The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-06-08
CITY Of GARY
ASSUMES SHAPE
$4,000 a Day Being Spent
on Made to Order
Town.
SMOKELESS PITTSBURG
Hotel Building Rising and Many
Other Business and Semi Public
Structures Line Streets.

Rising out OF a desolate waste of
Indiana sand dunes on the shore Of
Lake Michigan. twenty-six miles east
OF Chicago, Gary the model city" al
ready is giving promise of its future
greatness.
Backed by billion dollars, Gary
bears the stamp of millions on its face.
One hundred million dollars is being
spent by the Indiana Steel company
to establish the greatest steel mill ever
conceived and to build a model city for
its thousands OF employees and their
families.
Spends -s25,OOO Day.
The steel corporation is spending
$4,000 day to build this magic city
of the west The first subdivision OF
the town will have twenty miles
of paved streets, with water. gas and
electric lights. Sewers are available
to every lot.
The steel mills are building on the
company's land on the lake front There
will be sixteen blast furnaces and
eightyfour open hearth furnaces, in
addition to the largest rail mill in the
world.
Several mercantile and structural
mills will bring the total number of
men employed by the steel people near
the 10000 mark.
More than a million dollars is being
spent on a harbor and canal which will
connect the lake with the Grand Calu-
met river. enabling the large lake boats
with their loads of ore and coal to COM
pletely encircle the big mills.
Realty Values Rise.
A year ago the waste land which
now marks the site of this new steel
town could be bought from $40 to $40
an acre. Now, two miles from the post
office it is selling at $3.50 a front foot.
This shows what billion dollars can
do.
Every lot on Broadway, the great 100
foot wide thoroughfare. from the lake
shore to the wabash railroad has been
sold. and under the terms of sale every
purchaser is required to build a two
story, brick building within eighteen
months. and failing to do so the prop
erty reverts to the corporation.
why Town Was Founded.
The corporation had several reasons
for starting plant five miles from the
nearest town. First and foremost was
to insure a town that would be an at
tractive place of residence for the en-
municipal comforts and conveniences
would be the reasons of binding the
new employees to the works.
second reason was to avoid the
labor troubles incident to cities An
other motive lay in the companys de-
sire to colonize its superintendent.
foremen and office employees near the
works
Franchises Let.
The company has been granted the
franchise for furnishing the city with
water. gas and electricity. There will
be great power plant on the corpora
tion's land on the lake front. and here
will be the central station which will
furnish the power for operating the
public service plants.
Economy will be the watchword to
govern the operation OF these plants
and cheap water. rents. gas and cleo
tricity IS assured the residents of the
new steel city.
The company now is asking for a
franchise for a street car system. pro-
posing to run cars on Broadway from
the Grand Calumet on the north to the
Pennsylvania tracks on the south, a
distance of three miles. and putting in
a loop which will traverse Fifth and
Eleventh avenues.
II the franchise is granted cars will
be running within six months.
Opposing the Company.
Opposing the company is a syndi-
cate headed by Mayor Darrow OF La
Porte.
OF the three members of the board
which win award the franchise. one
favors the steel company, one is for the
barrow road and the third has reached
no decision.
one OF the big undertakings OF the
steel company is the construction of 8
tunnel two miles out under the lake
for the supplying OF water to the city
This alone will cost more than mil
lion dollars.
Another million will be spent in COW
ering the entire town site Of Gary
proper with eight inches of clay. III
this way the billion dollar corporation
viii triumph over the ten thousan(
acres OF sandy desert which it owns II
the vicinity OF Gary.
To BE "SmokeIess' Pittsburg.
The city of Gary promises to become
a second Pittsburg, but it viii be {
Pittsburg practically without smoke
The large engines which will operate
the rail mills will be gas engines
utilizing the waste gases from th'
large furnaces.
Use Of blast furnace gas marks {
wonderful advance IN the adaptation
Of this important by-product. Another
addition to the list Of economics which
Will be installed at Gary will be tbs