HISTORY OF JUNE LABROI PARK
On July 4, 2000 the City of Gary had an opening dedication ceremony for LaBroi Park, located at 13th & Fayette Street in the Aetna section of the City of Gary.
Aetna was a post World War II real estate development developed by a gentleman named Paul Schliecher. As part of his development plan he dedicated eight lots between Fayette Street and 11th Place as a city park. The park was called Schliecher Park after the developer. By the mid 1990’s the park had fallen into general disuse and was nothing more than a flat piece of ground with some broken playground equipment on it.
In the early 1990’s a lawsuit had been filed against the City of Gary on behalf of June LaBroi who, as a child, was injured in a Gary park when she fell off a sliding board and struck her head on a concrete butmen below the sliding board.
Attorney Gregory S. Reising was the attorney for the park board at the time and represented the City of Gary and the Gary Park Department in the action. In 1997 the lawsuit was settled with a stipulation that $100,000 of the funds were to be used to revitalize a community park to be chosen by June LaBroi’s mother and renamed after June LaBroi.
June’s mother chose Schliecher Park.
Attorney Reising went to the site and inspected it and noticed that from east to west it was approximately three times longer than it was deep from north to south. Facing north Mr. Reising envisioned a map of the United States with Canada to the north, Mexico to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The only problem was there wasn’t any room for Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and Texas. The homes were the Gulf of Mexico and Florida would be had been abandoned and through an agreement with Lake County, Reising was able to acquire them for park purposes.
He then enlisted architect Herbert Reed to help him develop a set of plans as to how the park would look. Reed and Reising laid out a plan to put a low burn around the entire United States outlining the east coast, west coast and northern boundary. A problem existed that a home was still occupied where Texas would ordinarily be. Therefore the map did not include Texas, Its Garys Time Inc is working on plans to purchase the now vacant lot and “bring Texas home” to make the park complete (excluding Hawaii)
Next a higher berm was created where the Appalachian Mountains would be. The Great Lakes were outlined as the sandbox. A natural depression about a third of the way through the tracker plan was marked as the Mississippi River. A much higher berm was created in the west with very large stones put on top marking the Rocky Mountains. On the western end of the park, a bridge resembling the Golden Gate Bridge was erected. From Memphis, Tennessee to Gary, Indiana a play system was put up that terminated where the children could go down the sliding board into the sandbox at Lake Michigan. A jungle jim was used for the St. Louis arch. The trail system began on the east coast and featured the Cumberland Gap with the trail splitting in two at St. Louis, the northern route being the Oregon Trail and the southern route being the Sante Fe trail.
Through a donation by the Gary Rotary Club a Statue of Liberty about 14ft. high was erected in New York harbor and a plaque commemorating the dedication of the park as June LaBroi Park and dedicated on July 4, 2000. Plans were made to have a red wood swing set erected in the Pacific northwest and the plans were approved by the Gary Park Board, however, by this time the City of Gary had turned its attention to baseball and basketball and the plans fell into disuse, as did the park. In the Spring of 2012 Its Garys Time Inc., a pending not-for-profit community restoration program headed by Roger Hayward, adopted the park. Its Garys Time Inc., Roger Hayward, and Greg Reising are working together to refurbish the park and turn it into a tourist attraction for all to see.
“School children that I have brought to the park immediately get the concept and when asked would run to the spot where they go to visit their grandmother in the summer time.” Mr. Reising said “This park could become a destination point for families to come and enjoy the entire United States in one breath.”
Its Garys Time Inc. has been working on rebuilding homes in the growing Aetna community where families could return once again. Roger Hayward, President believes that making the parks work, keeping them clean, trimmed and up to date, where families can enjoy is part of that job.