What replaces a gallery on a block that was built around art? In downtown Hammond, the South Shore Arts gallery at Substation No. 9 closed earlier this year, and its space is going to a firefighters' event hall with a rooftop. A soul food restaurant is coming a few doors down Fayette Street. An old bank building on Hohman Avenue will hold two restaurants. The event hall and the restaurant both target 2027. The bank project doesn't have a date yet.
The block is being rebuilt around food and gathering, with the Towle Theater still in the middle of it. Between now and then, the Towle and Paul Henry's Art Gallery hold the block on their own, and both have dates on the calendar.
Three Neighbors, Now Two
For years, the gallery, the theater and the art dealer worked together. The Times of Northwest Indiana described the South Shore Arts space at Substation No. 9 as an arts hub alongside Paul Henry's Art Gallery and the Towle Theatre, with regular exhibits, art classes and artists in residence. According to Northwest Indiana Business Magazine, the gallery had been there since 1998 and closed earlier in 2026.
That leaves two of the original three open this season.
Towle Theater is at 5205 Hohman Avenue. Towle Performing Arts Company runs it, and Emily Nelson is executive director. The fall show, William Goldman's stage version of Stephen King's Misery, closed after its Oct. 9–11 weekend.
Paul Henry's Art Gallery is at 416 Sibley Street. Its South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority listing says it represents more than 150 artists working in many styles and media, at a wide range of prices, and hosts acoustic events. The listing also describes it as near the Towle. The gallery is still used as a working room for local artists. The South Lake Artists Co-op held a figure drawing session there on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 14. The listing doesn't give regular hours, so call (219) 932-0165 before you stop by.
What the Towle Has Between Now and New Year's
The theater's next production is A Christmas Carol, in a Jim LaPietra adaptation, running Dec. 4 through Dec. 20. The Towle's ticketing page on Tix lists nine performances over three weekends:
- Fridays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18: 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: 7:30 p.m.
- Saturdays, Dec. 12 and 19: 2 p.m.
- Sundays, Dec. 6, 13 and 20: 2 p.m.
General admission is $38.25 per seat including fees, bought online. Tix also sells 2027 season tickets, priced from $106.50 to $132.75 with fees.
If you're bringing family, the Towle doesn't admit anyone under 6, and it doesn't post content advisories. Questions about a specific show go to the box office at 219-937-8780.
Notice the Saturday schedule. Only opening Saturday has an evening curtain. The other two Saturdays are matinees, so a mid-December Saturday at the Towle ends in mid-afternoon. That matters for the next part of this story, because the rooms meant for before-show dinners and after-show drinks downtown aren't open yet.
Where the Gallery Was, a Rooftop Is Coming
The Hammond Professional Firefighters Association Local 556 bought the building at 435 Fayette Street from the Hammond Redevelopment Commission and plans to open it in 2027. The Times reports that the building was originally a NIPSCO substation. It will become a firefighter union hall that hosts special events, can be rented out, and has a bar and rooftop views.
The art isn't leaving entirely. Northwest Indiana Business Magazine reports that the space will include artwork depicting Hammond's firefighters, along with entertainment and private-event space. In the same article, union president Mike Hull called it "an affordable, modern venue featuring the region's first rooftop spot west of Valparaiso and north of Route 30." He described it as "just 75 feet from the new South Shore Line with downtown Hammond in the background," and added, "Get ready: street parties and major events arrive in 2027!"
So the building that once hung exhibits will be used for gatherings, drinks and outdoor events instead. That's the same shift happening up and down the block.
The Two Restaurant Projects Bracketing the Towle
Here are the incoming projects side by side:
| Address | Most recent use | Planned use | Stated timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 435 Fayette St. | South Shore Arts gallery, Substation No. 9 | Firefighters' event venue with bar and rooftop | 2027 |
| 475 Fayette St. | Not stated in reporting | Tootie's Chicken & Fish, sit-down restaurant with bar | Summer 2027 target |
| 5243 Hohman Ave. | Mercantile National Bank Building | Two ground-floor restaurants, 24 apartments above | Not yet announced |
Tootie's Chicken & Fish plans to move from its location at 6022 Columbia Avenue to 475 Fayette Street, two addresses up the street from the old gallery. The Times reported that the new Tootie's will be a full-service, upscale sit-down soul food restaurant with a bar and private space, aiming to open by summer 2027. Chef and owner Batiste Haywood is taking on the project with an incentive from the Hammond Redevelopment Commission. He told the paper he wants to bring over staples from the original location, including chicken, fish and shrimp, with a menu inspired by the South and drawing on cooking from New Orleans to the Southeast.
The former Mercantile National Bank Building at 5243 Hohman Avenue is on the same stretch of Hohman as the Towle at 5205. On Oct. 8, the City of Hammond announced an approved development and purchase agreement to turn the building into two ground-floor restaurants with 24 residential units on the top four floors. The restaurants haven't been named, and the city says grand opening timelines and a ribbon-cutting will be announced later.
Every confirmed new use near the Towle is about eating, drinking or hosting a crowd. None of them is a new gallery or a second stage. The theater stays the anchor, and the new tenants are betting that people who come downtown for a show will want somewhere to go before and after it.
The Station Everyone Keeps Mentioning
That bet depends on one more 2027 project. Hammond broke ground on April 16, 2026, on a city-funded downtown South Shore Line station near Oakley Avenue and Russell Street, close to the Erie Lackawanna Trail and the federal courthouse. InkFreeNews reported the cost at $10 million and a build time of about a year. In its Oct. 8 announcement, the city said the station on the South Shore Monon Corridor "remains calendared for completion in 2027." It also said the station will connect downtown workers and residents to the Chicago Loop in a little over 30 minutes.
Both the firefighters' union and the city tie their downtown plans to that station. For someone who already lives in Hammond, it also means the Towle's audience in 2027 could include people arriving by train from Chicago, and the new restaurants will be competing for them.
Before the Rooftop Opens
Until then, the block's calendar this season belongs to the Towle and Paul Henry's. Two citywide events also fall within the run-up to A Christmas Carol:
- Veteran's Appreciation Day Parade, Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. This is the 13th annual parade. It runs from Olcott Avenue down 173rd Street to the Veterans Memorial at Hessville Park, followed by a short program.
- Hammond Holiday Parade, Saturday, Dec. 5, 10 a.m. The route goes from Gavit High School to Hammond Sportsplex, and the city is also inviting residents to the free-to-enter Santa Sprint Fun Run, which starts at 175th and Indianapolis.
The Holiday Parade lands on the opening weekend of A Christmas Carol. Dec. 5 is also the one Saturday with an evening curtain at the Towle. You could do the parade in the morning and the 7:30 p.m. show at 5205 Hohman that night.
Downtown Hammond is one of the places Lizanne Pilot watches most closely across Northwest Indiana, and the Fayette and Hohman projects will keep shifting as the restaurant tenants are named and the station gets closer to opening. If you'd like to talk through what these changes mean for your own corner of the city, visit the Hammond neighborhood page or reach out directly. Let's Connect.
