﻿Edmondson : Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 15 



use of the property, that these tenants were ordered to move 

 out and the houses were put in condition for other tenants of 

 higher order. 



In the original plans for the city of Gary, sufficient land was 

 not bought, and later when this mistake was recognized and the 

 Company found that it must have more land for the town, it 

 discovered that a strip (shaded portion B on map, page 12) of 

 about 5 blocks fronting on Broadway had been bought up by 

 private individuals who would not sell by the acre or at all at 

 a price the Steel Company was willing to pay. The Company 

 bought the land north, south, east, and west of this district and 

 imposed certain restrictions upon it; but this strip which could 

 not be bought remained independent, and became known as 

 "The Patch'' with the characteristics of other "patches" at 

 mining camps, aid fringing other industrial cities. There were 

 no restrictions in "The Patch''. The working-men and tem- 

 porary transients who were building the town and the plants 

 flocked to this part of the town. They wanted to be able to 

 get beer as often as they liked, and in as large quantities as they 

 wanted, and here there were no restrictions on its sale. Saloons, 

 boarding-houses, and temporary residences sprang up on all 

 sides. "The Patch" was platted amicl great excitement and 

 speculation. There were no building restrictions, so every man 

 built for himself. It is not surprising that "The Patch" had 

 structures not tolerated in the other parts of Gary, tho many 

 of its buildings were quite up to the standard of those in Sub- 

 division No. 1. "The Patch" was compelled to lay its own 

 sewers, water mains, etc., and lots here were loaded with special 

 assessments. Workers on low wages were inveigled into buying 

 lots, the payments for which in instalments was a heavy burden 

 on their families. Boxlike frame houses were put up as rapidly 

 as possible but could not keep pace with the increasing need for 

 housing accommodations. During the period of construction 

 "The Patch" practically ruled Gary. The Steel Company 

 isolated it in a way by failing to improve the land adjoining, but 

 this had very little effect on its life and activities. 



The story of these two parts of Gary in its early history has 

 been gone into thus fully because of its significance in the present 

 city. The map on page 12 shows Subdivision No. 1 as the 

 shaded portion A.. This district dominates the life of that part 

 of Gary north of the Wabash railroad known as the "North Side", 

 the shaded portions F and A on the map. Just south of this, from 



