Indiana Landmarks offered a number of grants in Northwest Indiana to save meaningful places in 2025. Grants supported efforts ranging from architectural assessments and repairs at historic structures to programs, workshops, videos, and digital walking tours promoting preservation and heritage.
“Indiana Landmarks offers grants to help spark community revitalization and bolster preservation projects around the state,” Indiana Landmarks President Brad Ward said in a news release Friday. “We’re extremely grateful that with the support of many generous donors we’re able to offer this critical funding to local groups and others engaged in preserving the state’s meaningful places.”
Three region locations were among the 24 congregations statewide to receive grants through the nonprofit’s Sacred Places Indiana Fund to address capital needs at historic houses of worship.
Indiana Landmarks gave the Diocese of Gary a total of $425,000 in 2025 for work at the 1950 Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary. The first grant, $25,000, was for planning design work for repairs. The second, $400,000, was to tuckpoint masonry on all elevations.
Valparaiso University received $325,000 in grants from Indiana Landmarks for repairs to the 1959 Chapel of the Resurrection. The university received $25,000 for planning and $300,000 to repair the slab floor and foundation in the sanctuary.
First Unitarian Church in Hobart was granted $3,200 for a structural analysis of the 1875 building’s foundation.
Five Northwest Indiana sites were helped through the Black Heritage Preservation Program, which aims to help preserve and raise awareness of sites important to Black history in Indiana. In 2025, the group made 23 grants statewide.
Black Onyx Management, of Indianapolis, and Positive Image Consulting, of Gary, each received $5,000 to conduct community engagement sessions exploring reuse possibilities for the 1931 Roosevelt High School in Gary. The Gary Roosevelt Alumni Association received $5,000 to clean out and organize the contents removed from the school.
Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. received $10,000 for landscaping of a plaza surrounding a historical marker in front of the house of former Congresswoman Katie Hall, whose efforts led to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday becoming a national holiday. Hall, who died in 2012, was the first Black woman from Indiana to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following her service in Congress, she became Gary’s city clerk, resigning in 2003 after she signed a plea agreement written by federal prosecutors in which she confessed to forcing her staff to sell or buy fundraising material, and to punishing those who did not pay up.
Van Buren Missionary Baptist Church in Gary received $7,000 to paint trim on the 1955 church.
Hobart Historical Society received $3,840 for a rehabilitation assessment of the 1914 Carnegie Library housing the historical society through the Efroymson Family Endangered Places program. The fund supported architectural and structural assessments, rehab cost analyses, reuse studies and fundraising planning. It was one of 13 grants statewide through the program.
Indiana Landmarks and Indiana Humanities jointly award grants to nonprofits for programs and materials educating the public about historic places. Of the 11 projects statewide last year, two were for Northwest Indiana.
Cedar Lake Historical Association received $3,000 to create an architectural 3D model of the historic Lassen’s Resort. Decay Devils, based in Gary, was given $3,000 to produce a printed and digital guide to landmarks and art in Michigan City.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
