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The Indiana Hotel
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| 1925 Street Photo - Looking South on Hohman Avenue |
1930 Postcard Image |
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 1940 Postcard Image |
 1992 Street Photo |
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Watch the 1992 implosion of this Hammond city landmark. Thanks to Rob Shultz who shot the video
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The Indiana Hotel Growing up as a kid in Hammond, Indiana, the Indiana Hotel, located on the northwest corner of Hohman Avenue and State Street, was a pretty seedy place. When I was 15, my friend Bob Kick, took me to the Indiana Hotel one Saturday afternoon, to play pool in the basement pool hall. It was everything one could imagine: Brunswick pool tables with cigarette burns on the railings, dark walls and low ceilings, smoke filled stale air (no air conditioning in the hotel whatsoever.) Other pool players had their packs of cigarettes rolled up under the sleeves of their JC Penny t-shirts and squinted in the dim light to make their best shot. I tried to act cool and not let the other patrons know that I was a first-timer, a sure give away to intimidation, jokes and ridicule. We played, I lost, and left, claiming I didn't have another quarter for a second game. I never really knew anyone who ever stayed at the Indiana Hotel. There were stories that Al Capone used to stay there after he toured his girly-joints in Calumet City. Perhaps this was an early indication of my sheltered existence as a kid.
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