Incorporated in 1868, Crown Point is the county seat of Lake County, Indiana.  With over 28,000 inhabitants, this 17.73 sq mile city is surrounded by Merrillville to the North, Winfield to the East, Cedar Lake to the Southwest, St. John to the West, and unincorporated Schererville to the Northwest.

Solon Robinson and his family were the first settlers to stake a claim in the area that would become Crown Point in late 1834.  In 1837, Lake County was incorporated, with Liverpool as the county seat.  Later that year, however, Robinson funded out of his own pocket a $500 construction project to build a new wooden county courthouse in Crown Point, and thus Crown Point became the county seat.

Because of its location, Crown Point is known as the “Hub of Lake County”.

In 1878 construction began on the Grand Old Lady, a new, more impressive county court house and clock tower. The structure was built in the center of town and would become the dominant feature of Crown Point.  In fact, in 1896, while campaigning for the U.S. presidency, William Jennings Bryan addressed a crowd in the first real political rally Crown Point ever saw from the very steps of the courthouse. 

In the 20th century, Crown Point was known for its horse racing first and then its car racing, becoming the site of the first Cobe Trophy automobile race in 1909, won that year by the ACTUAL Louis Chevrolet himself.

In the subsequent years, many famous people came through Crown Point to get married including Tom Mix, silent movie legend and heartthrob Rudolph Valentino, Mohammed Ali (when he was still Cassius Clay) and Joe Jackson as in Michael Jackson’s father.  The city was such a popular place to get married in fact that it became known as the “Marriage Mill” because it had no waiting period for marriage licenses. 

But Crown Point is probably best known around the world for its curious, if not unfortunate, connection to the gangster era during the Great Depression. On March 3, 1934, Crown Point etched its name forever in history as FBI “Public Enemy #1″ John Dillinger escaped from the Crown Point’s very own Lake County Jail. 

The infamous bank robber supposedly made a run for it using a hand-carved wooden gun blackened with shoe polish.  He further embarrassed Crown Point’s  then Sheriff Lillian Holley, by driving off in her brand new Ford V-8.

Crown Point, like much of the area in Lake County, is also knows for its less than ideal water conditions.  Crown Point in fact is notorious for having HARD WATER going back to the days of the first settlers back in the 1800’s… except back then Solon Robinson and his family could not do much about it. 

Today’s families, thanks to modern water treatment technology can.  In fact hard water is hardly a problem as are nitrates from agricultural run off, which are also common in the area.

Miracle | EcoWater’s team of factory authorized service and repair specialists are considered among the best in Lake County and offer emergency repair on a wide variety of water filtration systems for all matter of hard water, iron water and nitrate issues as well as Reverse Osmosis drinking water solutions.   Call us to solve your hard water, nitrate and drinking water needs in Crown Point, Schererville, St John, Dyer and Lowell or anywhere in Lake County.

Former Lake County courthouse in Crown Point, Indiana
Photo credit: Calvin Beale