A history of Gary,
since 1902
Postcards, papers and photographs of Gary from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1902, U.S. Steel began housing people in Gary Hollow for employment at one of the coal town's fourteen mines that produced metallurgical coal.
During the early 1940s, Gary Hollow, named for Elbert Henry Gary, produced around a quarter of the amount of coal mined from McDowell County, as well as a quarter of the coal used by U.S. Steel during World War II. At the time, the town boasted a large number of African American miners and began integrating the school system in the 1950s. However, Gary Hollow's education system was not completely integrated until 1964.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Gary’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBank boss, (with lamp between kne…, 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Gary
See all 3 →Gary, decade by decade
1990s
1 historic place in Gary
1 place in Gary is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Bank boss, (with lamp between knees) Motorman, Brake-boy and Driver. Gary Mine, Gary, W. Va. Boss said he would use mor… (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.