Part Two of a Special Three Part Series - - - Now Available Parts One & Three - - - From Cobblestone to Asphalt — Hammond's First Paved Streets The Name Game — Why Did They Call It That?

Why Our Streets Are Located Where They Are

The placement of Hammond's first streets came about much like many of the other towns that sprang up around the nation's railroads. However the city of Hammond was not originally founded with the coming of the railroads through the region. It came to be because of the G. H. Hammond Packing company locating here, mainly because of its proximity and the transportation links into Chicago and out to the east coast -- i. e. the railroads. The development of the railroads brought about a standardized and uniform pattern to street layouts. The gridiron pattern was used extensively, because it was easy to survey and layout. Hammond was no exception.

When the Michigan Central Railroad surveyed the area so it could lay out its tracks for its eastern terminus at Chicago, it found a ridge that was high and dry. This ridge just happened to run parallel just south of the Grand Calumet River, in the area that would later become the city of Hammond. While much of the other land was covered with deep and impassible swamps from the ridge north to Lake Michigan. The Michigan Central Railroad selected this route to help shorten its tracks around the lake.

It is through this quirk of nature that the first streets in the town of Hammond are located where they are. The early city streets in the settlement simply mirrored the Michigan Central Railroad, since much of the surveying and plotting was already completed. The first streets are easily distinguishable even from a current day map of the city. These streets that parallel to the north of the railroad are Logan, Truman, Indiana, Michigan and Wilcox. The streets that parallel to the south of the railroad are Willow Court (Plummer), State, Sibley, and Summer.

Most of these streets were narrow in width as was the custom in this time frame. Many people traveled by walking or taking public transportation, automobiles were few and far between. There was no need for broad and expansive boulevards. No one thought the city would grow in size and need much wider thoroughfares. A mistake that proved costly in the future. Later on as Hammond grew and expanded outward, the city streets beyond the original settlement were plotted and laid out in a more east to west direction. This pattern was also in the gridiron form as was customary for the era.

Typical Urban Street Patterns Graphically Illustrated

Gridiron — Fragmented Parallel — Warped Parallel — Loops and Lollipops — Lollipops on a Stick

Typical urban street layouts generally follow five very distinctive patterns, they are as follows. The Gridiron pattern which dates back to the 1900's. The Fragmented Parallel dating back to the 1950's. Warped Parallel which is from the 1960's era. Loops and Lollipops which was a popular street style in the 1970's. Lollipops on a Stick, this style originated in the 1980's. Hammond's street layouts are mainly in the Gridiron fashion, with some developments and subdivisions using some of the other styles of street layouts or variations of them. These out of the ordinary street layouts can easily be spotted from a map.

Developers of subdivisions often promoted the fact that their street layouts were different from the standard crisscross patterns of traditional city streets. They were doing something out of the ordinary and they dared to be different. Some street patterns in these developments were well ahead of their time. The neighborhood plotted by the Standard Steel Car Company The Pullman Standard District is one prime example, it featured streets laid out in a radical design for its time, now a days it seems commonplace. Other examples of non-standard street layouts are the Columbia Center development, Forest Southview subdivision Glendale Park District just to name a few.

Geography often played a part in the placement of streets and roads. Natural obstacles such as a river or creek bed, hills, mountains or ravines and valleys were often a challenge for road builders, they had to be passed over, around or through to complete a roadway.

Hammond has had its share of road building obstacles. In the early part of the twentieth century as the city expanded to the north one of those was Lake George. The city wanted a main thoroughfare to run the length of the city from the north to the south. However there was one big problem, Lake George was smack in the middle of this new road. The solution was to fill in the lake.

Another major trouble spot was created when the Gibson Rail Yards were opened in the early part of the 1900’s. In an effort to bring much needed jobs to the city, government officials pulled out all of the stops in letting the railroad set up shop. The city vacated the majority of the right of ways for the roads in that area of Gibson, so the railroad could build an expansive switch and freight yard there. Later on as the population shifted southward a road was built from East Chicago through the Woodmar Section of Hammond then south to Highland. This road Forsythe Avenue now Indianapolis Boulevard came to an abrupt halt at the Gibson Yards. A nine span bridge was built over the tracks carrying the highway over this obstacle.

In the later half of the twentieth century, the modern super highway did its part to change the face of the city's street layouts. In the 1950's the Indiana Toll Road snaked its way though the city as it made its way to its terminus at the Indiana state line. The high speed interstate highway system made its presence in the southern part of the city altering and changing those streets and neighborhoods. Planning for this roadway The Kingery, Tri-State, Borman Expressway actually began in the late 1920's.

If all of the streets in the city of Hammond were laid from end to end they would total some 150 miles, roughly the distance to would take to drive from Hammond to Indianapolis.

Read the remaining segments of this three part series - Hammond Surface Streets
Part one of our Special Series From Cobblestone to Asphalt — Hammond's First Paved Streets
Part three of our Special Series The Name Game — Why Did They Call It That?

Photos courtesy of The Calumet Room of the Hammond Historical Society.
Some source information from "The Times" newspaper microfilms at the Hammond Public Library.
Source information also from "Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities" by Michael Southworth & Eran Ben-Joseph.
Hammond Surface Streets © 2000 HammondIndiana.com all rights reserved.

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