Beverly Shores, Indiana
The short history:
Beverly Shores is the product of land speculation. In May 1927, Chicago real estate developer Frederick H. Bartlett purchased 3,000 acres of lake front lands from the estates of local owners.
In the summer of 1929, the western portion of the development, extending from Lake Shore County Road to State Park Road, was opened for sales. A second train station was constructed on Broadway, north of U.S. Highway 12. The area had been plotted into fifty foot lots.
In 1933 Frederick H. Bartlett sold all of his northwest Indiana properties to his younger brother, Robert Bartlett. Robert touted the community and its attractions with the promotional flair of a born salesman.
In 1935, Robert Bartlett purchased 16 structures from the 1933-34 “A Century of Progress”, Chicago World’s Fair and moved them to Beverly Shores. Four of the buildings from the Homes and Industrial Arts exhibit of the fair were barged across Lake Michigan and relocated to their permanent site on the lakefront. These houses include the House of Tomorrow, the Florida House, the Rostone House and the Armco-Ferro house. The Cypress Log Cabin was dismantled at the fair site and trucked to Beverly Shores. All five of these structures are located within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
By 1946 Robert Bartlett Realty Company had sold most of its property and moved on to concentrate on developments in suburban Chicago. The community was incorporated as a State of Indiana town on January 1, 1947.
In the mid-nineteen-sixties, a movement to include Beverly Shores in the proposed Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore began. When Congress authorized the National Lakeshore in 1966, two-thirds of the town's acreage became part of the park.
In 1971, another effort was started to include the remainder of the Town in the Lakeshore. In 1980, after nine years of Congressional consideration, a parcel of land bordering the Town to the south became part of the National Lakeshore, but the center of the community, the Island, and land bordering U.S. 12, the Strip, were excluded.
Welcome to The Town of Beverly Shores!