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Downtown Hammond/Part 2
Date: 06-22-2010
By: Terry
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THE OLD COURTHOUSE CLOCKTOWER/OLD HAMMOND TECH
Born at Saint Margaret's Hospital in 1941, I was raised in a home located near the corner of Douglas and Oakley. The Erie Railroad yards were just across the street. There was a roundhouse, water tower and bunkhouse. The Minas warehouse was nearby on Oakley (sometimes I had to climb a telephone pole to the warehouse roof to retrieve a baseball hit from the sandlot on Douglas and Webster).
I attened Saint Joseph's church and grade school. The school had a large parking lot/playground area with plenty of basketball courts. In those days (40s and 50s), a kid could disappear for most of the day and no one was concerned, however, there was usually a curfew. From the playground, the courthouse clocktower was visible and well lighted. There was no excuse for being being late when the time was so easy to check (just in case "Be home by dark." wasn't clear enough). At age ten or so, I could run home in ten minutes............unless the Erie Railroad was switching cars and blocking Douglas, Clinton and Russell!
As near as I can tell, the first or second building in the church complex was the Antheneum. The lower level had been classrooms and the upper level was the gym with a deep and well equipped stage. There was a locker room on the first level and a large kitchen on the second level. The gym served as a basketball court, theater, banquet hall and a place to hold sock hops.
Hammond Tech (the old Hammond Tech that was located on Russell Street)was a three or four story building. There was an ice plant next to the school and even in the summer, it was not unusual to find "snow" to throw at the older kids in the Tech activity yard......the tall iron fence meant that the little kids could usually get away with such things.
The Tech building had one of those winding fire escapes. After school hours, neighborhood children would sometimes climb the fire escape and slide down. Once in a while the janitor would throw water down the chute. The fire escape was not enclosed (it did have high sides) and did not have a door at the end, so access was easy.
I do not know if the Athenaeum is still standing or not; probably not. The court house that was located on the corner of Hohman and Rimbach is gone and the building that was just across the alley on Rimbach is also gone (I believe it is now the location of the new building for First Federal S&L of Hammond, which moved from just across the street). The 65,000 square foot Masonic Temple on Muenich Court is also gone.
Someone asked about The Orpheum Theater; please see the Hammond Historical Society site (url) http://www.hammondindiana.com) Flashback edition of November 2002; there is a nice photo of The Orpheum Theater and a brief story. The May-August 2006 Flashback edition has an interesting story about the Paramount Theater.
Could use a little help. Can someone tell me how to upload a photo? Also, can a Word document be uploaded?
Does anyone remember Wicker Park in Highland and the amusement park located there? The pony rides?
Once again, thank you for this opportunity.
Terry
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