Economy’s old gym gets a face-lift

A wall in Economy is proof that spray paint in the right hands can create more than unsolicited decorations on rail cars and highway overpasses.

“To a lot of people, spray paint is graffiti,” Carl Leck said, as he aimed brownish-red paint at his design on the east wall of the Economy Gym. “Spray paint is just another way to apply paint.”

The 44-year-old Greenfield man has made his living as a professional muralist for nearly 20 years. His credits include wall paintings in downtown Indianapolis, including some for the 2012 Super Bowl, as well as several on a chain of tire stores.

He chose spray paint for the Economy Gym because the steel wall has vertical ridges. Applying colors by brush or roller would be painstakingly slow. An air brush requires changing the nozzle for each different color. With a dozen or more cans of spray paint on hand, Leck can get the right shade instantly. He uses templates cut from card stock to define sharp edges where needed.

The Economy Gym has been in use since its opening more than a century ago, although the Economy School building closed in the mid-1960s and has been demolished. The gym is managed by Perry Township and, with the school playground to its west, is a community hub.

A massive basketball dominates Leck’s design. A pennant in the school colors of red and white features a cardinal — the school’s mascot — taken from a ball cap from Steve Luellen’s memorabilia. There’s a varsity-letter-style “E” and a painting of a trophy commemorating the school’s 1952 Wayne County basketball title. A white background with a gray wood grain pattern holds the design together.

The painting includes “Easter eggs” with hidden meanings, Dan Hollenberg, the Perry Township trustee, said. The word “Royals” on the ball pays homage to a semiprofessional traveling basketball team composed of Economy High School graduates that played in the 1950s. Two tickets are painted in mid-mural: one notes the Town of Economy’s founding in 1825, and the other denotes the gym’s opening in 1922. A ticket on an entry door includes the building’s address, 325 Market Street.

Leck said Hollenberg pulled together a group of people who helped acquaint him with the building’s history. “This is one of the oldest remaining wood-beam gym structures in Indiana,” Leck said. Most are brick and mortar.

The group gave Leck their ideas for the mural. He then developed his design and submitted it to a committee including the township advisory board and Economy Town Council. After minor changes, they approved it.

He started his painting on July 3 by projecting his design onto the wall and sketching its outlines. The work took Leck more than 80 hours, completed on July 26.

Like the tip of an iceberg, the painting is the visible part of a gym restoration project involving Perry Township, the Economy Town Council, the Wayne County Foundation, Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau, Wayne County government, and state and federal money.

The mural is one of 11 being painted during the Wayne County Murals Project contest that’s part of the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program, which also received funding from Wayne County Foundation and Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau.

The mural project requires that the painting remain in place for at least five years, so the wall had to be made right for painting, Hollenberg said. The original wooden wall had to be covered and painted with an off-white base coat before Leck started.

As Leck finished his painting, a second part of gym renovation began. On July 25, workers started hauling the furnace and oil tanks out of the basement. The basement, said Paula Hollenberg (Dan’s wife and a proud former Economy School student), housed the school cafeteria and served as locker room.

The basement suffers from high moisture and lack of drainage. With the original basketball court serving as the basement ceiling, the moisture could create rot that would destroy it. A drainage system including a sump pit will be installed, mostly paid by the Town of Economy with money from its COVID recovery funds and some from the Wayne County Hoosier Enduring Legacy Project.

Work is also underway on replacing equipment on the old school playground. With assistance from HELP and a matching $50,000 grant from Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s CreatINg Places program, the town raised well over its $100,000 goal.

Economy School alumni will be the first group to use the renovated gym for their annual reunion in late August.

But two young men couldn’t resist going into the historic gym when they visited to start work on the basement. Curtis Brock said he used to play pickup basketball there when he was in high school at Hagerstown. Justin Sams, a Northeastern graduate, said he’d never been inside. Both agreed that having the old gym and its new mural “is pretty cool.”

The painting and renovation come just a year before the town’s 200th anniversary.

Hollenberg said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He hopes the gym can serve the community for at least another century.

Updated August 5, 2024 at 8:15 a.m. to clarify that the new mural on the Economy Gym is one of 11 murals being painted during the Wayne County Murals Project contest that’s part of the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program. The mural contest, which also received funding from Wayne County Foundation and Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau, is separate from the Economy Gym restoration project.