﻿Edmondson : Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 17 



homes there, and in April, 1916, it is predicted that the tem- 

 porary shack must be resorted to in order to shelter workmen 

 for additional building. The problem at first was the temporary 

 housing of men to build the town and the plant. They were 

 carried thru one winter without permanent shelter — among the 

 sand dunes first appearing a city of tents. Then came the city 

 of shacks. These shacks are structures of rough boards covered 

 with tar paper or canvas, put up by land-owners as temporary 

 shelters, or by squatters as homes. Many of these have been 

 pulled clown and their building is now prohibited in Gary, but 

 some of them are still occupied by workmen and immigrant 

 laborers and show very bad conditions of sanitation, crowding, 

 etc. 



After the tar paper shack came the city of brick, cement, 

 and stone. The Gary Land Company put up 506 houses on the 

 North Side, substantially built and attractive in appearance, 

 to be leased to its workmen, or preferably sold at prices from 

 $2,000 to $5,000. The American Sheet and Tin Plate Company 

 put up 110 cement houses to be rented to its employees. The 

 employees renting these houses are mostly English and American 

 skilled workmen. The American Bridge Company has put up 

 in its subdivision (marked F on the map) two miles west of 

 Broadway 294 houses for its employees in executive positions. 

 These three sets of company houses have been put up by the 

 same land company, but show a diversity in construction differing 

 from the frequently ugly uniformity of wholesale building. Other 

 houses have been built by individuals. The buildings in Kirkville 

 and Hunkeyville have already been described. 



These houses are all located on the North Side and are occupied 

 by families of skilled workmen, better-paid workmen, officials, 

 professional men, tradesmen, etc., — mostly American born, Eng- 

 lish, Irish, German, and others of the Old Immigration. The 

 problem has been only to get a sufficient number of houses. 



On the South Side of Gary, however, the problem is this 

 same one with the addition of other more menacing ones. Here 

 is where live the low-paid immigrant common laborer and his 

 family, most of the colored people, and those of the lower social 

 and economic classes of Americans and Old Immigration. The 

 homes here are mostly flimsy, boxlike frame houses, barrack-like 

 shacks of "apartments", and rough board tar paper shacks designed 

 for single "dwellings". The conditions of the slum district are 

 here seen — crowding, both of buildings on lots and of people in 



