A once vibrant Midwest school is now a symbol of blight, violent crime

GARY, Ind. — For one Midwest city, a high school has been a tragic loss for the community.

Gary, Indiana' Ralph Waldo Emerson High School was once a beautiful building buzzing with life and hope. Now, it's massive eyesore with shattered windows, floors scattered with debris and boarded up walls covered in graffiti. It's also been the site of murder and arson over the past decade.

City officials said recently there are currently no plans for demolition in the works. 

The 116-year-old crumbling campus at 716 E 7th Ave. was the city's first ever high school to serve a community centered on the steel mills along Lake Michigan's southern shore.

William A. Wirst, former Gary schools superintendent, was instrumental in designing the building and implementing a “work-study-play” philosophy. Student schedules of only traditional subjects including math, language arts and science — were a thing of the past.

The three-story building became a “total learning environment” where students engaged in core subjects and vocational and athletic classes. A foundry, gigantic gymnasium and a printing shop added to the school’s structure made it a hub for community gatherings and meetings, according to a report by Ball State University.

"Time helps you better appreciate what a dedicated faculty we had, how they nurtured but also influenced us when it came to not just subject matter, but citizenship and cultural values — all of it," said Dan Wellman, an EHS alumnus. "You didn't necessarily appreciate the history behind the building and significance to a city at the at the moment when you were going to school here. But after some time you realize it was something special."

Wirt’s work in educational reform landed Emerson a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Depopulation in the 1980s resulted in the reorganization of the district and turned Emerson into a performing arts magnet school. 

But continued population decline was, and remains, a difficult obstacle for the school district. In 2008, class was dismissed for good at Emerson. 

“I feel like most of the alumni did,” said Ken Buczek, EHS class of 1967 alumnus. “We view the building from the way it was back when we attended the school, and to see it in such disrepair after all this time, it was very disheartening.”

Buczek credited his high school education with exposing him to what was a lengthy, successful career and higher education in civil engineering and history. He fondly remembers an EHS history teacher, Chris Christoff, who inspired him to pursue an engineering degree at Purdue University and a masters degree in business administration from Indiana University. 

“Chris stood out as the best instructor I had ever had,” said Buczek. 

In the two decades since it’s doors were shuttered, the brick behemoth has been the site of multiple arsons and other violent crimes. Gary police in July 2015 discovered the body of 17-year-old Connita L. Richardson inside the school. Richardson died from asphyxiation second to strangulation according to the Lake County coroner’s office, and her death was ruled a homicide. 

At the time, former Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said that the city had been able to secure funds for home demolitions but struggled to get financial assistance for larger commercial structures. 

Melton and fellow city officials on March 10 kicked off the second year of volunteer demolition efforts in Aetna, another Gary neighborhood, which would leave the area blight-free by the end of the year.  

In 2024, the city demolished 35 blighted structures in the same neighborhood, and 49 property owners improved or fully renovated their properties. Several companies donated labor to the effort, including Rieth-Riley Construction, Hasse Construction and Superior Construction. 

“You’ll see more efforts coming soon in a tremendous way,” Melton said at the March 10 press conference, adding that the city plans to work on the Emerson and Midtown areas next. “I think this is going to transform the entire city once we start the downtown blight elimination.” 

In the meantime, local efforts to memorialize the schools are underway. Buczek and fellow EHS alumni are planning a historical marker that would be added to a larger memorial that would utilize salvaged building materials from the high school. 

“Our alumni group raised sufficient funds to order a historic marker for the site through the Indiana State Library,” Buczek said. “The marker is on the manufacturer’s production schedule and should be completed by the end of this year or early next year.”