Hotel for the Schmidt Brothers

Gary, Indiana was a boom town.  It literally rose from the sand dunes; transforming a barren landscape into a small city within a matter of a few years.  Many of the first buildings were developed by the steel company.  Others were developed by land developers and contractors who took advantage of the influx of people and businesses.

In 1906 the Schmidt Brothers, a contracting firm from Chicago, who were building many of the early Gary structures, hired Joseph Silsbee to design a hotel.  The early hotels in Gary operated more like single room occupancy or SRO buildings than traditional overnight hotels; becoming long-term living arrangments for unmarried workers.  The Schmidt Brothers' Hotel was occupied primarily by employees of the General Electric Company.  After only a couple years, it was then used by the City of Gary and the steel company as their first hospital.  Like many of these early buildings, it is no longer standing.

Jefferson School (for the Gary Land Company)

Joseph Lyman Silsbee was the primary architect employed by the Gary Land Company to oversee design and construction of buildings in the first subdivision of the new city.  It was a unique opportunity for the experienced architect to design an array of building types that would become the formative structures for a new community.  One of the earliest structures that was commissioned by the company was the Jefferson School.  Some excellent photos depicting construction on the school can be found U. S. Steel Gary Works Photograph Collection site.     

Built in in 1906 and opened in 1907, the Jefferson School was the earliest school structure in the area that was built of substantial materials.  It is a Classical Revival structure made of brick and stone and designed to house students from all grade levels.  The Jefferson School, and even Silsbee's work at Gary in general, can be seen as an end of an era in architectural design and construction.  With the increasing complexity of building systems and programs, subsequent buildings of this type in Gary and elsewhere would eventually be designed by architects that specialized in school design.  Incidentally, Silsbee's own son Ralph, an architect who eventually oversaw work on some of the buildings at Gary, would follow this trend and became an early "design specialist".  He was responsible for the design of schools in Elyria, Ohio and for many of the surrounding communities in the northern part of that state.

Office Building for the Gary Land Company

Some of Joseph Silsbee’s buildings are admired for their design features and physical appearance. Others are known because they played a vital role in a place’s history.  This building is better known for the latter of these. In 1906, The United States Steel Company began building a new plant and town along the shores of Lake Michigan. Named after steel company founder Elbert Gary, Gary, Indiana boasted a population of over 55,000 by 1920.

Most of the early structures were built by the steel company and sold through its subsidiary, the Gary Land Company. Silsbee was one of the earliest architects hired by the company to design commercial, residential, industrial, and public structures for the new city.

He designed this structure for the Gary Land Company in 1906 and had satellite architectural offices in the building for several years.  It served as a place to conveniently oversee work on his designs in the rapidly growing city of Gary. Also known as the Phillips Building, it was the Land Company's headquarters and the center of real estate activity in the city.

It is a simple commercial structure that once had a pronounced first floor with stone base and trim.  A main entry with a rounded pediment supported by columns punctuated the south (6th Ave.) side of the building.  Above is a simple stepped parapet.  The most notable detail on the building is the corbelling used to create window recesses and to support a stone cornice that wraps around the south and west sides of the building. From the face of the window to the cornice, the corbeling steps out fifteen times. It is a subtle yet beautiful detail that some folks might not notice.