Clint Eastwood made his career by playing The Man With No Name in a mid-1960s Western trilogy that concluded with "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."
Hammond has a federal courthouse that has alternately been called all three of those adjectives, and like Eastwood's gunslinger, it likewise has no name.
There are three other courthouses in the Northern District of Indiana, and all have their own identity.
Fort Wayne has the E. Ross Adair Federal Building, named after a Noble County-born lawyer and World War II combat hero who served 20 years in the U.S. House (1950-70) and was named ambassador to Ethiopia by President Nixon. Adair (1907-83) had his portrait painted by Norman Rockwell, to boot.
Lafayette's Charles Halleck Federal Building is named after the DeMotte Republican who served in the U.S. House from 1935 to 1969, was majority leader in two terms of Congress and was minority leader in three. Halleck (1900-86) also has DeMotte's main street named for him.
In South Bend, there is the Robert A. Grant Federal Building, named for the U.S. representative who served from 1939-49 and went on to be named a federal judge who sat in South Bend from 1957-72.
The federal buildings in the Southern District of Indiana are likewise named for Indiana senators, representatives and in one instance, a Hoosier-born associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
This leaves Hammond as the orphan courthouse.
In the interest of changing this situation as well as getting a couple of freebie columns out of it, I invite you to e-mail or mail me with your suggestions for the Hammond courthouse, and I'll print either the best or all of them depending on how many people respond.
I think enough things have been named after Adam Benjamin Jr., the late congressman who preceded Pete Visclosky and who has the Gary metro station and the local Veterans Administration clinic named for him, despite serving from only 1977 until his 1982 death.
There's Ray J. Madden (1892-1987), a Minnesota native who moved to Gary after World War I and served in the U.S. House from 1943 until 1977. Or even Visclosky himself, who secured the funding for the new federal building and has served in the U.S. House since 1984.
Or maybe you have a better idea. In fact, you probably do. Your suggestion can be serious, it can be humorous, it can be in good taste or it can be added to my collection of e-mails that can't be printed but are too good to delete.
Please accompany each suggestion with a brief reason you think the person deserves the honor, and feel free to include your full name or a first name, plus the town you live in.
No salesman will call.
The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.
