One Hundred Years Ago in Whiting-Robertsdale

John Hmurovic
August 2022

One hundred years ago, some people in Whiting were gloating. Our little city was becoming a big city. The 1920 census takers counted 10,145 people living within Whiting city limits. That was a whopping 54-percent more than we had just ten years earlier. We were rapidly moving up the list of biggest cities in Indiana, ranking just above Jeffersonville, a city on the Ohio River that had a hundred-year head start on us.  

If we believe numbers are everything, we are no longer gloating. A century later, the 2020 Census tells us only 4,559 people live within Whiting city limits. Our population has dropped steadily since 1930. Jeffersonville, meanwhile, now has around 48,000 people.

What happened?

Whiting Ran Out Of Room

The main reason why Whiting’s population stopped growing in the 1930s was that we ran out of room. The city is hemmed in by Lake Michigan on one side, and the cities of Hammond and East Chicago on the other sides. On top of that, about half the land in Whiting is occupied by industry. By comparison, Jeffersonville has nearly 12-times more land than Whiting.  

Even so, we had pretty much the same amount of land in 1920 as we do today, so why are there fewer people living on that land?

We Are Not As Crowded Today As We Were Then

If you look at any page of the 1920 census in Whiting, the story is the same: Numerous houses were crowded. On one random stretch of New York Avenue, for instance, the average number of people per house was more than six in 1920. Family sizes were larger than today, and numerous homes took in boarders. In 1920, Standard Oil was rapidly expanding, because the number of people who could afford to buy cars was also growing. Those cars needed gas to operate. The company hired thousands of additional workers, and those workers needed a place to live.   

Were we better off in 1920 than we are in the 2020s? That is a judgment call and there will be people on both sides of that question. To help you answer it for yourself, though, maybe it would help to know what Whiting was like in 1920. So, let’s look back 100 years to see some of the things that were happening a century ago.

We Desperately Needed Housing

Probably the biggest issue in town in 1920 was the need for more housing. Some hoped that Standard Oil, the city’s biggest employer, would build housing. Just a couple of years earlier it had built twenty-six bunk houses on the East Chicago city line to accommodate its rapidly growing labor force. But in early 1920, the company said it wasn’t going to build any new residential structures. Besides, where would they build them?

Robertsdale Became The Place To Be

If Whiting has a birthplace, it’s near the eastern end of 119th Street, close to the point where the railroad tracks meet Front Street. That was the general area, maybe a little further east, where its first settlers lived. With the refinery to the east and Lake Michigan to the north, the only direction for Whiting to grow was to the south and to the west. By 1920 it could grow no more. It reached its city limits. To the west, though, was Robertsdale. It was a part of Hammond, but in 1920 much of its land was vacant. If you wanted to own a new house near Whiting, Robertsdale was the best place to build.

Two Major Robertsdale Residential Neighborhoods Were Being Developed

A Whiting real estate developer held a contest in 1920. He wanted people to guess where the first $1,000 lot would be in the Whiting-Robertsdale area. The correct guess was the corner of 119th Street and Calumet Avenue. In 1920, that intersection was at the heart of a residential housing boom.  

To the west, housing was going up in the Water Gardens. Before 1920, the land west of Calumet Avenue and south of 118th Street, close to Wolf Lake, was mostly vacant land. But developer Henry S. Davidson was selling lots there in 1920. In the Water Gardens, he said, no factories should ever be allowed. It was “to be given over entirely to parks, playgrounds, and residences.” His plan was unconventional for Whiting-Robertsdale, consisting of curving, narrow streets. He also planned for lagoons in the middle of streets, and for a square (Forsyth Square) to be ever open as a public space for the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, to the north of 119th and Calumet, a development known as Sheffield became the newest subdivision in the area. It consisted of all the land between Calumet Avenue on the west, Lake Avenue on the east, 119th Street on the south, and Indianapolis Boulevard at Five Points on the north. At one time, there was a horse racing track on part of that area. Today, it consists mainly of Davis and Stanton Avenues north of 119th Street, as well as the western side of Lake Avenue, and the intersecting numbered streets.

There were 348 homesites in Sheffield, and on the first day they went on sale prospective buyers were out in the dark, early-morning October hours, with lanterns in hand scouting out the lots they wanted to buy. Lots were priced at $500 to $650. This was at a time when you could buy a nine-room brick house on Sheridan Avenue with hardwood floors throughout the main level, steam heat, and a two-car garage for $5,200.       

The Water Gardens and Sheffield were the next phase of Robertsdale development. It began in 1916 with the West Park Subdivision and continued in 1921 with the West Park Addition. The 1916 project saw the development of the vacant land between Atchison and Lake Avenue, between 119th and 121st Streets. The 1921 West Lake addition developed the rest of the land between 119th and 121st all the way to Calumet Avenue.

