Hobart, Indiana

Name: Hobart, Indiana
Address: Hobart, IN

Everything Hobart is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Hobart. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Hobart

Songs About Hobart

billie jean

michael jackson

45%

Artists From Hobart

Omar Apollo

r-n-b

Rivers & Roads in Song near Hobart

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Hobart.

Interstate 65 25 songs U.S. Route 66 19 songs

Musical Heritage

The Gary Record Shop That Beat Capitol to the Beatles RoadyGoat

1953

One of the great untold stories in American music starts in a Gary record shop. Vivian Carter was a Gary radio personality who, with her husband James Bracken, ran Vivian's Record Shop. In 1953 they launched their own label and named it from their initials, V and J: Vee-Jay Records. Founded here in Gary and soon based up in Chicago, Vee-Jay grew into the most successful Black-owned record company in America before Motown. Its roster was staggering: the bluesmen Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, the gospel of the Staple Singers, a young Curtis Mayfield with the Impressions, even the pop hitmakers the Four Seasons. And then came the moment almost nobody remembers. When the giant Capitol Records passed on an unknown British band, little Vee-Jay said yes. In 1963 it became the first American company to release the Beatles, and it put out their first U.S. album, called Introducing the Beatles. So before the British Invasion swept the country, the Beatles first reached America through a label born in a Gary record store. (Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

6.1 mi away

Five Brothers, Four Number Ones, One Mural RoadyGoat

1970

Over in Gary's Miller neighborhood, on South Lake Street, a big mural celebrates the brothers who turned this steel town into a music legend: the Jackson 5. The full family that came out of one small Gary house is almost unbelievable, Michael, Janet, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito, Marlon, and more. But here is a record that still stuns. When the five brothers signed with Motown, their first four national singles, I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save, and I'll Be There, every single one of them shot to number one on the pop chart. No group had ever launched its career with four straight chart-toppers like that. The little two-bedroom house where they rehearsed is the quiet shrine a few blocks away; this bright mural is the loud, public thank-you, the city's way of putting its proudest sound up on a wall for everyone to see. (Source: city of Gary.)

9.0 mi away

History of Hobart

A Trucker's Cure for Truck-Stop Food RoadyGoat

For one of the most unexpected meals in Gary, you don't go downtown, you go out by the interstate, to a little spot called the Balkan Grill Company, run out of a truck-stop location. It was opened by a Serbian immigrant named Momcilo Bogdanovic, a former truck driver himself, who got sick of the sad, reheated food that truckers were stuck eating on the road. So he decided to cook them the real thing instead. The menu is straight from the Balkans: cevapi, those little grilled minced-meat sausages, hearty stews, and the showstopper, the gurmanska pljeskavica, a big seasoned meat patty stuffed with cheese and ham and tucked into warm Balkan flatbread. It is the kind of honest, made-to-order food a hungry driver dreams about, hiding in plain sight at a Gary truck stop. (Source: Balkan Grill Company.)

5.1 mi away

Flight in the Dunes, Seven Years Before Kitty Hawk RoadyGoat

1896

Long before the Wright brothers flew, men were already gliding off the sand dunes here on Gary's lakefront. In June 1896, a brilliant railroad engineer named Octave Chanute brought a crew by train out to Miller, a lakefront community later folded into Gary, hauled experimental gliders into the dunes, and pitched camp. The steady wind off Lake Michigan and the soft sand made it a near-perfect flying laboratory: you could launch from a slope and crash without getting killed. Chanute's real genius was structural. He borrowed the Pratt truss, the same crisscross of struts and wires that braced strong railroad bridges, and used it to make a biplane wing that was both light and rigid, solving a problem that had stumped earlier would-be aviators. That trussed biplane structure, worked out in these dunes, fed directly into the designs the Wright brothers would later build on, and Chanute became a trusted advisor to them. Seven years before the famous first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the science of flight was already taking shape in the sand at Gary. (Sources: National Park Service; Smithsonian.)

5.9 mi away

The Squatter Queen Who Fought U.S. Steel for the Dunes RoadyGoat

1872

Some of the prettiest land in Gary, the dunes and lagoons of Marquette Park and Miller Woods, was once held by a woman the papers called the Squatter Queen. Drusilla arrived on the lonely Miller lakefront in 1872, back when those dunes were dismissed as worthless sand nobody would want. She married a fisherman named Robert Carr in 1874, and together they homesteaded more than two hundred acres along the shore, living off the lake by squatters' rights, simply by being there and working it. Then the world changed around her. U.S. Steel arrived, the city of Gary boomed, and that worthless sand suddenly became some of the most valuable lakefront in the region. Powerful interests, including the steel industry, wanted the Carr land, and Drusilla spent decades in court and on her own porch refusing to be pushed off. She held on for the rest of her life. It's a stubborn, very American story: a woman who claimed an empty dune nobody valued, then had to fight a steel giant to keep it. (Source: Indiana Historical Bureau.)

