Miller Historic Places

Miller has two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, Miller Town Hall and the Gary Bathing Beach Bathhouse, known now as the Aquatorium.

Miller Town Hall
Miller Town Hall image

The Town Hall has its own page on this website with more detail: Click here.

By 1910 the small village of Miller was feeling the threat of annexation by the new town of Gary. Perhaps as a show of independence, the town board voted 58 to 0 in the summer of 1910 to build a town hall. The plans were quickly drawn up by J.J. Ver Plank, a Gary architect, approved by the board in September and the building was completed in April of 1911. Miller was eventually annexed by Gary in 1918 and in 1920 the building was converted to a firehouse with the addition of the hose tower and a kitchen. It remained a fire station until 1975 when it was converted to a civic center.

Gary Bathing Beach Bathhouse
Bathhouse circa 1930

The Bathhouse has its own page on this website: Click here

Soon after the city of Gary was founded in 1906 the new residents of that steel town discovered the beach as a retreat from the sweltering heat of the summer. In 1919, after the December, 1918 annexation of Miller, the US Steel "bought" 120 acres of land along the beach and gave it to the city of Gary to be used as a park.

The Bathhouse was the first to be constructed in "Lake Front Park", as it was known then. Designed by George.W. Maher, and an excellent example of the early use of pre-cast concrete building products, the Aquatorium, as it is known today, has undergone major renovation and restoration as a museum since being an eyesore on the lake in the early 1990s.

The National Register of Historic Places has two websites of interest:

Anyone interested in Gary Architecture should go to Christopher Meyer's site:
Gary, America's Magic Industial City

Page created years ago, updated September, 2022.

© Text copyright: Steve Spicer

Feel free to contact me about this page.