More historic than 25% of U.S. towns · #513 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Most of Lake Station was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1965. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1880.
The Lake Station post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Liverpool (1837) and East Gary (1908), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 170 in 18802020 census: 13,235174 years
How historic is Lake Station?
C−
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lake Station post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lake Station’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake Station is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns, #513 of 593 in Indiana. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lake Station’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 Lake Station’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share (±2.7 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 Lake Station’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Initially, the site of modern Lake Station was the starting point of two indigenous trails leading to Fort Dearborn. Later it became an early stagecoach depot stop, as the Fort Dearborn-Detroit Stagecoach Route passed through the site during the wet season. The location became known as Lake Station as far back as 1851 when it began to serve as a depot, the western terminus of the Michigan Central Railroad (on what would later become its Detroit to Chicago line). This was the first train station in Lake County. The Michigan Central Railroad built a park and railroad shops around its two-story depot. A year later, in April 1852, George Earle mapped out and platted a town of about 6,500 acres (26 km2) on the site, continuing its name of Lake Station.
Passages that mention Lake Station, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region1915 · page 184Read the page →
Read the text
followed the cheese factory, the houses increased in number and improved in appearance, and it secured an outlet both north and south by the construction of a substantial macadam road from Crown Point, through Ainsworth, Hobart and Lake Station to Lake Michigan. That thoroughfare is still of great benefit to Merrillville, although since 1903 it has enjoyed railroad connection over the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region1915 · page 266Read the page →
Read the text
Pioneer Railway Stations Lake Station, at the junction of the old Joliet Cut Off and the original Michigan Central line, which run to Chicago further to the north around the foot of Calumet Lake, was the first important point in Lake County for the shipment of grain and the exchange of general freight.
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
Lake Station, 1837 to 1993
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Lake Station post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lake Station rank for history?
Lake Station is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns, #513 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.
How old are the homes in Lake Station?
8% of Lake Station’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (5), 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 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.
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