๐ฆJoin us to celebrate the return of the monarchs, as they migrate up from the south! ๐๏ธSunday May 24, 2026 ๐ฐ๏ธ 1 – 4 pm
๐ซ Visit the Griffith Depot & Train Museums (everything will be open to view!) and enjoy our Monarch Waystation garden! ๐ฆLearn about Monarchs, their amazing migration, & how they’ve become endangered. Jeanette Bobos, the retired Master Gardner who planted our garden, will be on on hand to share her knowledge. ๐Learn about adding native plants to your garden. ๐ปBuy plants that help butterflies, especially monarchs! Weโll have a small selection of milkweed plants & other native plants.
Where DOES one put a depot?Written by Karen Kulinski
When last we were together, it was the late 1970โs. A small band of Griffith townsfolk had decided to save the Grand Trunk Depot from demolition, the last of three train stations that once stood near the Broad Street railroad crossing.
One of the first things they did was ask other town organizations to join them. Two major ones, Griffith Community Spirit and the Griffith Junior Womanโs Club, heeded the call.
They also approached the Town Board for help, and Trustee Merle Colby became the man on point.
Of major concern to the group was raising the funds to move the Depot, and the group approached local business for contributions or for in-kind items or services.
But equally concerning was, if the group was able to save the Depot, where would they put it?
Martha Gatlin recalled, โWe felt it was important to keep the Depot visible to drivers who were stopped for one of the many trains that came through Griffith on the then-eleven tracks. And to keep the building close to the townโs operational rail lines.โ
Many years later, this decision ended up being a major factor in the Societyโs favor when we applied for the Depot to be put on the National Register Of Historic Places and the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures.
But finding such a site back then wasnโt easy for the group. Finally, Howard Anderson discovered a small patch of vacant land on the corner of Avenue A and Broad Street.
Further investigation at the courthouse revealed no one had a claim on the land, nor did anyone have a deed to it.
โWe immediately claimed it!โ Martha stated, โAnd the stage was set to move the Depot onto it.โ
Some years later, it was discovered that the property was once part of a street named Travis Avenue. For some unknown reason, the street ended up going in a different direction, leaving the open space behind. The street also ended up with a different name โ Avenue A.
Whatever the reason for this happening, it sure was a bit of serendipity working for us early on.
In January, 1980, the last remaining Griffith depot was safely moved to that empty spot of land right next to the railroad tracks.
The original use for the Depot was as a storage place for Community Spiritโs Christmas decorations. Before long, a more noble use for the Depot would be decided on.
And so would begin a new history for that heretofore unwanted Depot and the abandoned patch of land.
Also part of the group dedicated to saving the Depot but not mentioned in this article were Kathy Anderson, Donna Gonzalez and Ray Anderson (no relation to Kathy.)
๐Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from the Griffith Historical Society! ๐ Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and came out to Santa in the Caboose!! From our volunteers to those of you who visited and left a donation, we couldn’t do it without you! ๐As a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, all of your donations go directly to the upkeep of the Train & Depot Museums and the Town History Museum at the Franklin Center. We appreciate you and your support!
Mark your calendars for this year’s ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐! ๐ โ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 13: 10 ๐.๐. ๐๐ 3 ๐.๐. โ ๐บ๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ 14: ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ 3 ๐.๐. ๐ธ Give a donation to see Santa (our 28th annual!) and support the upkeep (and heating!) of the Historical Park! ๐ธ Take as many personal photos & videos as youโd like! ๐ช Be sure to shop our Holiday Bake Sale and holiday stocking stuffers as well! *๐๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ป๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐ด, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด!
It’s a busy weekend for the Historical Society!! ๐Friday – LAST Barrel Train at Central Market for the Season! ๐Saturday – Barrel Train at Safety Day at Central Park! ๐๏ธSaturday – The TOWN HISTORY Museum at the Franklin Center will be open! ๐ค๏ธSunday – Visit the Depot and Train Museums! Tour guides will be available. Parents of Beiriger 3rd Graders – come see what your kids learned this week!
The man who said those words almost every night on the radio was a man named Paul Harvey. When he took notice of Joe Miller, he was the most-listened-to radio broadcaster in America, heard by 25 million people every day.
From his studios in Chicago, Illinois, Harvey would every day diligently sift through news reports available to newspapers and radio broadcasters. He was looking for compelling stories that might have been overlooked by other media outlets.
In early January, 1947, he found such a story, and it happened just 25 miles away in Griffith, Indiana.
