(8) 701 E. Third Street

"Jerry Killigrew's blacksmith's shop was on this lot in the 1880s. Roper Brothers built the building in the 1920s and were the agency for Chevrolet cars and later Ford cars. Paul Heuring was the next owner and sold Fords. When Heuring relocated, Express Auto opened."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ This circa-1928 image shows the newly built home of the Roper brothers' auto sales business.
♦ The Paul Heuring Ford dealership, probably circa 1968 (and here is the Heuring "Bargain Lot," exact location unknown).
♦ Outside Express Auto Supply in 1972; inside in 1975.

(19) 510 E. Third Street

"In the rear of the Roper building (Third and Main) was once a Chinese laundry. Hobart's Post Office was in the building from 1889 until 1910. Here also has been Baumer's bakery, dental office, art supply store and barber shop. Partlow's law office, Pfeifer's barber shop, and the Oasis saloon are now here. Upstairs are Peddicord and Troutman law offices and Krulls surveyor offices with a residence over the Oasis. Different owners have had beauty parlors on the second floor. The Jewel Shop (237 Main St.) now occupies the corner rooms."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ Circa 1928, interior views of the offices of William J. Krull and Roscoe R. Peddicord (and no doubt you'll recognize Attorney Peddicord's house).

(34) 201 Center Street

"Dr. Edwin Gordon, local doctor who was also County Coroner, built this large house with a ball room on the third floor. Dr. Brink later lived here as well as Mayor Owen Roper and his family. Dr. Charles Bradley bought the home and before St. Bridget Church owned it, it was rental property."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ The Second Street side of the house in February 1968.

(41) Northwest corner of Main and Front Streets

"This is known as the Hobart Mill site. Here George Earle, who had come from England to the Liverpool area, built a grist mill, damming Deep River to form Lake George. He moved his interests to the Hobart locale including the federal post office. Liverpool is in the western part of Hobart and part of it north in Hobart Township. The mill passed through a number of ownerships. In the 1880s William Ballantyne owned it and other owners were Roper and Brown, Frank Brown, and Lake County Co-op. After the mill burned in 1953, the Gary National Bank (66 Main St.) bought the property and built a branch office. A plaque memorializes the site."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ The old mill on a postcard postmarked 1908.
♦ Cows grazing near the old mill in 1909.
♦ A set of undated images of the old mill, ranging (as best I can judge) from near the turn of the century to perhaps the early 1950s.
♦ A then-and-now post with a circa-1939 view of the old mill.
♦ The mill circa 1940 and 1945.
♦ The mill and its associated buildings circa 1947, when it was owned by the Lake County Farm Bureau Co-op; and here you will find a few details about the mill buildings, by someone who worked there in the 1940s.
♦ This picture of the "old mill" ran in a newspaper shortly before the opening of Hobart's centennial festivities in 1947.
♦ In this view of the dam from Lake George (postcard postmarked 1949), the mill building is at the right edge of the picture, partially cut off.
♦ The still-smoldering ruins of the old mill in February 1953, and a commemorative postcard printed the same year.
♦ Two photos of the construction of the Gary National Bank at 66 Main circa 1954: looking north from Front Street and looking east toward Main Street.
♦ The Gary National Bank in 1965; inside the bank in 1975.

(44) 100 block of Main Street, east side

"The Jarvis Roper home was built here in 1892. Just before St. Bridget Church bought the house for a convent, there was a beauty shop there. There were a number of small homes in this block. In one was a jewelry store and probably the post office (1881-1885). One home was used as a club house. The block is now covered by St. Bridget School (107 Main St.) with a filling station on the southeast corner."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ The first St. Bridget Church, a frame building that opened onto Main Street some distance south of Front. (The postcard is postmarked 1908.)
♦ From May 30, 1909, three street scenes that include the old St. Bridget Church (the white building in the near background, behind the trees).
♦ The interior of St. Bridget Church; notes on the back of the original suggest this was the first St. Bridget. This photo is undated, but since August Haase was the photographer, it probably dates to circa 1902-1913.
♦ Scroll down a bit in this post for a view of the second St. Bridget's Church, with the Jarvis Roper home partially visible at left.
♦ The "filling station on the southeast corner" was Balash's Standard Service in 1968; by 1972 it was Zobel's Standard.

(49) 237 Main Street

"The large brick building on the corner was built by James Roper. There Rob Randhan had a meat market in the downstairs rooms. This was later Roper's Market and then Carstensen's market. Remodeled, it became the American Trust and Savings Bank. When banks closed during the Depression, Peter Bates opened a saloon and candy store. Into these rooms the Hobart Federal Savings and Loan moved from space in the 300 block of Main Street. Now Matt Seling's Jewel Shop is here."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ Views of the building and its interior as well as a portrait of James Roper, Jr., all circa 1898.
♦ This image is undated, but must be prior to 1926 (when the building was remodeled with its current Neoclassical façade).
♦ A 1971 newspaper article that talks about the soda-bottling works operated in the basement of the Roper building by Hugo Zobject (or Zobjeck) between 1904 and 1908. (I do not have the photograph that accompanied the article.)
♦ Photographed outside the Bates restaurant and candy store, this float took second prize in the Labor Day parade of 1931 (according to notes on the back of the original).
♦ A bank on the main floor, the Peddicord law offices upstairs, in 1964 and 1965.
♦ A 1973 street view that includes The Jewel Shop at 237 Main; an interior view of The Jewel Shop in 1971.

(55) 230 Main Street

"The three-story and basement Hobart House was built in 1867 by Edward Roper. On the third floor was a ballroom. Hotel rooms were on the first and second floors and a kitchen and dining room in the basement. William Jahnke and later C.E. Fraley operated a livery stable on the alley. Later Charles Bradley ran a machine shop in a building along the lake. This building has since been used by Tucker Iron Works and other concerns. In the basement of the Hobart House at one time was a Chinese laundry. Manteuffel also had a saloon here. In the 1920s the Hobart House was no longer a hotel. In the early 1920s Hobart schools were so crowded first grades were taught in these rooms. During the Depression years the township trustee housed welfare families in the building. The building was condemned and razed and Ed Prusiecki built the Art Theatre in 1941."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ A then-and-now post showing the Hobart House around 1911 and linking to a slightly earlier view.
♦ This undated view of the Hobart House is probably about a decade earlier.
♦ Two side views of the Hobart House, circa 1905 and 1910.
♦ A collection of Hobart House images, mostly dating to the early 20th century.

(62) 325 Main Street

"This two-story brick once had Smalings Dress Shop downstairs and later Roper and Robinson. Mrs. Pardus had a craft shop. It is now Candle Glow."

Images (links open in a new window):
♦ Outside Candle Glow in 1973; inside in 1972.