National Register of Historic Places
Eskilson Historic District
Gary, Lake County, Indiana
The record
- Listed
- March 26, 2014
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- Roughly bounded by W. 3rd Ave. & alleys between Garfield & Hayes Sts., W. 4th Pl. & W. 5th Ave, Cleveland & McKinley St, Gary
- County
- Lake
- State
- Indiana
- Contributing resources
- 97 buildings
- Coordinates
- 41.60582, -87.36076
- Reference number
- 14000073
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Eskilson Historic District is a historic residential district in Gary, Lake County, with 97 contributing buildings. Houses there were built in styles including American Foursquare, Colonial Revival, bungalow, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival, dated from 1926 to 1940.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2014 under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in architecture and community planning and development. Its period of significance runs from 1919 to 1940, ending with the last house built there before a World War II lull.
Physical character
Foundations are concrete or limestone, walls are brick or wood, some medium tan brick interspersed with darker brick, under asphalt or asphalt shingle roofs. Porches carry paired Doric columns, Doric pilasters, porticos and tapered brick columns, and roofs take pyramidal, hipped, flat and cross-gabled forms. The nomination names architects L. Harry Warriner, Douglas Pentecost and Joe Wildermuth, and builder-architects Leslie I. Combs and Frank Oja. Six of the district's buildings do not contribute to its historic character.
Historical context
United States Steel Corporation began looking for a plant site in 1904, and the Gary Land Company platted its first addition to the city in 1906. The Gary Works opened in 1908, and the Land Company platted more additions in 1912, 1914 and 1919; Captain Norton retired from the company in 1938. Builder Harold H. Loomis built a house there in 1926 for Timothy R. Sullivan.