MICHIGAN CITY INDIANA
If you’d like to get just far enough from the big city but rural living isn’t quite your cup of tea, consider looking for a home in Michigan City. With a population of 30,000, 42 miles from Chicago, Michigan City has grown into a hub of the shoreline with lots of the amenities you’re looking for and a whole lot less traffic. The pace is slower here, yet you’ll find that anything you need is in easy reach. If your idea of lakeside bliss involves a historic lighthouse, a boardwalk, and a busy harbor, Michigan City may be your cup of tea.
LIFE IN MICHIGAN CITY: BASICS
This is the kind of town that results when working-class grit blends with great natural beauty and intelligence: a fine public library, a fully-accredited hospital, educational resources ranging from pre-K to two college campuses, and regular commuter rail service to Chicago.
OUTDOORS
The waterfront is dominated by Washington Park, where locals go to swim, hike, birdwatch, boat-watch, people-watch, ice skate, and attend a wide variety of festivals. The Old Lighthouse Museum, the zoo, the and the boat basin are just a few high points. Then there’s Michigan City’s portion of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a gateway to fifteen miles of white sand, tall dunes, wetlands, prairies and a lifetime’s worth of fun and exploration. Two of Indiana’s finest public golf courses and Pottawattomie Country Club- complete with pro shop, clubhouse and pool- offer yet another species of outdoor fun.
CULTURE
Art lovers will find plenty of soul food. The Lubeznik Center for the Arts, the Southern Shore Art Association, and a variety of galleries offer exhibits and educational program for all ages. Ponder history at the Barker Mansion, a classic English manor house built in 1857, among the many preserved architectural gems of the downtown historic district, at the Great Lakes Museum of Military History, or awaiting your train at the 1914 railroad depot.
Five theatre companies offer productions of all sorts, from well-loved musicals to avant-garde and cutting-edge. And there’s free music in Washington Park all season long.
SHOPPING
Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets is home to 120 upscale retailers, and the Antique Market of Michigan City brings 140 vendors together under one roof. For groceries, you can shop at Al’s Supermarket, family-owned for 65 years and featuring a coffee shop with a fireplace- or call WeGo Shop and have groceries, restaurant takeout, and even your prescriptions and dry cleaning delivered right to your door. The weekly farmer’s market operated by the Main Street Association and the Riverside Market are great sources of local produce, artisanal foods, fresh flowers, herbs and more.
GOING OUT
If you feel like eating out, you’ll find plenty of choices- everything from classic fine dining and steakhouses to pizza, deli, Chinese takeout (or eat-in) and pub grub, not to mention a fine winery and a craft brewery.
A number of Michigan City establishments offer live entertainment on weekend evenings, and there are always festivals and special events going on, both in city parks and at a variety of private venues.
Blue Chip Casino, familiarly called “The Boat,” is a floating casino complete with restaurants, shops, and a full service spa.
A LITTLE HISTORY…
The state of Indiana was just fourteen years old in 1830, when Isaac C. Elston invested $200 in purchasing 160 acres at the mouth of Trail Creek. Isaac originally thought he had found the perfect location to grow a major Lake Michigan harbor town, which never quite worked out, partly because of competition from another young city named Chicago and partly because the lake seemed to have other ideas. No sooner would the early developers dredge a channel when the sands would shift, undoing their work.
Meanwhile, though, travelers headed west from New York and New England were finding Michigan City a beautiful spot to call home. The sands may not have encouraged deep-water shipping, but they formed glorious dunes. The land wasn’t great for farming, but flowers and berries were abundant. Trail Creek made a great spot for gristmills.
And the entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well. With the rise of railroads, Michigan City found itself ideally located as a transit hub of another sort. A visionary grain shipper named John Barker realized that there was a growing need for freight cars for the nation’s new rail system, and established a factory that would thrive for over a century, offering families from all over the world the chance to make a good living in a beautiful spot.
MICHIGAN CITY LAKEFRONT PROPERTY CHOICES include everything from easy-care condos by the harbor to classic shore homes in both ultramodern and conventional architectural styles. There are even some vacant parcels waiting for you to build your lakeshore dream. Let Paul Zubrys be your buyer’s broker, and find the Michigan City home that’s perfect for you.
INSIDER INFO on Michigan City:
City By The Lake forum and message board
Michigan City News-Dispatch
DISCLAIMER: This brief profile of Michigan City cannot possibly tell you all there is to know. Call Paul Zubrys; he’ll let you know about the good, the bad and the ugly- and if there’s anything he doesn’t already know, he knows who to ask.
Happy home hunting.
