Marquette Park (Gary)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Marquette_Park_Pavilion_%28Gary%2C_Indiana%29.jpg/220px-Marquette_Park_Pavilion_%28Gary%2C_Indiana%29.jpg)
Marquette Park, originally called Lake Front Park, is a municipal park completely surrounded by Indiana Dunes National Park. Its primary features include 1.4 miles (2.2 km) of Lake Michigan beaches, inland ponds, sand dunes, wetlands, a lagoon, and indigenous oak savanna. The park is located within the Miller Beach community. The park includes the Octave Chanute museum, registered as a National Landmark of Soaring.[1]
History
Dunes waterfront
Before Euro-American settlement, the area was populated by
The explorer
Before the creation of the Marquette Park Lagoon, this location was the site of the mouth of the
Development of park
Until 1874, the parcel that is now Marquette Park was a relatively anonymous patch of dunes waterfront at what was then the mouth of the Grand Calumet River. In 1874, it became part of the 200-acre (0.81 km2) sand dunes homestead of 19th-century settlers Robert and Druisilla Carr.[2] During the Carr period, the dunes became the site of key hang gliding experiments carried out in 1896-1897 by a team led by pioneering aeronaut Octave Chanute.
Although the land had been in the possession of the Carr family for years, in 1919
During the prosperous 1920s, the city of Gary invested a significant sum in landscaping the park. The "Marquette Park Pavilion" was built adjacent to the beachfront, and most of a wetland area behind the beach, formerly part of the Grand Calumet River, was excavated to form the "Marquette Lagoon". Two
Historic structures
Aquatorium
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Marquette_Park_%28Gary%2C_IN%29_-_Lakefront_Park_Bathhouse-Aquatorium.jpg/220px-Marquette_Park_%28Gary%2C_IN%29_-_Lakefront_Park_Bathhouse-Aquatorium.jpg)
What is now known as the Gary Bathing Beach Aquatorium was designed by the firm of Maher and Sons (George W. Maher, architect) and was built as a shower/bathroom/changing facility in 1921. It was dubbed the Lakefront Park Bathhouse. A major focal point of the Miller Beach community for decades, by the 1960s the facility was falling into major disrepair. In 1971 the building was closed to the public and boarded up.[3] The Aquatorium was rescued from demolition by the Chanute Aquatorium Society in 1991.
The Society invented the word Aquatorium meaning "place to view the water" in order to disassociate the structure with the word bathhouse.
No longer a place to change or shower, the building has been restored as a museum honoring
The building is architecturally significant. It is one of the earliest examples of
Marquette Park Pavilion
The "Recreation Pavilion" was built in 1923-24 by Maximillian Dubois' construction company Max and Sons, which also built the Palace Theater in Gary, Indiana. It was also designed by Maher and Sons (George W. Maher, architect), and located on the south side of the lagoon in the Grand Calumet River. The building cost $350,000.[2] Renovated in 1966, in the mid-1990s,[6] and again around 2008, the building is still a popular site for all sorts of events, from weddings to civic functions.[2][5]
Recent history and restoration
By the 1970s, the park had fallen into disrepair. The park's revival began with the restoration of the historic Aquatorium and Marquette Park Pavilion structures in the 1990s as noted above. In 2009 the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (RDA) granted the City of Gary $28,190,000 to design and construct capital improvements within the park which would improve public access to and circulation within the park, preserve and strengthen the park’s natural features, provide new recreational and educational amenities, and restore the park’s signature historic facilities. In 2010 the city unveiled the Marquette Park Lakefront East Master Plan describing these improvements.[6]
Completion of the $28 million master plan redevelopment was observed and celebrated by the
See also
- Birds of the Indiana Dunes, Mammals of the Indiana Dunes, and Habitats of the Indiana Dunes
- Chronology of the Indiana Dunes
- Indiana Dunes State Park
- National Landmark of Soaring
- Marquette (disambiguation) for other places, buildings and geographic objects named after Father Jacques Marquette.
References
- ^ a b "Gary Chamber of Commerce: Points of Interest". Gary Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- ^ a b c Historic Timeline, Marquette Park Lakefront East Master Plan,; City of Gary RDA; Hitchcock Design Group, December 2009
- ^ Miller Community
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ a b c Miller Beach Neighborhood
- ^ a b "Marquette Park History". City of Gary, Dept. of Public Parks. Retrieved 27 August 2014.