Michigan City Elston (4,200) Built 1937
October 13, 2025
October 13, 2025
When I'm not writing about old Indiana high school gyms, I spend a lot of my free time reading about Hoosier Hysteria history. There have been so many good books written about different teams, gyms, and games. I reference them here a lot. Over the summer I read a book that I wasn't sure what to expect from, but it quickly became one I couldn't put down. I first learned about local La Porte County author Matt Werner when he was featured in one of the Hoosier Hardwood blogs that were put together when the photographers on that project were traveling the state. I finally got my hands on his book Season of Upsets. The story follows every small town basketball team in La Porte County during the 1950 season. It also covers the two city schools, La Porte and Michigan City Elston. When I say it is the most well-researched book I've ever read, I'm not exaggerating. The stories and quotes he managed to pull from people who were actually there were incredible. He then pieced it altogether perfectly into a compelling narrative that captured the essence of Indiana high school basketball in the 1950s in a way that maybe only Hoosiers managed to do on the silver screen. It comes to life in a way that jumps off the page. A big part of that fantastic story is how the small county schools not only took on each other, but the city schools throughout the season and into the sectional. The sectional host site was a big deal, and something that was fought over by both La Porte and Michigan City Elston. They each had wonderful venues to host, both of which are still standing today. They have been on my list to go see for a long time, and I was finally able to make it to one of them last month.
The last time I made the long trek up to Michigan City, it was in the pitch dark after watching two other regional games at Logansport and Triton. I didn't get to take in any of the landscape on the way in. Watching the farm land slowly turn into a very industrialized area was pretty cool this time. We honestly don't have a lot of cool old city school gyms intact across the state anymore. We've lost a ton over the years, and many of these schools never had great gyms to begin with. Michigan City Elston (from here on out referred to just as Elston) is one of the exceptions. The gym opened in 1937 and is certainly a far cry from the typical 30s gyms that were born out of the Works Progress Administration. This place was built to not just hold big games, but to ensure as many people as possible were able to watch those games. According to Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hooser Gyms, at its peak it could hold 4,200 people. That's about 5x more than your typical WPA gym. The Elston Red Devils had a great amount of success over the years, and most of it occured while they played in this gym. 40 sectionals, 12 regionals, 1 semistate, and 1 state title. The team that finally got them over the top was the 1966 squad. They defeated East Chicago Washington and Arsenal Tech in the final two rounds to bring the ultimate prize back to Elston. I actually just learned Matt Werner has another book all about this team that I have yet to read, so I will be adding that to my Christmas list. The Red Devils utilized this gem of a gym for nearly 60 years until the school consolidated with Michigan City Rogers to form plain old Michigan City. I've already written about their titan of a gym HERE. With no high school team, the Elston gym served the middle school for a while before being turned over to the local YMCA, where it is still used daily and taken care of meticulously.
I honestly had pretty high expectations going into my visit from the few pictures I had seen of the gym beforehand, but I wasn't ready for the presence that the place has. It wasn't quite the Hickory Huskers walking into Butler for the first time, but it was some vestige of that. You enter the gym through a tunnel opening under the upper baseline seating. Straight ahead you see a big stage with permanent seating along all the other three sides of the gym. It took my breathe away. The roof is supported with a series of metal beams that stretch to the center of the roofline, but then make their way down and are anchored into the ground through the top rows of the permanent bleachers around the gym. I guess those beautiful bleachers are a good place to start here. All of them are painted a deep navy blue that looks just like a picture of the ocean. I'm guessing they were painted blue after the gym became home to the middle school, as the Red Devils obviously would have had a very different color scheme back in the day. Regardless, they look great. They go up 11 rows all the way around the gym, plus there are bonus bench seats built in across the very top of the bleachers. One thing that makes them extremely unique is that they all have little footboards built in as well. These are needed because the concrete below doesn't step down with each row like everywhere else I've been. It actually has a smooth slope all the way down, which would be almost impossible to walk across without the footboards. Very unique, very cool. The corner sections are neat as the steps start going right up the middle and then split to form a "Y" with a small seating section in the middle of it at the top. Right along where the entrance tunnel is, there are also neat little rows of single seats for just one person. The only other place I've found these is at Kokomo.
