Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Dunkirk Dunkirk, IN

Dunkirk is a small city mostly in Jay County, Indiana, with its northwestern corner spilling into Blackford County and its southern edge touching Delaware County.

The town was first settled in October 1837 by the Sutton and Shrack families and was long known as Sutton Town; Isaiah Sutton platted it as Quincy in December 1853, but because Indiana already had a Quincy post office, the town took the railroad station's name, Dunkirk.

Dunkirk is nicknamed the Glass Capital of Indiana because it once hosted 23 glass factories, some no bigger than a house, during the Indiana gas boom era.

Dunkirk is also called the Crown City because it sits on the crown of a rock dome that trapped the natural gas which fueled its glass industry.

Only one glass plant remains in Dunkirk today, an ultra-modern computerized factory employing about 400 people that turns out roughly 2.5 million beer bottles a day for Budweiser.

Dunkirk's Glass Museum on South Franklin Street displays more than 6,500 pieces of glassware made by 110 factories around the world, including its own former plants.

Dunkirk had 2,164 residents at the 2020 census, living in 892 households, down from its peak of 3,465 people in 1970.

The Dunkirk post office contains a 1941 New Deal mural, Preparations for Autumn Festival, Dunkirk, painted by artist Frances Foy.

Dunkirk's large municipal park, one of the biggest city parks in Jay County, offers baseball fields, a community center, and a swimming pool, while downtown Depot Park hosts summer concerts and weekend farmers markets.

Children in Dunkirk attend Westlawn Elementary School and the former West Jay Middle School building as part of the Jay County School Corporation, and the town is served by the Dunkirk Public Library.