Editing Gary, Indiana (section)

====Downtown====
[[File:Gary City Hall Facing North.jpg|thumb|upright|Gary City Hall]]
[[Downtown Gary]] is separated by Broadway into two distinctive communities. Originally, the City of Gary consisted of The East Side, The West Side, The South Side (the area south of the train tracks near 9th Avenue), and Glen Park, located further South along Broadway. The East Side was demarcated by streets named after the States in order of their acceptance into the Union. This area contained mostly wood-frame houses, some of the earliest in the city, and became known in the 20th century for its ethnic populations from Europe and large families. The single-family houses had repeating house designs that alternated from one street to another, with some streets looking very similar. Among the East Side's most notable buildings were Memorial Auditorium (a large red-brick and stone civic auditorium and the site of numerous events, concerts and graduations), The Palace Theater, Emerson School, St. Luke's Church, H.C. Gordon & Sons, and Goldblatt's Department stores, in addition to the Fair Department Store. All fronted Broadway as the main street that divided Gary.

The West Side of Gary, or West of Broadway, the principal commercial street, had streets named after the presidents of the United States in order of their election. Lytton's, Hudson's ladies store, J.C. Penney, and Radigan Bros Furniture Store developed on the west side of Broadway.  Developed later, this side of town was known for its masonry or brick residences, its taller and larger commercial buildings, including the Gary National Bank Building, Hotel Gary (now Genesis Towers), The Knights of Columbus Hotel & Building (now affordable housing fronting 5th Avenue), the Tivoli Theater (demolished), the U.S. Post Office, Main Library, Mercy and Methodist Hospitals and Holy Angels Cathedral and School. The West Side also had a secondary principal street, Fifth Avenue, which was lined with many commercial businesses, restaurants, theaters, tall buildings, and elegant apartment buildings. The West Side was viewed as having wealthier residents. The houses dated from about 1908 to the 1930s. Much of the West Side's housing were for executives of U.S. Steel and other prominent businessmen. Notable mansions were 413 Tyler Street and 636 Lincoln Street. Many of the houses were on larger lots. By contrast, a working-class area was made up of row houses made of poured concrete which were arranged together and known as "Mill Houses"; they were built to house steel mill workers.

[[File:I Love Gary.jpg|thumb|'I Love Gary' – Pop Up Arts Display Gateway Park (2019)]]
The areas known as Emerson and Downtown West combine to form Downtown Gary. It was developed in the 1920s and houses several pieces of impressive architecture, including the Moe House, designed by [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], and another, the [[Wilbur Wynant House|Wynant House]] (1917), which was destroyed by fire. A significant number of older structures have been demolished in recent years because of the cost of restoration. Restructuring of the steel and other heavy industry in the late 20th century resulted in a loss of jobs, adversely affecting the city.

[[File:City Methodist Church, Gary.jpg|thumb|[[City Methodist Church (Gary, Indiana)|City Methodist Church]] as it appeared in 2009]]
Abandoned buildings in the downtown area include historic structures such as [[Union Station (Gary, Indiana)|Union Station]], the [[Palace Theater (Gary, Indiana)|Palace Theater]], and [[City Methodist Church (Gary, Indiana)|City Methodist Church]]. A large area of the downtown neighborhood (including City Methodist) was devastated by a major fire on October 12, 1997.<ref>{{cite web |title=Indiana Historic Architecture Editorials |url=http://www.preserveindiana.com/mainpages/editorials.html#anchor461882 |access-date=April 25, 2012 |publisher=Preserveindiana.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=October 13, 1997 |title=Blaze Hits Downtown Gary |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/10/13/blaze-hits-downtown-gary/ |access-date=April 24, 2012}}</ref> [[Interstate 90]] was constructed between downtown Gary and the United States Steel plant.