six accidents reported. However none were fatal or serious, only minor injuries occured. With a fractured leg being the worst of these mishaps, the remainder being scratches and bruises.

The Calumet Avenue Deep Sewer Project, the first leg of the overall dig employed an army of both men and machinery. There endeavors lead to a tunnel bore of over one-and-one third mile long which included more than four million bricks. The later projects shown in the photos below, illustrate the digging along Michigan Avenue in the early 1920's.

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Source information from The Times Newspapers located at the Hammond Public Library.
Photographs from the Hammond Historical Society - Calumet Room.
Twentieth Century Time Capsule © 1999 HammondIndiana.com

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