We’ve viewed and thought of Gary, Indiana as an urban ruin for so long, we’ve forgotten what the city once was.

I found the above video on YouTube yesterday. It shows what the steel town looked like around 1960: a vibrant city of more than 100,000 souls. Broadway — Gary’s main drag — bustles with commerce and even a parade in the video. We see a new, modern school, the Marquette Park bathhouse, designed by Chicago architects Maher & Sons and more.

The video was posted on YouTube by Anthony Diaz, director of imaging for the Mid-American Heritage Preservation Foundation, a non-profit group in Whiting, Indiana that digitally restores old film depicting Northwest Indiana. More good stuff to watch here.