Table of Contents                                 Home Page

           The image of Kenwood was clear through the advertisements and monologues of the time.  The advertisements appealed to those of all economic means.  To create the garden city environment the advertisements showed tree lined streets and large lawns.  Advertisements boasted the largest and most beautiful lawns and the most attention paid to the landscape than any other subdivision.  Another aspect that set Kenwood apart was all the modern conveniences.  As advertised the Kenwood subdivision had the deepest sewers, paved streets, concrete sidewalks, and tree lined parkways^^.  Advertisements painted a picture of the centrally located garden city of the future.  The advertisements showed the magnificent brick houses that came with large porches, larger rooms, modern electric light fixtures, the most recent in kitchen appliances, and furnishings.  The monologues and advertisements spoke of the modern house and the space provided in the interior of these houses because of the modern conveniences.  These modern conveniences were just as important as the houses themselves.  The advertised conveniences set Kenwood apart from other subdivisions in Hammond.  The monologues left the target audience open welcoming the merchant, the doctor, the lawyer, the clerk, the banker, the railroad man, and the ordinary citizen.  These advertisements appeared in the local Lake County Times newspaper.  They illustrated the houses set in the planned environment.  These advertisements showed a range of houses from large houses to smaller bungalows leaving the development open to a working class while still appealing to the buyers with money.

            Those who responded to the advertisements were of a higher class.  The majority of buyers were white-collar businessmen and professionals.  There houses were built on the curved streets with the parkways. The high-class buyers houses were the largest and built in the setting that Woods and Martin envisioned.  These men were businessmen in the community.  The residents of Kenwood owned the local stores, managed the banks, defend the criminals, cared for the sick, and even sold real estate for both Frank R. Martin and Roscoe E. Woods** lived in the Kenwood subdivision.  George Mina’s owner of the Minas Furniture store in downtown Hammond called Kenwood home.  Along with other pillars of Hammond such as Lee L. Caldwell superintendent of Hammond Public Schools of which a Hammond Public Elementary school is currently named after.

Most of the residents of Kenwood had a short commute to work for most of them had offices in downtown Hammond.

  On the other hand Kenwood was the home to blue-collar workers as well.  These men were able to afford the housing by renting from investors.  The working classes houses were built on the streets that were not curved but straight.  Their houses were not set in the same high standards advertised in the monologues.  Their houses were not set in a parkway with tree lined streets and large spaces between houses.  They were set on straight streets and their neighbors all worked in similar areas of labor.

              Working class residents in Kenwood often lived in smaller developments and usually called on their children to work to help with the payments.  Kenwood’s location served convenient for workers because it was located close to the downtown allowing for a minimal commute.  

            The Kenwood subdivision gained notoriety even before it was built.  Through monologues and advertisements the image of a wealthy community was presented and sold.  Using the images in the advertisements and enforcing restrictions the high-class subdivision came into fruition.  The subdivision held the modern conveniences desired in a changing society.  And reduced the commute for many businessmen in the area.  Kenwood was ultimately a huge success and was home to the most influential men of early Hammond.  The development was so successful, Woods and Martin, were called upon again to add an extension to the Kenwood subdivision and answered with the Maywood development.  These two development attributes was their location south of the industry in Hammond.  The wealthy residents of Hammond were far from the industry in Hammond but were close to the prominent downtown area.

        Woods & Martin would decide to collaborate on another subdivision, it would be called Woodmar (named by combining the first parts of the two last names):

More on the Woodmar/Kenwood Story

^^ Here 'Parkways' refer to the land in between the sidewalk and street.

** Frank R. Martin would continue to live in Kenwood throughout the 1920s, but Roscoe E. Woods would go on to have a luxurious home built for himself in the Woodmar subdivision.