GARY — Rembrandt prints once lined the walls of Emerson High School where students frolicked in the nation’s first indoor school pool more than a century ago.
The school became a mecca for educators who came from across the country to learn how Superintendent William A. Wirt meshed blue collar with culture.
Those glory days are long gone, but some of its supporters hope the iconic school named after the free-thinking 19th-century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, can dodge the wrecking ball.
Demolition hasn’t been suggested, but the school is silently rotting away at 7th Avenue and Carolina Street, a visual reminder of the decline of a once-proud neighborhood and a city.
Windows are broken, or boarded up. Rainwater flows freely through the roof and paint has peeled off the walls. An “urban explorer” recently documented the decline with photos on a website after an unannounced visit to the school.
Ken Fager, of Whitewater, Wis., said he loves to visit old historic buildings and learn about their history.
“I don’t break and enter,” he said. When he visited Emerson, he did wear a respirator and protective gear. “There was a terrible storm and there was flowing water on all the stairwells. The bottom floor had 4 feet of standing water.”
Recurring problems with mold prompted school officials to shutter Emerson in 2007. Since then, vandals and scrappers poach what’s left.
“When I see this, it just tells you what shape the city is in,” said former student Lorraine East, of Crown Point, as she gazed at the school during a recent visit. “I have fond memories of this school, but it hurts my heart. This is sad, it’s a historical site gone, but I feel honored to have gotten my start here.”
A school for the masses
Wirt, Gary’s first school superintendent, designed the academic plan for Emerson, which was dedicated in 1908.
Its hallways house a rich and historic legacy, reflective of the nation’s struggle with racial issues, immigrant assimilation, and Wirt’s abiding belief that children — no matter their backgrounds — could enrich their lives through an appreciation of art and music.
Oscar winner Karl Malden graduated from Emerson along with actor and NFL star Alex Karras.
Gary Community School Corp., which still owns Emerson, doesn’t have immediate plans for the building. Emerson has not appeared on a list of schools up for sale, however.
“I would love to see it as a multicultural center, a melting pot dedicated to all the ethnic groups who developed the city,” said school board member Marion Williams. “It would be a tremendous facility, in the shadow of the mill, an athletic hall of fame could be a component.”
A tragic loss
Retired librarian Kendall Svengalis, a 1965 Emerson graduate who lives in North Stonington, Conn., is researching a book on the school.
“Emerson is probably the most famous high school building constructed in the 20th century,” he said. “Not to preserve it in some way would not only be a tragedy for Gary, but a great historical loss to the country,” he said.
While Emerson has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1995, that doesn’t guarantee its longevity.
“It’s an honorary designation, it doesn’t provide protection,” said Tiffany Tolbert, Northwest field office director for Indiana Landmarks, a not-for-profit organization that advocates the preservation of historic properties.
She said there had been some interest in reviving Emerson but nothing ever materialized. Tolbert said if the school district remains as the owner of the school, it must be the one to request assistance. “If they do have a plan, we’re more than willing to help them with that,” she said.
School officials, like Williams, share dreams for the school, but there’s barely enough money to keep existing schools afloat as the district struggles to trim $11 million from its budget.
Saving the neighborhood
Anthony Broadnax grew up in Gary during the 1980s and would have graduated from Emerson, but it closed despite community opposition in 1981.
The school reopened a few years later as the specialized Emerson School for Visual and Performing Arts where students needed to demonstrate an affinity for the arts for admission.
Broadnax, of Munster, is trying to revitalize the Emerson neighborhood and recognizes the school as its anchor. “The Emerson area has a lot of significant architecture, the homes are more modest and it’s more financially feasible to renovate.”
A civil engineer who calls himself “a building freak,” Broadnax has led a series of cleanups in the neighborhood.
“I’m looking to brand the school building as one of the key focal points of the community,” he said. Broadnax links the stabilization of neighborhoods like Emerson and Horace Mann to the city’s rebirth.
Wirt’s legacy
Svengalis, who wrote his master’s thesis on the Gary schools, said Emerson’s history intrigues him. He said Wirt’s famous “work-study-play” education platoon system was copied across the country.
“They even tried to adopt the work-study-play system in New York but some people thought it was trying to indoctrinate kids into being factory workers.”
Svengalis said Wirt believed that even if youths were destined to work in gritty steel mills, they should have a liberal arts background and appreciation of music. He said Emerson not only had the country’s first swimming pool, but also the first auditorium.
As Gary’s black population swelled, schools remained segregated. Because of overcrowding, 18 blacks attended classes at Emerson in 1927, prompting a walkout by 600 white students.
Wirt struck a compromise. Blacks were transferred out and money was earmarked for a new black high school — Roosevelt.
By 1945, civic groups pressed school officials to halt their segregation policy. White students again began boycotting classes. Finally, the district didn’t compromise, adopting a policy banning discrimination.
By the 1960s and 1970s, the school was fully integrated.
Svengalis remembers a school where masterpieces graced the walls.
“This grand monument existed for more than 100 years,” said Svengalis. “It would be great if they could turn it into something.”