Kelly Powers Baria was born at Gary Methodist and brought home a few blocks away to Tolleston, where she grew up riding bikes with her brother until the streetlights came on. She now sits on Methodist Hospitals' board of directors, the third generation of her family to do so, and this month she watched her hospital become one of three anchor partners in a building that opened blocks from where she grew up. The Tolleston Opportunity Campus, at 1771 Taney Place, opened to the public on September 28, and the fact that a Methodist board member has personal ties to the exact streets it sits on is not incidental. It is the reason the project reads less like a ribbon-cutting and more like a neighborhood getting a piece of its own infrastructure back.
That piece is a YMCA, and Gary has not had one since 1976.
Fifty Years Without a Y
The YMCA operated in Gary from 1909 until 1976 out of a building on Historic Fifth Avenue. When it closed, the city lost what community organizers call a third space, somewhere that isn't home and isn't work, where a kid can learn to swim and an adult can take a fitness class without driving to another town. That gap sat open for half a century while Crossroads YMCA built out locations in Crown Point, Schererville, and Hammond, serving Lake County everywhere except the city where the organization got its start in the region.
Susan McCormick, the national YMCA's president and CEO, flew in for the September 2 ribbon-cutting and told the crowd that "Gary is going to be an example for communities across this country." That is the kind of line easy to write off as ceremony. It carries more weight given that more than 6,000 Gary residents were already enrolled at other Crossroads YMCA branches before this one existed, meaning the demand for a Y didn't need to be created. It just needed an address inside the city limits.
What Opened on Taney Place
The building sits on the site of the former Tolleston Middle School, and the 91,000-square-foot campus now houses:
- Three full-size hardwood basketball courts and an upstairs indoor track
- A warm-water therapy pool with ramp access and a separate whirlpool
- A wellness center with strength and cardio equipment, plus classrooms for group fitness
- A child development center for early childhood education and after-school care
- A teaching kitchen for nutrition classes
- Juice Jung Cafe, a locally operated cafe serving members on site
The YMCA is the anchor, but it isn't the only tenant. Methodist Hospitals is running on-site clinic services, meaning health screenings and basic care are available in the same building as the pool. WinTrust Bank has taken up residency as a financial wellness partner, offering financial literacy coaching to members. And the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana, which has run programming in Gary for close to 75 years, continues its before- and after-school work here under program director Marcus Steele Jr., himself a former club member who came up through the same organization he now runs.
The Price Climbed Before the Doors Did
Jay Buckmaster, CEO of Crossroads YMCA, said the project was initially expected to cost about $30 million. By the time it opened, the total investment had grown to $50 million. The funding stack behind that growth includes a $10 million Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant from the state, $10 million from the City of Gary, and $15 million from the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, which added a $5 million gift on top of its original commitment during the 2025 groundbreaking. The Gary Common Council had appropriated its own $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds back in 2022, when the project was still a concept.
None of that cost growth shows up in what a membership actually costs. Individual memberships are set at $39 a month, family memberships at $59. For a facility that includes a hospital clinic, a bank's financial coaching desk, and a child care center under one roof, that price sits closer to a standalone gym membership than to what comparable multi-service campuses in the region charge. Whether that pricing holds as the campus fills up is something only time will answer, but the number the Y opened with is the one worth knowing if you're deciding whether to sign up this fall.
How This Changes a Week in Tolleston
Tolleston already had its own gathering points before any of this broke ground. Tolleston Park, with its two basketball courts, playground, picnic area, and running track, has been the neighborhood's default outdoor space for years. The Tolleston Branch Library sits nearby as a hub for programs and reading time. St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, still holds Sunday services in a building the American Institute of Architects praised when it went up in 1958.
What's different now is how much of a resident's week can happen without leaving those same few blocks. A parent can drop a kid at the child development center, take a group fitness class, grab a health screening at the Methodist clinic, and sit down with a WinTrust advisor about a savings plan, all inside one building, all before picking the kid back up from after-school programming with the Boys & Girls Club. That's not a hypothetical. It's the exact list of services the campus's three anchor partners built the place to hold, and it's a version of a Tuesday that didn't exist in Tolleston a year ago.
"Methodist understands that improving the health of a community means reaching beyond the walls of a hospital," Baria said at the opening, and the campus is the physical version of that sentence. A clinic that used to require a trip to the main hospital building is now a walk from Tolleston Park.
Getting In the Door
The campus opened to the public on September 28 at 1771 Taney Place. Community members can tour the facility, meet YMCA staff, and ask about membership and programs during regular operating hours. Anyone with questions about signing up can call 219-600-2046, and program details are posted at crymca.org/tollestonopportunitycampus.
For a neighborhood that spent fifty years without a YMCA, the number worth sitting with isn't the $50 million price tag. It's the fact that a resident can now get a swim lesson, a health screening, and a savings plan started without crossing a city line to do any of it.
Favela Homes keeps a close eye on what's changing block by block in Gary, and Tolleston's new campus is the kind of local shift worth knowing about whether you've lived here for decades or just moved in last year. If you want more on what's opening around Gary's neighborhoods, Favela Homes is a good place to keep checking back.
