The builder Karl Hohenberger obtained the land and then saw his real estate development financed in part by Al Capone, who enabled him to build the first house according to his specifications that included steel skeleton to support the massive weight of a Spanish barrel-tile roof and concrete floors between the house's stories.

This house also features the inclusion of steel plates in its outside walls in order to render it bullet-proof to the standards of the day.

Capone and his organization used this house as a collection point for the proceeds of their bootlegged liquor, prostitution and other rackets that went on unchecked in Hammond until the early 1930s.

The house was employed as a detention point for those customers of Capone who were unable to pay him timely and has bulletholes on its outside and inside to attest to the ruthlessness of that notorious criminal organization.

This article about a property in Lake County, Indiana on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.