Michael Jackson's boyhood home in Gary still draws curious

GARY, Ind. -- Michael Jackson fans and curious sightseers still are beating a path to his boyhood home more than three weeks after his death on June 25.

A memorial of stuffed animals, flowers and photos of Jackson provide a backdrop for fans who wanted to be filmed or photographed in front of the house at 2300 Jackson St. where the King of Pop, his siblings and their parents lived until 1969.

"It's tiny, for a lot of kids," Hector Valenzuela, 60, of Burnham, Ill.

He was among a steady stream of about 50 onlookers at a time who gawked and shot photographs and videotape of the one-level structure, where the lawn has been trampled and police tape across the front of the house bars entry.

"It's much smaller than I had anticipated," said Janice Bowman, a resident of Huntsville, Ala., who came to the house Saturday with her husband. "We're just longtime Michael Jackson fans."

Jackson spent the first 11 years of his life in Gary before the Jackson 5 struck it big in 1969 and the family relocated to the West Coat. Jackson came back to Gary just once, in 2003.

Five vendor booths outside the home still hawk Jackson T-shirts, DVDs, CDs, posters, buttons and other memorabilia. One poster alluded to Jackson's fantasy retreat: "From Gary Indiana to Neverland."

Selling T-shirts was Gary's William Salaam, who said business remains steady.

"It's consistent," he said. "The people are coming from further away. Gary has gone global."

Chatter from vendors indicated that fans from Spain and West Africa had made the pilgrimage in recent days to the home, which was still being used as a residence when Jackson died at the age of 50.

Posts just outside the house were scribbled with written messages from followers of the music legend, while a banner taped to the side of the home decreed, "We miss you MJ."