Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

21st Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Artistic
In-between Time and Space Series #6 - Marktown.

Hidden behind the large BP refinery in East Chicago, Indiana, lies a small town with narrow streets and old European-scale homes.   Once a thriving community, Marktown was a planned company town founded by Clayton Mark and designed by Howard Van Doren Show for workers at Mark Manufacturing in 1917. Unlike the Pullman community in Chicago which has been preserved with the status of National Historical Park, Marktown is one of many company towns that have slowly been abandoned, boarded up or demolished because of company shutdowns, worker exodus and residual pollutants. Abandoned houses, businesses, and occupied homes stand next to each other with the memory of the past. Marktown remains a working-class community with an uncertain future. Some people remain: like a man named Paul living in a house his grandparents had bought and now home to four generations including his son. The ashes of his grandparents and parents are scattered around a small park, the green field nearby. He wants his ashes scattered there as well. I was touched by his sense of belonging and being so rooted in a place that history has forgotten.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2023
Date Uploaded: 11.2023
Photo Location: Marktown, Indiana, United States of America
Camera: NIKON D850
Copyright: © Iwona Biedermann