Hammond, Indiana

City of Hammond, Indiana
City
File:Flag of Hammond, IN.svg Flag
Hammond's location in Lake County (left) and the state of Indiana (right).
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	Indiana
County	Lake
Township	North
Settled	1847
Incorporated	April 21, 1884
Named for	George H. Hammond
Government
• Type	Mayor-Council
• Mayor	Thomas M. McDermott, Jr. (D)
• City Council	Members Robert A. Markovich (D, AL) Daniel P. Spitale (D, AL) Janet Venecz (D, AL) Mark Kalwinski (D, 1st) Jack Uylaki (D, 2nd) Anthony W. Higgs (D, 3rd) William Emerson, Sr. (D, 4th) Michael Opinker (D, 5th) Homero Hinojosa, Jr. (D, 6th)
• City Clerk	Robert J. Golec (D)
• City Judge	Jeffrey A. Harkin (D)
Area
• Total	24.89 sq mi (64.46 km2)
• Land	22.78 sq mi (59.00 km2)
• Water	2.11 sq mi (5.46 km2)
Elevation	577–610 ft (176–186 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	80,830
• Estimate (2013)	78,967
• Density	3,548.3/sq mi (1,370.0/km2)
Standard of living (2008–12)
• Per capita income	$18,148
• Median home value	$94,800
Time zone	Central (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	Central (UTC-5)
ZIP codes	46320, 46323-25, 46327
Area code	219
FIPS code	18-31000
GNIS feature ID	0435658
Interstates
U.S. Routes
State Routes
Waterways	Grand Calumet River Lake Michigan
Amtrak station	Hammond-Whiting
South Shore Line station	Hammond
Website	www.gohammond.com

Hammond /ˈhæmənd/ is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 80,830 at the 2010 census, replacing Gary as the most populous city in Lake County.

Geography

Hammond is located at (41.611185, −87.493080).

The city's elevation above sea level ranges from 577 feet (176 m) to 610 feet (186 m). The city sits within the boundaries of the former Lake Chicago. Most of the city is on sandy soil with a layer of black topsoil that varies from non-existent to several feet (a meter or more) thick. Much of the exposed sand has been removed for purposes such as industrial use to make concrete and glass. According to the 2010 census, Hammond has a total area of 24.886 square miles (64.45 km²), of which 22.78 square miles (59.00 km²) (or 91.54%) is land and 2.106 square miles (5.45 km²) (or 8.46%) is water.

Lakes and rivers

• Grand Calumet River (partial)
• Lake George
• Lake Michigan (partial)
• Little Calumet River (partial)
• Oxbow Lake
• Wolf Lake (partial)

Adjacent cities, towns and villages

2

Demographics

File:HammondIN.jpg

Welcome to Hammond

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1880	699		—
1890	5,284		655.9%
1900	12,376		134.2%
1910	20,925		69.1%
1920	36,004		72.1%
1930	65,559		82.1%
1940	70,183		7.1%
1950	87,595		24.8%
1960	111,698		27.5%
1970	107,983		−3.3%
1980	91,985		−14.8%
1990	84,236		−8.4%
2000	83,048		−1.4%
2010	80,830		−2.7%
Est. 2014	78,384		−3.0%
U.S. Decennial Census

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, there were 80,830 people, 29,949 households, and 19,222 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,548.3 inhabitants per square mile (1,370.0/km²). There were 32,945 housing units at an average density of 1,446.2 per square mile (558.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 59.4% White, 22.5% African American, 0.5% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 13.3% from other races, and 3.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 34.1% of the population.

There were 29,949 households of which 36.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.0% were married couples living together, 19.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 7.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 35.8% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.36.

The median age in the city was 33.3 years. 27.6% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.3% were from 25 to 44; 24.2% were from 45 to 64; and 10.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.

2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 83,048 people, 32,026 households and 20,880 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,630.0 per square mile (1,401.4/km²). There were 34,139 housing units at an average density of 1,492.2 per square mile (576.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 72.35% White, 14.57% African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 9.32% from other races, and 2.81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.04% of the population.

There were 32,026 households out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.9% were married couples living together, 16.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.8% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.23.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $35,528, and the median income for a family was $42,221. Males had a median income of $35,778 versus $25,180 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,254. About 12.0% of families and 14.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.7% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over.

Cityscape

• Central Hammond

3

• Hessville
• North Hammond

• Robertsdale – The Whiting post office (46394) serves not only the city of Whiting but also this adjacent neighborhood in Hammond, immediately to the west of Whiting. Addresses in this Robertsdale show “Whiting, Indiana.” While not legally a part of the city of Whiting, locally the area has long been informally considered to be a culturally integrated part of Whiting. References to Whiting businesses or residents often include those technically from Hammond’s Robertsdale neighborhood.

• South Hammond

3

Infrastructure

Transportation

File:100 0051.jpg

Borman Expressway

Most of Hammond's streets are laid out in a grid pattern similar to Chicago's streets. While Madison Street in Chicago acts as the reference point for north-south street numbering the first "1" is removed; this makes what would be a five digit address number in Illinois into a four digit address number in Hammond. The state line is used as the reference point for east-west street numbering.

