Stories Behind the Nation's Historic Buildings & Structures
Following the success of Gary School Superintendent William Wirt’s new Work-Play-Study system of education at Emerson High School, Wirt drew up plans for the establishment of four schools over the next two decades. Froebel, Roosevelt, Lew Wallace, and Horace Mann were planned to be similar to Emerson, all three stories tall and constructed in the
Bearing the name of transcendentalist writer, lecturer, and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson School was Gary’s first high school and was also the first public school in the city to implement Gary School Superintendent William Wirt’s new Work-Study-Play system of education. Wirt developed a “Whole Child” philosophy while assuming the post of school superintendent in