Preservation ‘nerds’ see riches in ruins
Tour participants find beauty, possiblities for future in remains of city’s old and mostly shuttered buildings
Cloudy, overcast skies and light rainfall Saturday didn’t stop people, some of whom classified themselves as architectural and preservation “nerds,” from heading to downtown Gary to try to find the remains of beauty they think exists in the city’s older buildings.
“I’m an architectural nerd. I enjoy seeing old buildings and trying to determine how they can be reused in the future,” said Ava Francesca Battocchio, who was among those who took part in the Gary Preservation Tour. “I’m a staunch historic preservationist.”
Battochio, an Evanston, Ill., resident and native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was one of dozens of people who participated in the tour, which
opened a dozen old — and mostly shuttered — downtown buildings to the public.
Shuttle buses were provided by the Gary Rehabilitation Commission so people could travel from the downtown business district along Broadway to the Horace Mann and Morningside neighborhoods, where they could check out 14 homes to see the housing stock that once was typical of the Northwest Indiana city.
In the Horace Mann neighborhood, homes on display dated to 1927, while in the Morningside district that is part of Gary’s Glen Park neighborhood, homes on display dated to the 1940s.
“These are neighborhoods that have maintained their historic character and actually are homes people still live in,” said Robyn Robb, an AmeriCorps volunteer who assisted the Gary Rehabilitation Commission in organizing the second annual tour.
Last year, the preservation tour focused on downtown Gary structures such as City Hall, the onetime Gary State Bank building, the former U.S. post office, and the City Methodist Church structure that closed as a church in 1975 and has sat in ruins since a 1997 fire.
Kelly D’Angelo, a Chicago resident, said she is interested in Gary because she thinks the city is similar to Rockford, Ill., where she was born and raised.
“They’re both cities that suffered from the loss of industry,” she said, adding that she also sees them as examples of selective investment by city officials. “Perhaps things would be better if government had chosen to invest more thoroughly.”
William Godwin, a Gary resident who serves on the city’s Port District board, spent a morning checking out the sites, which he said have beauty despite the layers of graffiti that tag the walls and collapsed roofs on some of the structures.
“This appeals to the kind of people who have a touch of ‘explorer’ in them,” Godwin said. “You look at these buildings that are falling down and also see a touch of the beauty that existed in our city.”
Kat Brightwell, a Tacoma, Wash., native who lives in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, agreed.
“You see these incredible buildings and realize how special these people were to build something so amazing,” she said. “If only they have kept it going.”
While many of the people who convened in Gary on Saturday came from various parts of the Chicago area, some made longer trips, although they all had ties to Gary or Northwest Indiana. Julie Roithmeier has lived in Tampa, Fla., for nearly 30 years but included a stop on the Gary Preservation Tour as part of her vacation to visit old friends. Roithmeier said she is amazed to see how many old buildings and businesses she remembered from childhood are no more.
“A lot of stuff is gone,” she said. But Roithmeier was encouraged when she took a side trip to Gary’s Aetna neighborhood and found the house she lived in as a child remains.
“It’s still there, and it’s beautiful,” she said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.