Whiting-Robertsdale Today Is Not Really Much Different in Population Than It Was In 1920  

The current population of 4,559 within Whiting’s city limits is much smaller than it was in 1920. But, if you add in the 7,699 people living in Robertsdale in 2020, then today’s Whiting-Robertsdale community is at 12,258. That’s 2,113 more than Whiting’s 1920 population. A fair comparison to 1920, of course, would add in the population of Robertsdale in that year. Unfortunately, we don’t have easy access to those numbers. However, it’s probably safe to say that if there were more than 2,113 people in Robertsdale in 1920, there weren’t many more. Robertsdale’s biggest growth would come in the remainder of the 1920s and into the 1930s.  

While housing growth in Robertsdale was one of the biggest developments of 1920, what else was going on in Whiting-Robertsdale at the time? What was it like to live here, especially compared to today?

Work Was More Dangerous

There have been injuries and deaths at the Whiting Refinery since the days it first went into operation, but the numbers were significantly higher in 1920 than they are today. 60-year-old Barney McKenna had worked at the refinery since shortly after it opened and was only 15 days away from getting his pension when his eyes, head, and neck were badly burned by acid. John Machay, 32 years old, died after getting stuck in an elevator shaft at the refinery. Three men died when a scaffold they were on collapsed as they built an oil storage tank at the refinery. Henry Rabe was burned to death just three weeks after his family learned that their son, serving in the military, died in Germany. Just outside the city limits, four men were burned to death by boiling oil after an explosion just outside the Whiting city limits at the Sinclair Refinery in East Chicago, including 26-year-old Andrew Bodney of Whiting. At least ten other Whiting-Robertsdale men were among the badly injured. Those were just some of the accidents in 1920.        

Alcohol Was Now Illegal, So Many of Us Became Lawbreakers

Prohibition became the law of the land on January 17, 1920, and you can bet that many Whiting residents became lawbreakers on that same date. However, it took authorities a little bit of time to catch some of them. Frank Sulty of Davidson Avenue might have gotten away with it if he had only kept quiet. His neighbors complained that he was noisy. He was drunk when the police arrived. They planned to take him to jail, but he refused to get fully dressed and insisted on going barefooted. Tired of dealing with the uncooperative man, they searched the house. That was his undoing. They found that he made his own beverage of choice in a still down in his basement. White Mule, the name many used for the illegally made moonshine, seemed to be plentiful in Whiting. Man after man was arrested, most for being drunk. Some were turned in by their wives, who couldn’t get the police to act on assault and battery, or non-support, but were able to get their husbands arrested for being drunk. Joe Stancik was arrested for possessing liquor. He said he only kept a small quantity on hand to satisfy his father, “who otherwise might go to South Chicago, get stewed and disgrace the family.” Soft drink parlors were among the biggest lawbreakers. Police raided five of them in October, finding illegal booze hidden in coffee pots.   

Whiting Wasn’t A Peaceful Little Mayberry

There were fairly minor crimes in 1920 Whiting, of course, such as the two men arrested for peddling grapes without a license. Who knew you needed a license to peddle grapes? But serious crimes were also a part of life. Delia Goldrick walked past an alley at 117th and LaPorte when a man jumped out and tried to seize her by the throat. Her screams brought help, and the assailant fled. Sophia Falda got in the way of a bullet intended for someone else as she tried to break up an argument. Fortunately, she survived. Store robberies were not unusual. The most tragic in 1920, took place at the Pitzele Clothing Shop on Schrage Avenue. 23-year-old store clerk David Flicker was shot and killed when two men robbed the store, firing eight shots at him. There were also gang problems. A group from the Chicago South Side neighborhood of Irondale tangled three times with Whiting men after a couple of Irondale men were knocked out in a fight outside a dance at the Slovak Dom. A mob of over 300 gathered for the next dance, and more fighting took place.         

Lake Michigan Water Didn’t Taste Good, and Whiting Got the Blame

Residents of Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary frequently complained about the taste of water. In the early part of the century, raw sewage was regularly dumped into Lake Michigan. Too many people died from typhoid fever after drinking tainted water. Chlorinating the water helped, but many felt the taste was not good. Neighboring cities said they needed heavy chlorination because Standard Oil and the city of Whiting were still dumping raw sewage into the lake. Hammond had its water intake 5,000 feet from shore, but Standard Oil was discharging 50-millon gallons of waste just two miles away. Of the cities along the shore, only East Chicago had a sewage treatment plant. Whiting had plans for one, but in 1920 the railroads took the city to court, refusing to pay their share. They said they don’t dump anything into the sewers, so why should they have to pay.     