5.9 mi away

Jackson 5 Family Home

1950

The small Gary, Indiana house at 2300 Jackson Street where Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 grew up and rehearsed.

6.3 mi away

Indiana Dunes National Park

1899

Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with towering sand dunes, the birthplace of modern ecology in America.

13.4 mi away

Everything Near Hobart

35 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Nike Missile Site C-47 · 4.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
This seemingly ordinary field was once a critical line of defense against potential Soviet bombers. Nike Missile Site C-47 was part of a network of anti-aircraft missile sites built around major US cities during the…
John Wood Old Mill · 4.2 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Step back in time at this 1830s sawmill and grist mill, a vital part of early Indiana life. You're approaching the John Wood Old Mill. This isn't just an old building; it's a window into the founding of Lake County.…
A Trucker's Cure for Truck-Stop Food · 5.1 mi
For one of the most unexpected meals in Gary, you don't go downtown, you go out by the interstate, to a little spot called the Balkan Grill Company, run out of a truck-stop location. It was opened by a Serbian immigrant…
Flight in the Dunes, Seven Years Before Kitty Hawk · 5.9 mi
Long before the Wright brothers flew, men were already gliding off the sand dunes here on Gary's lakefront. In June 1896, a brilliant railroad engineer named Octave Chanute brought a crew by train out to Miller, a…
The Squatter Queen Who Fought U.S. Steel for the Dunes · 5.9 mi
Some of the prettiest land in Gary, the dunes and lagoons of Marquette Park and Miller Woods, was once held by a woman the papers called the Squatter Queen. Drusilla arrived on the lonely Miller lakefront in 1872, back…
Emerson High School (Indiana) · 5.9 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Once a thriving high school, this historic building now stands as a reminder of Gary's boom and bust. Look out your window at the imposing structure. Emerson High School was a public high school that opened its doors in…
Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium · 6.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine Amelia Earhart, a legend in aviation, once graced this very spot! The Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium, originally the Lakefront Park Bathhouse, opened in 1921 as a place for beachgoers to clean up after a day at…
The Gary Record Shop That Beat Capitol to the Beatles · 6.1 mi
One of the great untold stories in American music starts in a Gary record shop. Vivian Carter was a Gary radio personality who, with her husband James Bracken, ran Vivian's Record Shop. In 1953 they launched their own…
Jackson 5 Family Home · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker
The small Gary, Indiana house at 2300 Jackson Street where Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 grew up and rehearsed.
The Magic City Under Martial Law · 6.3 mi
Boosters called Gary the Magic City, a whole town conjured out of the dunes by U.S. Steel. But the magic was built on brutal work. Inside Gary Works, men commonly pulled twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, in heat…
The Weekend Gary Was the Capital of Black Politics · 6.3 mi
For one weekend in 1972, this struggling steel city became the center of Black political life in America. It started in 1967, when Gary elected Richard G. Hatcher as mayor. He became one of the first Black mayors of a…
The Gary Kid Who Flew Around the Moon First · 6.3 mi
The first human being ever to fly all the way around the moon was born right here in Gary. Frank Borman came into the world in this steel town in 1928. He grew up to become an Air Force pilot and then a NASA astronaut,…