Other cities and towns in Northwest Indiana that use the Hammond numbering system are Whiting, Munster and Highland. Dyer also uses the Hammond numbering system but the first number removed from the north-south streets is a "2," as by that point the Illinois numbers across the state line start with the number 2 (Munster's street numbers start with a "1" north of the Dyer line, making them 5 digits); and East Chicago uses the canal located in the middle of the city as the east-west reference point, while embodying Hammond's numbering system for the north-south streets.

• I-90 – Indiana Toll Road, exits:

• Calumet Avenue – U.S. 41
• Cline Avenue – State Road 912
• Indianapolis Boulevard – U.S. 12/20/41

• I-80/94 – Borman Expressway, exits:

• Calumet Avenue – U.S. 41 North
• Cline Avenue – State Road 912
• Indianapolis Boulevard – U.S. 41 South/State Road 152
• Kennedy Avenue

Public transportation

The South Shore Line, a Chicago to South Bend, Indiana commuter rail line, has a station on Hohman Avenue. It is operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District.

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides twice-daily service in both directions, operating its Wolverine through the Hammond–Whiting station between Chicago and Pontiac, Michigan, just north of Detroit. Baggage on Amtrak cannot be checked at this location; however, up to two suitcases in addition to any "personal items" such as briefcases, purses, laptop bags and infant equipment are allowed on board as carry-ons.

The nearest commercial airport is Chicago Midway International Airport about 25 miles away in Chicago.

Bus transit was provided by the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority, which assumed responsibility from the city's Hammond Transit System in 2010, establishing EasyGo Lake Transit system in its place. All EasyGo buses were discontinued on June 30, 2012 due to a lack of funding. In addition, Pace routes 350 and 364 and GPTC Tri-City Connection Route 12 from Gary, Indiana stop at Hammond's Dan Rabin Transit Plaza.

Medical centers and hospitals

The only hospital in Hammond is Franciscan St. Margaret Health on Stateline Road, across the street from Calumet City, Illinois. It is an accredited chest pain center serving Northwest Indiana and the south suburbs of Chicago. The hospital was founded in late 1898 and was originally called St. Margaret Hospital, later merging with Our Lady Of Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Indiana, in the 1990s and was part of the former Sisters of St. Francis Health Services.

Utilities

File:State Line Generating Plant by ikcyzrteip.JPG

Former State Line Generating Plant in Robertsdale

• Electricity and Natural gas – Nearly all of the electricity and natural gas used in Hammond is produced by NIPSCO, a NiSource company.
• Water – Water service for nearly all consumers of water in the city is provided by the Hammond Water Department, a state-owned utility that is operated by the civil city government.

History

The first permanent residents arrived around 1847 to settle on land between the Grand and Little Calumet rivers, on the south end of Lake Michigan. Those first residents were German farmers newly arrived from Europe looking for land and opportunity. Before that time, the area was a crossroad for Indian tribes, explorers, stagecoach lines and supply lines to the West. Convenient location and abundant fresh water from Lake Michigan led to the beginning of Hammond's industrialization in 1869 with the George H. Hammond Company meat-packing plant following merchants and farmers to the area. Hammond was incorporated on April 21, 1884, and was named after the Detroit butcher. Hammond is one of the oldest cities in Lake County, with Crown Point being the oldest, established in 1834. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, George Henry Hammond, a pioneer in the use of refrigerated railcars for the transport of fresh meat, first used this method with his small packing company in Detroit, Michigan. In 1868, Hammond received a patent for a refrigerator car design. In the early 1870s, he built a new plant in northern Indiana along the tracks of the Michigan Central Railroad. By 1873, the George H. Hammond Co. was selling $1 million worth of meat a year; by 1875, sales were nearly $2 million. The company's large packing house in Hammond—the town had taken the name of its most powerful resident—rivaled those located at the Union Stock Yard in Chicago. By the middle of the 1880s, when it built a new plant in Omaha, Nebraska, Hammond was slaughtering over 100,000 cattle a year and owned a fleet of 800 refrigerator cars. After Hammond died in 1886, the company became less important and no longer challenged the giant Chicago packers, who acquired Hammond at the turn of the century and merged it into their National Packing Co.

On June 22, 1918, the Hammond circus train wreck occurred about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east of the city, killing 86 and injuring 127 persons.

According to the 1960 U.S. Census Hammond's population reached a record high of 111,698 residents.

Major businesses

Horseshoe Casino

According to the city, those businesses employing 200 or more employees in Hammond are:

#	Employer	# of employees
1	School City of Hammond	2,418
2	Horseshoe Casino	2,094
3	St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare	1,588
4	Lear Seating Corporation	783
5	City of Hammond	760
6	Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad	756
7	Walmart	531
8	Contract Services Group	300
9	Strack and Van Til	284
10	Cargill	256
11	Unilever	252
12	Morrison Construction Company	235
13	Cabela's	214

Education

School City of Hammond

Hammond is served by the School City of Hammond, a school corporation under Indiana state law that is independent of the civil city.

