It stood for much of the 20th century, housing approximately 30 primarily African American families,[1] until the City of East Chicago demolished it in the mid-1990s due to contamination from the adjacent Pollution Control Industries (PCI) hazardous waste mixing facility.

[2] During the early 1990s, residents had to be evacuated from the Brickyard multiple times due to fires and explosions at the PCI site.

[1][2] Despite numerous residents' complaints about unsafe practices and emissions from the facility, PCI continued in operation through a combination of bribery of local officials and obtaining advance warning of impending inspections by the state regulatory agency, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

[7] Following extensive local media coverage, the City of East Chicago evacuated the Brickyard in 1995 by designating it a redevelopment site and using the power of eminent domain to buy residents out.

[8][6] The Brickyard is one of several East Chicago neighborhoods to have been entirely depopulated as a result of toxic contamination, a pattern that continued in 2016 with the evacuation of the West Calumet Housing Complex.