Marktown: A Planned Industrial Community
[ Marktown Historic District ]
Marktown is a unique industrial workers village in East Chicago designed by Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1917 for the industrialist Clayton Mark. The design of Marktown is based on Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept, and although this is an industrial community surrounded by heavy industry (Oil Refineries and Steel Mills), the original intent was to provide some buffering between industry and housing. The site was also to include a market square similar to Lake Forest Illinois (also a Howard Van Doren Shaw design). With the breakout of WWI and other factors Marktown was never completed. What remains is a fragment of a community abused by the continued encroachment of industry.
The challenges for Marktown are great. Yet, it is amazing that it is as well maintained as it is with no formal protection.
Market Square (since destroyed to make room for a utility substation and an industrial access road)
Like many 19th century Urban Planner’s Ebenezer Howard had a penchant for developing conceptual diagrams for organizing a community. I love this diagram which he titles “Group of Slumless Smokeless Cities - Total Area 6,000 Acres - Population 250,000.”
Demographics:
Population: 362
- Hispanic Pop.: 253
- Black pop.: 16
- American Indian: 10
- Asian: 6
Per Capita Income (CT 304): $10,306
Median Family Income (CT 304): $27,404
Total Housing Units: 137
- Vacancy Rate: 28%
- Medium Home Value (2000): $20,500
Photo Gallery by Dave Jordano
