{"id":608,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:48:36","latitude":41.6035334500000004709363565780222415924072265625,"longitude":-87.33649305580229338374920189380645751953125,"title":"If These Walls Could Talk: City Hall, Lake County Courthouse, and Gary’s Colorful Political History","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/cb3af99025cddd2df4e61e236695fc41.jpg","address":"401 Broadway, Gary, IN 46402","all_locations":[],"zoom":14,"creator":[" Gary Public Library"],"description":"Both Gary’s City Hall and the nearby Lake County Courthouse building, whose Grecian-Doric designs can seem identical to those driving on the Indiana Toll Road, were part of Gary’s Gateway Development Project, which began in 1924. These two buildings would be framed with a 10-acre, beautifully landscaped esplanade (a level, open space of ground). Both buildings are 43 feet high and 180 feet long, and both feature 28-foot high round domes on octagonal bases. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nGary’s City Hall building, on the east side of Broadway, was designed by Chicago architect  Phillip Maher, and completed in 1928. The City Hall uses more purely Greek design features  and has plain columns. On the other side of Broadway, across the street from the City Hall, is the Lake County Courthouse building, which was completed in 1929. The Courthouse has a similar design to the City Hall, but it features fluted columns and more eclectic ornamentation.  <br />\r\n<br />\r\nOne of the first occupants of the City Hall Building was white Mayor Roswell Johnson. He was the only mayor of Gary to serve two or more non-successive terms (he served three: 1914-18, 1922-25, and 1930-35). He was a Republican, and his third term was the next to last time that a member of the GOP held Gary’s highest office. A very good orator, Mayor Johnson was reputed  to be as comfortable making conversation at an African American church revival, a Polish wedding, or a native-born Episcopalian tea. Johnson, who campaigned openly for the “wet” (anti-Prohibition) vote during the 1921 election cycle, went to prison during his second term in 1925 due to his running out of appeals after being convicted of “conspiring to violate the Volstead (Prohibition) Act.” He was the first of two Gary mayors (the second was George Chacharis) who went directly from the mayor’s office to the “Big House,” both due to political corruption. Johnson’s final term in office was marred by the Great Depression. He and his political allies proved inadequate by using piecemeal measures, and which caused a very significant part of his political base (meaning many European immigrants and most African Americans) to transfer their loyalty from the Republican party to the Democratic party. <br />","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":[],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/cb3af99025cddd2df4e61e236695fc41.jpg":{"id":2947,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Courthouse","description":"Completed in 1928, Gary’s City Hall, designed by architect Phillip Maher, has Greek design features. Roswell Johnson, Gary’s only Mayor to serve three terms non-consecutively, (1914-18, 1922-25, and 1930-35) began serving his third term here shortly after the building’s completion, and Richard Hatcher, one of the first African Americans to be elected Mayor of a major American city, served his entire 20 year tenure in office here (1968-1988). In 1958, a statue of Judge Elbert Gary, the city’s namesake, was unveiled here. | Gary Public Library | c. 1930","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/cb3af99025cddd2df4e61e236695fc41.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/0e3b71514798f543bf07c251560fffd2.jpg":{"id":2948,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Gateway Project","description":"The Gateway Development was a construction project that began in the 1920s to beautify part of downtown Gary that was sort of the “window” of Gary to the world at the time, as the area in question was the first part of Gary that travelers saw after they departed the train and started walking into town. The project included building a new city hall, county courthouse, and surrounding landscaping. Displayed here is part of the blueprints for the project. | Gary Public Library | 1924","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/0e3b71514798f543bf07c251560fffd2.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/ae6f7a4ecc5d9526c843068085f47263.jpg":{"id":2949,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Roswell Johnson","description":"Pictured here is Roswell Johnson, the only Mayor of Gary to serve three non-consecutive terms. Johnson, was an unparalleled orator and the next-to-last Republican to occupy the mayor’s office. Johnson went to jail in 1925 during his second term for violating the Volstead (Prohibition) Act. He was the second Mayor of Gary to occupy the current City Hall. | Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University Northwest | c. 1930","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/ae6f7a4ecc5d9526c843068085f47263.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/41b2f382d3e24a0f5ceb7a1690d72578.jpg":{"id":2950,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"City Hall","description":"This postcard from the 1930s shows City Hall, with the Steel Mill in the background. In the early years of the city, the steel mill was quite engaged with the community, as the Superintendent of Gary Works (William Gleason) was also the head of Gary’s parks department, and the steel company made significant financial contributions to the city, including for the building of City Methodist Church. After the 1930s, however, US Steel showed a marked lack of interest in Gary civic affairs. | Gary Public Library | c. 1935","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/41b2f382d3e24a0f5ceb7a1690d72578.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/c80bb58b0af259fdbf539f0c19bbd657.jpg":{"id":2951,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Gary Aerial View","description":"Aerial view of Gary around 1951. You can see City Hall just to the left of center, and the Lake County Government building just a little to its left. Just below and to the right of City Hall is the Gary State Bank Building, and to the bank building’s right, and near the right edge of the photo, is the Hotel Gary, with City Methodist Church next to the hotel. You can see the steel mill in the distance, top left part of the photo, especially noticeable because of its smoke. | Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University Northwest | c. 1951","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/c80bb58b0af259fdbf539f0c19bbd657.jpg"}}}