Hobart Then and Now: Third Street

The fact that I persist in calling this area "Ainsworth" does not mean I have anything against Hobart or feel any resentment over the annexation. I like Hobart. It's a pretty town with many nice people, interesting old buildings and charming lakeside parks.

And you can find material about its history a lot more easily than Ainsworth's, so forgive me if I stray sometimes into Hobart.

Here we have Third Street, 1920 and 2009:




(Click on images to enlarge)

I date the first picture to 1920 because it's on a card postmarked 1920, but the picture was probably taken earlier. We're looking west on Third Street, toward the intersection of Third and Center, and beyond that Third and Main.

In the 1920 photo, the building in the right foreground has a sign at the top reading:

1910
FRIEDRICH BLOCK
It has now lost the "1910" part of that sign. The five-and-ten-cent store is gone and an insurance agency lives there now. According to Tim Arends, the builder was L.M. Friedrich, the five-and-dime's owner was named Thompson, and this building once housed the town's post office.

I can't tell from the postcard what was in the building in the left foreground. Nowadays it's a used furniture store.

The building on the northwest corner of the Third and Center intersection still stands. Here's a close-up of it now:


(Click on image to enlarge)

The legend at the top reads:

1897
E H GUYER
The corner bay window has lost its magnificent pointed top. The building is now occupied by a tanning salon. Mr. Arends tell us that Hobart's peripatetic post office once lived here too.

Third Street has been paved and traffic is now so heavy that, even early on a Saturday morning, you have to look for a break to hurry out into the street where the 1920 photographer stood, and quickly take your picture. And the hitching posts are gone, of course.


See also Northwest Indiana Views from the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society.