State historical marker recognizes IU Northwest
University and civic leaders help to celebrate legacies of the past
As immigrants poured into Gary to work at U.S. Steel at the turn of the 20th century, leaders soon recognized the young city needed a place for higher learning.
By 1921, Indiana University began offering courses in Lake County and that presence endured and blossomed into a permanent campus in 1959.
On Thursday, university and civic leaders celebrated the erection of a state historical marker commemorating Indiana University Northwest’s roots in the region.
“We’re here to celebrate the history of Indiana University Northwest,” said Chancellor Ken Iwama.
“We know our present and future are built upon the great legacies of the past.”
The two-sided marker stands on the north side of 35th Avenue outside the Anderson Library Conference Center.
Its dedication came as IU’s Board of Trustees, led by president Quinn Buckner, converged on the campus for its two-day business meeting.
IU President Pamela Whitten said IUN’s marker is the last of five placed at regional campuses across the state following the university’s bicentennial anniversary in 2020.
She said the regional campuses complement the main campus in Bloomington, offering accessibility and affordability. IUN ranks as the university’s most diverse campus, with an enrollment of about 25% Hispanic students and 15% Black students.
Importantly, she said, about three-quarters of IUN’s graduates continue to work and live in Northwest Indiana.
Gary Mayor Jerome Prince said IUN is a critical partner in the success of the region. “IUN has been a staple for helping families achieve their greatness.”
He didn’t address the crowd, but IUN history professor emeritus James B. Lane said the marker symbolizes the high regard IU has for its Gary campus.
Lane has chronicled the history of IUN and Gary, including “City of the Century” and “Educating the Calumet Region, A History of Indiana University Northwest.”
Lane said IU initially held classes at high schools in Gary as
the city’s population ballooned.
He said legendary school superintendent William A. Wirt started the Gary College in 1932 at Horace Mann High School where classes were held at night.
“Superintendent Wirt felt it was important for people to go to college,” Lane said.
Professors from the University of Chicago journeyed to Gary to teach because the Depression reduced their classroom time.
Called IU’s Gary Extension Center, Lane said classes moved in 1947 to downtown Gary at Seaman Hall, a site within the historic City Methodist Church at 577 Washington St.
In 1959, students and staff members celebrated the move to Glen Park, walking from Seaman Hall south on Broadway to IUN’s first building called Gary Main.
Lane remembered that Glen Park residents opposed the new 27-acre campus on land the university purchased from the city. “The city wanted it on the west side,” Lane said. “IU said Glen Park or nothing.”
He credited then-mayor Peter Mandich for brokering the move and IUN marked its first graduating class in 1967.
Lane said IUN has witnessed a few controversies in its past. When a 100-year Little Calumet River flood wiped the campus’s first building, renamed Tamarack Hall in 2008, there was talk of moving away from the river and merging with Purdue Calumet.
By then, however, IUN had several campus buildings and an IU School of Medicine campus, so the move never materialized.
In 2012, the flood resulted in the demolition of Tamarack Hall.
In 2017, it was replaced by a new $45 million Arts and Sciences Building shared with Ivy Tech Community College.