Father Marquette Monument
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In the 1930s Marquette Park, originally called Lake Front Park, was renamed in honor of Pere Jacques Marquette, one of the earliest French Jesuit missionaries. At that time, the Gary Park Board commissioned Henry Hering to create a sculpture of Father Marquette. Walker and Weeks was hired to design the decorative limestone monument base. The sculpture was placed at the entrance to Marquette Park at Grand Boulevard and Marquette Drive in a dedication ceremony in July of 1932.
The Father Marquette memorial has become an iconic emblem of Marquette Park. Over the years, the Father Marquette monument fell into disrepair, and in October 2010 the City of Gary began a restoration of the Father Marquette monument and surrounding garden. The restoration of the Father Marquette Statue was made possible by a $10,000 grant provided by the Emfroyson Family Foundation, a Central Indiana Community Foundation Fund, with additional funding provided by Indiana Landmarks, Calumet Region Office and the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
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