Show all 35 nearby places

Gary, IN: Named for a Lawyer, Not a Metal · 6.3 mi
Gary, Indiana is one of the great steel cities, a place built on iron, fire, and molten metal pouring out of enormous mills. So you might assume the name comes from some material, some alloy or metal term. It doesn't.…
Gary, IN · 6.3 mi · Local history
Gary, Indiana, owes its very existence to steel. In 1906, U.S. Steel decided to build a massive new plant on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, a location chosen for its access to both iron ore shipped by lake and the…
Gary City Center Historic District · 6.3 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Witness the rise and fall of a planned industrial city in this historic downtown district. This isn't just any city center; it's the heart of a dream. Back in 1906, U.S. Steel literally built Gary from the ground up,…
Koney King: A Century of Chili Dogs · 6.4 mi
Koney King has been slinging chili dogs in Gary since 1920, which makes it one of the oldest surviving restaurants in the whole city. It was started by an immigrant named Mike Petroff, who came over from Bulgaria,…
Gary Union Station · 6.6 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine the bustling crowds of travelers who once passed through this grand, now-abandoned train station. Gary Union Station opened in 1910, serving multiple railway lines including the Baltimore & Ohio. It was designed…
American Sheet and Tin Mill Apartment Building · 6.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Look to your left at the American Sheet and Tin Mill Apartment Building, and you’re seeing one of Gary’s original “Edison Concept Houses.” These weren’t just buildings; they were a bold vision for affordable worker…
Wilbur Wynant House · 6.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever heard of Frank Lloyd Wright? This unassuming spot in Gary was once home to one of his lost masterpieces. The Wilbur Wynant House, also known as 600 Fillmore, was designed by the legendary architect himself, right…
Lake County Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Nurses Home and Superintendent's House · 8.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Look out your window! You're approaching a place that once held a terrifying secret, a disease that haunted the nation. This is the Lake County Tuberculosis Sanatorium, built in 1930, a silent witness to a battle…
Five Brothers, Four Number Ones, One Mural · 9.0 mi
Over in Gary's Miller neighborhood, on South Lake Street, a big mural celebrates the brothers who turned this steel town into a music legend: the Jackson 5. The full family that came out of one small Gary house is…
Joseph Bailly Homestead · 10.4 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine a bustling trading post in the Indiana wilderness, a place where cultures met and fortunes were made. That was the Joseph Bailly Homestead. Joseph Bailly, a fur trader, established this homestead around 1834. It…
Cowles Bog · 11.1 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Right here, in what seems like a simple bog, groundbreaking ecological work changed the way we understand nature itself. In the late 1890s, Henry Chandler Cowles, a botanist from the University of Chicago, began…
David Garland Rose House · 11.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever seen an eight-sided house? Get ready, because you’re about to! This isn't your typical square or rectangular home. It's a striking octagonal building from the 1860s, a true architectural oddity. This unique Gothic…
Meyer's Castle · 12.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Hold on, you're not in Scotland, you're in Indiana, and you're about to see a real castle! This isn't just any castle; it's Meyer's Castle, built between 1927 and 1931 by Joseph Ernest Meyer, a self-made millionaire and…
Indiana Dunes National Park · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
Fifteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with towering sand dunes, the birthplace of modern ecology in America.
Marktown · 14.0 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever imagine stepping back in time to a town built from scratch? That's Marktown. Built in 1917 by the Mark Manufacturing Company, this planned community in East Chicago, Indiana, was designed to house its workers. They…
Henry and Caroline Schrage House · 15.7 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wonder what it takes to build a city from scratch? This mansion right here is a monument to that kind of ambition. Henry Schrage, a German immigrant and Civil War veteran, didn't just settle in Whiting's Station;…
Hoosier Theater Building · 16.1 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Pull over for a sec! This building, the Hoosier Theater, was once the heart of entertainment here, a dazzling beacon in a rapidly changing world. Built in 1924, it hosted everything from hilarious vaudeville acts to the…
Wolf Lake Culvert · 16.5 mi
On May 21, 1924, two wealthy University of Chicago students named Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb picked up a fourteen-year-old boy named Bobby Franks as he walked home from school. They drove him across the state line…
House of Tomorrow (Indiana) · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Get ready to glimpse a wild vision of the future, right here in Indiana! The House of Tomorrow was a star attraction at Chicago's 1933 World's Fair. Designed as a futuristic home, this glass-walled marvel boasted an…
Armco-Ferro House · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wonder what the future looked like in the 1930s? You're driving near a house that was literally a vision of the future! The Armco-Ferro House was originally showcased at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in…
Century of Progress Architectural District · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wondered what the future looked like in 1933? Up ahead, you'll see it – literally. These aren't just old houses; they're a window into a bygone vision of tomorrow. Back in 1933, Chicago hosted the Century of…
Florida Tropical House · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Imagine finding a vibrant Florida beach house on the shores of Lake Michigan, a relic from the 1933 World's Fair. This isn't just any beach house. The Florida Tropical House was built as part of the Homes of Tomorrow…
Wieboldt-Rostone House · 16.8 mi · Scraped Hmdb
Ever wondered if a house could be built from... garbage? Well, look out your window, because you’re about to see one! This is the Wieboldt-Rostone House, a true marvel from the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. It…

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