Gary’s post office opened in 1906, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns · #328 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
29 places in town are on the National Register, among them ten historic districts with 1,322 buildings between them. Below: 15 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1910.
The Gary post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name. Ten smaller post offices, Clarke Station (1860), Toleston (1860) and Miller's Station (1865), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 16,802 in 19102020 census: 69,093120 years
How historic is Gary?
B
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Gary post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gary’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gary is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #328 of 593 in Indiana. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gary’s overall grade.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Gary’s 197 sits above most of its state (87% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 1,344 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A. The pre-1940 share (±1.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Gary’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Gary’s post office has been open since 1906. 10 other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Clarke Station
1860–1918
Toleston
1860–1912
Miller's Station
1865–1882
Miller
1882–1927
Ivanhoe
1891–1895
Aetna
1894–1919
Jerusalem
1894–1897
Kelley
1898–1902
Blackoak
1899–1905
Gary
1906–today
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
AetnaAnderson Mobile Home ParkBlack OakBuffingtonChar-el Mobile Home ParkClarke JunctionColfax Mobile Home ParkColonial Mobile Home ParkDuneland VillageDuneland Village of GaryGerry ParkGlen ParkGlenview Mobile Home ParkHillcrest Manufactured Housing CommunityIdeal Mobile Home CourtIvanhoeIXL Mobile Home ParkKings Mobile Home CourtMelody Lane Mobile Home ParkMillerMount Street Mobile Home ParkNoble Mobile Home ParkPineRidge Road Mobile Home Community
Gone or out of use
Assyrian Presbyterian ChurchchurchCentral Baptist ChurchchurchCentral Christian ChurchchurchCentral YMCAbuildingChristian Assembly ChurchchurchChurch of GodchurchDivine Providence Polish National Catholic ChurchchurchFirst Baptist ChurchchurchFirst Roumanian Baptist ChurchchurchFirst Southern Baptist Church of AetnachurchFortyfifth Avenue Baptist ChurchchurchFortyninth Avenue Baptist ChurchchurchFortythird Avenue Presbyterian ChurchchurchFull Gospel TabernaclechurchGary General HospitalhospitalGary Tabernacle First Baptist ChurchchurchGary United Pentecostal Apostolic ChurchchurchGlen Park Baptist Churchchurch
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Gary
Oak HillTollestonWaldheim
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 by the U.S. Steel corporation as the home for its new plant, Gary Works. The city was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation.
Gary was the site of civil unrest in the 1919 General Steel Strike. On October 4, 1919, a riot broke out on Broadway, the main north–south street through downtown Gary, between steel workers and strike breakers brought in from outside. Indiana governor James P. Goodrich declared martial law three days later. Shortly after that, over 4,000 federal troops under the command of Major General Leonard Wood arrived to restore order.
Passages that mention Gary, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region1915 · page 383Read the page →
Read the text
The foundingof the great steel mills, with their sn])si(liHry industries, at what has heen the City of Gary since Octoher, 1909, has heen narrated somewhat in detail. Chapters have also heen devoted to the improvement of the fine waterways of the Calumet region and the great trunk and belt railroads which make it so accessible to the world, and to which progress the Ignited States Steel Corporation and the citizens of Gary have so largely contributed. Gary's harbor was not opened to international traffic until July 23, 1908. and the city did not come into close
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region1915 · page 386Read the page →
Read the text
Work op the Gary Land Company At the present time the limits of the City of Gary extend southward from the lake a distance of about five and a half miles, Avith a distance of seven miles between the eastern and the western limits. The first and greatest improvements within that area were prosecuted by the Gary Land Company, which laid off and improved what is known as the First Subdivision of Gary, embracing a tract of land approximately a mile in width from north to south and a mile and a half in length, from east
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
at Essen, Germany, will be built from the ground up at Gary, so in times of depression or panics the mills at Gary will continue in operation when less modern plants that are expensive to operate will be forced to close down.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Gary, 1860 to 1966
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Gary. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1900Tolleston sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Gary.
Every building
Gary, building by building, 1907–1915
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The Gary post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Gary rank for history?
Gary is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #328 of 593 in Indiana. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Gary?
29 listings: 16 buildings, among them the Miller Town Hall (listed 1978, the first), and 13 historic districts with 1,322 contributing buildings. 1,344 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Gary?
17% of Gary’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1957.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (10), the Library of Congress (6), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (29), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
![The foundingof the great steel mills, with their sn])si(liHry industries, at what has heen the City of Gary since Octoher, 1909, has heen narrated somewhat in detail. Chapters have also heen devoted to the improvement of the fine waterways of the Calumet region and the great trunk and belt railroad…](https://images.townratings.com/story/5048/bk-578696624583c734-l.jpg)
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