We Were Worried About Communists

Nationwide, there was a huge concern about Communism in 1920. The overthrow of the Russian czar in 1917 triggered much of it, so many Americans considered anyone of Slavic origin to be suspicious. There was also a great deal of labor unrest as workers demanded better pay and better working conditions. Some felt Communists were behind the unrest and cast a suspicious eye at all laborers. Whiting had a lot of laborers, and most of them were of Slavic origin, so Whiting was closely watched by federal agents as a hotbed for Communist agitators. “The stronghold of the Whiting branch of the Communist party was raided last night,” the Chicago Tribune reported in January 1920. Seven men were arrested, most of them worked at the Standard Oil refinery, all were either Russian or Croatian. Still, while there was unrest in East Chicago and Gary, the Lake County Times said that despite the fact that Whiting would seem to be the perfect place for Communists to organize, “there has been a remarkable absence of ‘red’ agitation.”

We Gossiped About the Librarian and the Dentist

They were both well known in Whiting. He was 49, a prominent dentist. She was 30, a librarian who had recently beaten all her male competitors on an exam and been named postmistress at the Whiting Post Office. He was married, she was not. His wife suspected there was something going on between her husband and the librarian, so she went after her. The library board was caught in the middle when the wife demanded the woman be fired. The librarian, the wife said, “was infatuated with her husband and breaking up her home.” All of this, including names, was in the newspapers, and some people took up the wife’s cause and demanded the woman be fired from the post office job, as well. Rather than subject herself to public attacks, the woman resigned from both the library and her new job as head of the Whiting Post Office. She also left town. The dentist stayed, lived the rest of his life in Whiting and continued his dental practice for many years. His marriage, however, did not last. The divorce hearing was also fully reported in the newspaper.

Some Of Us Had A Lot To Learn About People Who Are Different

Jews have always been a small minority in Whiting, but in July 1920, several men made clear that they didn’t want any of them living here. During a service at the synagogue, a group of men entered the building shouting at, and terrorizing, those who had gathered to worship. They refused to leave, and when one member of the synagogue left to contact the police, he was beaten with clubs after he stepped outside. The Whiting Call newspaper strongly condemned the attack. While it blamed it on men who had too much to drink, the newspaper reminded everyone that “in these United States nobody’s religion takes precedence.” Race was then, as it is now, a sensitive issue. But unlike today, it was very likely that many Whiting residents rarely saw a black person. Today, only 2-point-7-percent of Whiting is black. In 1920, there were only three black people (not three-percent, three people, total). Minstrel shows, where white performers wore blackface and made black people the butt of their jokes, were a popular form of entertainment. The Owls Club, the city’s most prominent men’s organization, regularly staged minstrel shows in Whiting in 1920.      

Labor Day Was A Huge Holiday

In a town where most families had one or more of its members working in the refinery, Labor Day was a major holiday. That was especially true in the years that Standard Oil hosted an annual Field Day program at Whiting Park, always held on Labor Day weekend. There were track and field events, baseball games, tug of wars, sack races, wrestling matches, a huge dance, and a community picnic with the Whiting Refinery Band providing the entertainment. It was estimated that ten-thousand people crowded into Whiting Park to watch the boxing matches. The Lake County Times said the Field Day was “one of the best entertainments ever offered to the people of Northern Indiana.’   

For A Time, Clocks In Whiting and Robertsdale Were An Hour Apart

Daylight Savings Time was introduced to most Americans during World War One. The war ended in 1918, but in 1920 some still liked the idea. Each city was free to decide if they wanted to adopt it or not. They liked it in Chicago, and when that city adopted it in 1920, Whiting, Hammond, and Gary followed suit. But, when you crossed into East Chicago you had to change your watch, because they refused to go along. In 1921, East Chicago changed its mind and adopted daylight savings time, but now it was Hammond that chose not to go along. So, officially, Robertsdale, a part of Hammond, was on a different time than Whiting.

The Beach Was Just One Thing To Do At Whiting Park

In 1920, the Lake Michigan beach was already a major attraction. It was far from being the only attraction in Whiting Park. The tennis courts were so popular that the city had to create regulations to make sure everyone who wanted to play had a chance. A new dance floor was installed in the pavilion, and immediately drew huge crowds. And at the far east end of the park, legendary shooters in the Timm and Vater families battled other marksmen in frequent contests at the trap shooting range.

Who Has Babe Ruth’s Baseball?

The Whiting Knights of Columbus sold tickets in 1920 to raffle off a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, who was already becoming a baseball legend. The Babe autographed 70 baseballs and sent them to every Knights of Columbus chapter in Indiana. The balls were raffled off to raise money for the Gibault Home for Boys, which was soon to open in Terre Haute as “a home for wayward boys.” There is no word on who won the Babe Ruth baseball in Whiting, but if they held onto it and it’s still in your family you probably know that it could fetch upwards of $4,000 today.