To get to these main sections of bleachers, you have to enter from one of the three exterior stairwells. The main one is above the tunnel entrance to the gym, and the other two are in the corners by the stage. You then walk around a tight upper concourse and then walk back down to your seat. The sections are marked on the big steel beams that disappear into the bleachers along with a few brick support posts (I just love this for some reason. The same thing caught my eye when I visited the old Coliseum in Marion). The brickwork throughout the entire gym really catches the eye. The bricks are all sorts of different colors that range from light and dark brown to different shades of red and almost orange. It's marvelous. As you walk this upper concourse, there are various rectangular windows at eye level that at one point would all have let in some natural light. Some still do while others have been covered up over the years. There are also upper windows even higher where the wall juts out a bit over the concourse area. Hanging high up in the gym are scoreboards from different eras, another sign of how long this gym has been in service.
Looking down to the lower portions of the gym, there's still a lot to take in. There are short sections of 70s era retractable bleachers that are made of that brown hard plastic material I still don't know what to call. They go up 5 rows. In one corner of the gym sits an old and extremely long scorer's table. It was neat to see each spot labeled so everyone knew exactly where to sit and the players knew where to report. The playing floor has obviously been redone since the Elston Red Devil days. Instead of a red color scheme, it has a blue one that matches the bleachers and the "new" gym over at the current Michigan City High School. The navy blue is used around the perimeter of the court while grey is used inside the foul lanes. At center court is a very simple but elegant Michigan City Wolf howling at the moon on top of an interlocking MC insignia. I know it's not representative of the old Red Devils, but I really do like it.
The last thing I want to specifically touch on here is the stage area. It doesn't feel very tall with how massive that brick baseline wall is, but it feels extremely wide. Whatever curtain that used to be there has long since been taken down. When I first looked at it from afar, it seemed like there was something large looming in the back of the stage. I walked around and took some pictures before getting closer for a better look. When I did, I couldn't believe what I saw. Sitting along the back wall of the stage is a big set of retractable bleachers made out of the same brown mystery material as the ones sitting on the floor level of the gym. They go up 16 rows, which is not small for any set of retractable bleachers, but especially a set that sits inside of a stage! I've heard of countless places putting additional removeable seating on stages to increase capacity, but I've never seen an actual set of retractable bleachers built into the stage itself. I was stunned. Just another quirk that makes this place so special.
The last thing I saw and took a picture of before I walked out of the gym was the old ticketbooth. It had an old school metal cage over it with an ornate design. I walked around a couple of the hallways that surround the gym and are a part of the old school that the YMCA uses. Each room had a purpose for some sort of activity. It's so nice to see a place like this, built nearly 90 years ago, full of so much life. You probably already know what I'm going to say, but this place is primed for a throwback game. It needs it and it deserves it. Whenever Michigan City and La Porte play each other, it should either be here or in the La Porte Civic Center. Alternate the years. It makes too much sense not to do it. When I finished A Season of Upsets, I naturally researched every old school and gym in the book to see if anything was still around today. Along with both the city gyms, three county gyms have survived as well. Union Mills is still standing and used as a factory. You can see the exterior photos I took of it on a snowy night on my way to the current La Porte gym last winter on the Fading Gyms section of the blog. LaCrosse is still standing, still used as an active high school gym, and is in fantastic shape. I need to get there soon. Mill Creek is also still standing in an unknown condition. I have been trying for months unsuccessfully to get in touch with the owner. If anyone has any leads on that, let me know! I'd love to check it out. All of this is to say that because of Matt Werner's book, I kind of became obsessed with La Porte County high school basketball history and the communities represented in it. Michigan City Elston is a prime figure in that history. Their rich traditions are perfectly encapsulated in a gym that has stood the test of time for nearly a century. Here's to hoping it is able to continue that legacy for another one.
