School of Thought

For four years, Portage’s Garyton School looked like it was headed for a date with the wrecking ball. Today, thanks to community feedback and creative thinking, the city has changed course, planning instead to preserve and reuse one of the city’s few remaining historic civic buildings.

Located along the Gary & Valparaiso Electric Railway, Garyton developed in the early twentieth century as suburb of Gary. The railway provided workers with an easy commute from their quiet neighborhood to jobs in the larger city’s steel mills and manufacturing facilities. By the time Garyton was incorporated into the town of Portage in 1959, it boasted a population of more than 5,000 people.

The Garyton School started as a brick, two-room schoolhouse in 1923 and continually evolved to serve the growing population. In 1927, the school grew and improved with a second-story addition and indoor plumbing. More classrooms and a combination gymnasium-auditorium were added in 1938 with financial support from the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration.

Two Mid-Century Modern additions constructed in 1955 and 1964 disguise the brick Neoclassical building from the road. The school closed not long after, though the building continued to serve as an adult education facility and food pantry. In 2016, the Portage School Corporation transferred the building to the City of Portage with a contract to find a find a new use for the building by 2020 or bring in the wrecking ball.

Facing an estimated $480,000 price tag for demolition, the City, led by its redevelopment commission, went back to the drawing board. Community leaders and city officials came together to reimagine how the Garyton School could be an asset for Portage and its residents.

A community visioning study revealed the need for a community center — an intergenerational space that could preserve local history and connect to the future by providing flexible studio, meeting, co-working and entertaining spaces and an array of educational programming.

The Garyton School’s sound structure, water-tight roofs, and historic character provide a great shell for the proposed reuse. The early twentieth-century building’s handsome red and brown bricks and limestone are still visible on the back side, and inside original classrooms retain their tall ceilings, hardwood floors, and built-in cabinets. The mid-century additions feature a continuous window curtain system that provides plenty of natural light, with attractive brick walls and terrazzo stairs inside.

Rehabilitation of the 40,000-square-foot building is expected to cost $3.1 million. The City plans to complete the project in stages, with the first phase beginning once the funds are secured.

For more information, contact Brad Miller, director of Indiana Landmarks’ Northwest Field Office, 219-947-2657, bmiller@indianalandmarks.org.