Washington Park or Park Addition is a neighborhood in the

Indiana Harbor Indiana Harbor may refer to: * Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, a harbor and artificial waterway in East Chicago, Indiana connecting Lake Michigan to the Grand Calumet River * Indiana Harbor (East Chicago), the section of East Chicago located east of ...

section of

East Chicago, Indiana East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census. The city is home of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing ac ...

, near the city park with which it shares its name. It is bounded on the north by

U.S. Route 12 U.S. Route 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highways, United States highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90) an ...

, and on the south by 144th Street.

Demographics

As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, Washington Park had 1459 residents, of whom 38.1% were

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and 60.3% were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

. Local points of interest in addition to the park itself include E. J. Block Athletic Field and St. Catherine's Hospital.

History

In the earliest years of the 20th century, the East Chicago Company subdivided the 70-acre Washington Park tract and built homes there. But because of the neighborhood's remoteness from local industry. and the tendency of the basements to flood, the homes proved difficult to sell. In 1910, Fred J. Smith and Martin Hausler (a local banker and civil engineer respectively) formed the Washington Park Land Company with the goal of transforming Washington Park into an exclusive residential subdivision for the local elites. As the neighborhood's remoteness transformed from a liability to an asset, living there became a symbol of environmental privilege. The land company used

restrictive covenants A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a se ...

to prevent racial and ethnic minorities from moving in, and set a minimum home value of $2000 to prevent poor people of any race from moving in. The developers advertised Washington Park as the “only restricted subdivision in Indiana Harbor.” The land for the later Washington Park was set aside, but the park was not actually built until after the homes. The land company used its growing political clout to steer public improvements, such as sewer and water lines, to the neighborhood. Early investors in the neighborhood included figures associated with the feared "Indiana Harbor mob," which was linked to the

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

syndicate in Chicago as well as to

John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and ...

. These figures included Lake County judge William Murray and East Chicago attorney Hymie Cohen. Several adjacent north-south streets in the neighborhood are named for trees and plants, including the

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

, and deodar. The street now known as Grand Boulevard was once likewise named

Grapevine ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, b ...

Street, but its name was changed to "Grand" as increasing numbers of local elites settled along it.

Works cited

References

{{East Chicago, Indiana East Chicago, Indiana