Gary, Indiana: Steeltown Extraordinary

Abstract

Gary, Indiana, was the great symbol of urban-industrial America in the Progressive Era, the largest attempt at urban genesis and town planning ever undertaken by American industry. It was an enormous undertaking – nothing less than the creation of the largest integrated iron and steel complex in the U.S.A., complete with its supporting city. Unfortunately, the greatest of America's company towns never lived up to the hopes of its founders, U.S. Steel. Hailed as the New Industrial Utopia, it rapidly degenerated into a dreary industrial conurbation; Gary represented the failure of large-scale industrial city planning.