Harveyโs programs were carried by 1,200 radio stations, plus an additional 400 stations of American Forces Radio. Famous well into the 1980โs, he had a popular syndicated newspaper column and a TV program.
Hereโs the rest of Joeโs story, Paul Harveyโs tribute to Griffithโs own, Joe Miller, was broadcast on January 8, 1947.
You know youโre reeeeeally in need of cash when you take money from school kids. But thatโs what we did 25 years ago, and we did it twice.
To be honest, we were honored to do it. Because, in both of the cases, the students wanted to give us money for the tower and they worked to do it.
Seventh-graders, in the then Griffith Junior/Senior High School, held a walkathon from the school to our Historical Park and back, earning us more than $500. And the Beiriger Elementary School students held a Penny War for us.
Come to find out every year back then, the Beiriger Student Council voted on one project to support. In the year 2000, they chose our Griffith Tower.
โWe felt saving the tower was important to the town,โ said Student Council president Ashley Korak, when interviewed for a newspaper article. โWith so few towers left, we want to preserve ours.โ
Note: When Ashley said those words, there were 177 towers still in operation in North America. Twenty-five years later, there are fewer than 50.
The Penny War worked like this: Each grade was given a big jar into which students deposited pennies into their particular jars every day for a week. All the jars were kept in the school foyer, and at the end of the week, a total $518.72 from all the jars was given to the tower.
The 5th graders donated the most pennies, with the 6th grade coming in 2nd place, and the 3rd graders taking 3rd.
Griffith Historical Society President Delores Smessaert, in the photo here, thanks all the students. โSo much work needs to be done in this 76-year-old building,โ she went on, โand your donation will go a long way in helping us install a new heating system.โ
The tale of the Tower, and indeed a great deal of Griffith Historical Societyโs history, reads like a storybook, hence the title.
Do you know what ๐จ๐๐ง๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ is? Beyond an amazing Griffith ice cream parlor? I use the world a lot when talking about how we developed and grew.
Serendipity in the dictionary is described as: ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฎ๐.
Serendipity in real life:
The chance meeting of four people who went on to spearhead the saving of the last Griffithโs depot from demolition. (See our first โSociety Sagaโ in our spring newsletter or on our website for that story.)
The time the land we hoped to expand on, that was $20,000 when we first asked to purchase it, dropping to $8,000 when we absolutely, positively, 100% had to purchase it.
And we must mention how I was serendipitously connected to the General Superintendent of the Elgin Joliet & Eastern railroad when I called asking for key chains and paper engineer hat to give away to kids.
That man, Mel Turner, ended up giving us the Tower some five years later.
You know how you immediately click with someone? That was me and Mr T (though I never called him that to his face).
We talked for nearly an hour: about our getting the land and our future plans for it; about his railroadโs plans for tearing down our Tower, and could we have the equipment in the upper room, which was a yes.
From time to time, I would write him, filling him in on everything we were doing, and asking about the Tower. I found those old letters recently, and it was as though I was writing to a friend. I can only help wondering what he thought of my rambles. In mid-December, 1999, Mr. Turner came out to the Park during our Santa event, with his beloved dog, Buddy. Our Tower, he told us, was being closed down at the end of the year. And, he said, he was giving us the Tower!
The whole building!! And $30,000, to help with the move!!!
And we had until July 30th to get the Tower off their land.
In this space, weโre going to share with your the story of how the Griffith Historical Society came to be. But first, weโll share the meaning of the word โsaga.โ Itโs an old word that historical society people like to throw around. It just means โa long story. Since weโve been around for going on 42 years, you know the word fits. Now, onto the story of us. Take one town elder, Ray Anderson, walking his dog, Herman. Add in three young women – Kathy Anderson (no relation,) Marthann Hanrath, and Donna Gonzalez –ย walking for exercise. You see, Ray mentioned to the ladies that the last railroad depot in town was scheduled for demolition. โTheyโre demolishing our heritage,โ Ray told the ladies. Later that day, Ray told his son, Howard, the same tale. Then Howard contacted Marthann and said, โLetโs save our heritage.โ Now sagas, because they are long, are often made up of a whole lot of smaller stories. And what happened next, and beyond, with Ray and Howard and the ladies, we will tell you in upcoming newsletters and posts. But first we want you to meet Herman the Dog. Herman never left Rayโs side. Like when he was walking and encountered the ladies. Even when Ray attended Griffith Lions Club meetings. Because of his devotion to his master, Herman was made an honorary Lion. He is the first canine to be so honored. Hermanโs certificate of membership is shown here.
Griffith History Museums 