Portage seeks ideas for former Garyton School
Consulting group holds an open house to get input from community
Mollie Ivaldi had a message for the old Garyton School in Portage, written in red marker on the wall of what once was the principal’s office:
“Great being back (I taught second grade in 1968-69 – one of my favorite times!)”
Ivaldi, along with former students who once attended school at the building, curious residents and city officials, checked out the school, 5391 Central Ave., during an open house Thursday to help the community envision the school’s future, which could include an intergenerational cafe, a performance stage, meeting rooms and other amenities.
“I think it’s marvelous. We have a senior center in Hobart that had been a middle school. It’s a wonderful place,” Ivaldi, of Hobart, said of the possibilities for Garyton School. “Anything for the community is a benefit.”
Ivaldi hadn’t been back in the building since she taught there, when she had a new baby and was renting a nearby house. She had 18 students at the time.
She told her husband she had to go check out the school for the nostalgia.
“I’m so glad they didn’t tear it down like my high school in Gary,” Ivaldi said. She said she graduated from Lew Wallace High School, which could be demolished next year.
Over the years, the building, first constructed in 1922 with additions in 1955 and 1964, served the city as a school, an adult education center and a food pantry. It’s been unused for about five years.
The Portage Township Schools sold the building to the city’s redevelopment for a nominal fee in 2018, officials have said. While the cost to demolish it was around $480,000, Councilwoman Gina Giese-Hurst, D-1st, instead reached out to A.J. Monroe, the city’s director of planning and community development, about saving the building.
Tina Rongers, the founder and CEO of Karnerblue Era, part of a consulting team that also included Mix Design and Holladay Properties and Construction and came up with concepts for the school, went over a display that outlined the building’s new possibilities, realized in phases.
“What we’re presenting to the community is to let them know we listened to what they were telling us,” Rongers said, noting focus groups held to get feedback from residents, “and we’re listening to what the building is telling us.”
Though structurally sound, Monroe said during a recent volunteer cleanup day in advance of the open house that the building needs roof work. The greater needs include electrical,
plumbing and heating/ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Rongers said the open house was to get feedback from the community on the proposals for the building. A cost estimate for the plans, as well as possible funding sources, will be presented to the city’s Redevelopment Commission at 4 p.m. Thursday at Woodland Park.
Mayor Sue Lynch and Giese-Hurst wandered into one of the empty classrooms during the open house.
“You know what’s neat about this — all of this is solid brick,” Lynch said. “It makes you glad you didn’t make the decision to tear it down.”
“I just love the history,” Giese-Hurst said.
Later, Lynch said the city has a choice to either demolish its old school buildings or turn them into something that’s better than what they were.
The Portage Fire Department is interested in using space in Garyton School for training and a preschool also is interested, Lynch said, adding the building can be used for community events and craft classes, among other possibilities.
Regardless of how it’s used, Lynch said the building will have to be financially sustainable because the Redevelopment Commission can’t be its funding source. City officials will have to be creative about the building’s use and they will be because of the community interest, she said.
“It’s open. It’s welcoming. I just think great things will happen here,” she said.
Friends Carol Funke and Terri Fabian met while they were elementary school classmates at Garyton and, like Ivaldi, came to the open house for a peek into the building.
“We’re both really nostalgic people,” said Funke, who still lives in Portage and said that she and Fabian, who now lives in Hobart, made lifelong friends in the building.
Funke was excited for Garyton School’s future, as was Fabian.
“I think it’s awesome because I heard at one point, they were thinking of taking it down completely,” Fabian said. “I would love to see it get a new life.”