• High schools
  • Area Career Center
  • George Rogers Clark High School
  • Gavit High School
  • Hammond High School
  • Morton High School

• Middle schools
  • George Rogers Clark Middle School
  • Henry W. Eggers Middle School
  • Gavit Middle School
  • Scott Middle School

• Elementary schools
  • Columbia Elementary School
  • Edison Elementary School
  • Benjamin Franklin Elementary School
  • Warren G. Harding Elementary School
  • Joseph Hess Elementary School
  • Washington Irving Elementary School
  • Thomas Jefferson Elementary School
  • Kenwood Elementary School
  • Lafayette Elementary School
  • Lincoln Elementary School
  • Maywood Elementary School
  • Morton Elementary School
  • Frank O'Bannon Elementary School
  • Lew Wallace Elementary School

• Charter schools
  • Hammond Academy of Science and Technology (6–12)

Privately owned and operated schools

2

Colleges and universities

2

Public libraries

Hammond Public Library, located at 564 State Street, includes the Suzanne G. Long Local History Room. The system used to operate the E.B. Hayward Branch at 1212 172nd Street and the Howard Branch at 7047 Grand Avenue. Both branches have since been closed.

City government

Hammond is incorporated as a city under Indiana law. It therefore has a mayor and a nine-member city council. Hammond's City Hall is located at 5925 Calumet Avenue. The Hammond City Council has meetings scheduled for the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

The city maintains a city court on the second floor of the City Hall, exercising a limited jurisdiction within Lake County. The court handles not only local ordinance violations and certain minor criminal matters, but also a significant portion of the debt collection and eviction actions brought in Lake County.

City Council:

• Michael Opinker (D, 5th), President
• Robert A. Markovich (D, At Large)
• Daniel P. Spitale (D, At Large)
• Janet Venecz (D, At Large)
• Mark Kalwinski (D, 1st)
• Jack Uylaki (D, 2nd)
• Anthony W. Higgs (D, 3rd)
• William Emerson, Sr. (D, 4th)
• Homero "Chico" Hinojosa, Jr. (D, 6th)

Mayor:

• Thomas M. McDermott, Jr. (D)

City Officials:

• Robert J. Golec (D) – City Clerk
• Jeffrey A. Harkin (D) – City Judge
• Heather Garay – City Controller
• John D. Doughty – Police Chief
• Jeffery C. Smith – Fire Chief

List of mayors

#	Name	Term	Party
1	Marcus Towle	1884–1888	Republican
2	Thomas Hammond	1888–1893	Democratic
3	Patrick Reilly	1893–1894	Democratic
4	Fred R. Mott	1894–1898	Republican
5	Patrick Reilly	1898–1902	Democratic
6	Armanis F. Knotts	1902–1904	Republican
7	Lawrence Becker	1904–1911	Democratic
8	John D. Smalley	1911–1918	Democratic
9	Daniel Brown	1918–1925	Republican
10	Adrian E. Tinkham	1925–1930	Republican
11	Charles O. Schonert	1930–1935	Republican
12	Frank Martin	1935–1942	Democratic
13	G. Bertram Smith	1942–1948	Democratic
14	Vernon C. Anderson	1948–1956	Republican
15	Edward Dowling	1956–1968	Democratic
16	Joseph Klen	1968–1976	Democratic
17	Edward J. Raskosky	1976–1984	Democratic
18	Thomas M. McDermott, Sr.	1984–1992	Republican
19	Duane Dedelow, Jr.	1992–2004	Republican
20	Thomas M. McDermott, Jr.	2004–present	Democratic

Sports

Hammond came in 2nd (against Taipei, Taiwan) in the 1972 Little League World Series.

• Past teams
  • Hammond Rollers, an American Basketball Association team founded in 2006, was sold to the owner of the Quad City Riverhawks the same year. The team relocated and became the Sauk Valley Rollers of Rock Falls, Illinois.
  • Hammond Ciesar All-Americans (1938–41) and Hammond Calumet Buccaneers (1948–49), were professional basketball teams in the National Basketball League. Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden both played for the Ciesar All-Americans.

The Hammond Pros (1920–1924)

The Hammond Pros was one of the earliest professional football teams in the United States. When the American Professional Football League was formed in 1920, the Hammond Pros was a charter member, as it also was when the league changed its name to National Football League in 1922. However, four years later, when the NFL decided to reduce the number of teams, it did so by simply folding smaller franchises; the Hammond Pros (which never played a home game in Hammond) was moved to Akron, Ohio, and became the Akron Pros in 1925.

During the four years of the Hammond Pros' existence, the NFL had nine African-American players, six of whom played for the Pros. The NFL's first African-American head coach was Hall-of-Famer coach Fritz Pollard of the Pros.

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Hammond, Indiana

Sister city

• Galaţi, Romania (since 1997)

External links

• City of Hammond, Indiana website
• Online City Guide
• Hammond Picture Postcards
• Photos of Hammond/NWI
• Photo History of Hammond, Indiana by HHS Class of 1959
• Hammond City Links