IND. HARBOR.

Date: Circa 1908 Source Type: Postcard Publisher, Printer, Photographer: The Crose Photo Company Postmark: None Collection: Steven R. Shook Remark: This structure was located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Fir Street.

The following appears in the January 5, 1909, issue of The Lake County Times:

DEPARTMENT STORE FOR INDIANA HARBOR Henry Barker Has Plans For Building This Summer. IS OWNER OF THE FAIR STORE New Structure Will Be of Brick and Three Stories High -- Frontage of Fifty-Five Feet.

(Special to THE TIMES.) Indiana Harbor, Ind., Jan. 5. -- Before June of this year, according to the plans of Henry Barker, of this city, Indiana Harbor will have a new department store. Building along extensive lines the store will be equipped with a first-class stock which will be the equal, if not superior to anything in Lake county. Work on the new building will be commenced early this spring and the business will be under the control of Mr. Barker, and his brother, I. E. Barker, of Wheeling, West Virginia.

Our business has increased so during the past two years," said the proprietor to a TIMES reporter yesterday, "that the building of a larger store is absolutely necessary. There will be no sparing of expense in making the store the largest and best in the county."

Will Be Three Stories High. The proposed building will be of brick and three stories in height. It will have a frontage of 55 feet on Michigan avenue and extend almost 150 feet on Fir street. It is the intention of the Barkers Bros. to add another story to the building after two years should their business interests demand its increased size. The property is on the corner opposite to that on which the Barker Fair now stands and was purchased on Saturday afternoon from Albert DeWolfe Erskine, president of the Harbor Building company, Chicago, for a cash consideration of $7,500. Mr. I. E. Barker, who will assist his brother in the management of the new store, is a wholesale dealer in coats, furs and furnishing goods in the West Virginia town and is reputed to be quite wealthy.

Henry Barker is one of the Harbor's pioneer business men and the success he has met is well deserved. Harborites will join in commending him for his projected enterprise and feel satisfied that Indiana Harbor, with its fast increasing metropolitan facilities, will show its financial appreciation of the new department store.

Source: The Lake County Times, Hammond, Lake County, Indiana; January 5, 1909; Volume 3, Number 168, Page 7, Column 3.