Oh my, I was expecting this by looking up recent photos on the internet, but nothing can really prepare you for what you see when you’re there in person. There roof over the nave of City Methodist Church has almost completely collapsed, and it is totally dangerous to get anywhere near this structure. The nearby…
Tag: Gary
Cathedral of the Holy Angels, Gary, August 2023
I visited the second of two cathedrals on my trip, the second that was closed when I visited, and the first of a diocese in Gary, reflecting the rapid growth in northwest Indiana after World War II. The diocese was only created in 1956 out of the diocese of Fort Wayne. The Cathedral of the…
Gary, Indiana, August 2023
I’m sure these two photos, above and below, are the classic “ruin porn” photos that most people seek out to take when they visit Gary, Indiana. And I’m not going to pretend that the city doesn’t have serious problems, and no one who lives there, I’m sure, is going pretend there aren’t thousands of acres…
From the Vault: Union Station, Gary
Update: Announced in August of 2023, the station will undergo an $8 million dollar renovation, which I covered in this post from September of 2023. The impressive Beaux-Arts edifice of Gary Union Station opened in 1910, only four years after the founding of the town it served. Abandoned since the 1970s, I find a certain…
From the Vault: City Methodist Church, Gary
Update: I revisited the church in August of 2023. The building has continued to suffer severe deterioration and much of the nave’s roof have collapsed. City Methodist Church in downtown Gary is perhaps one of the more famous abandoned buildings in the United States. The congregation also had a sadly short run, founded in 1925,…
From the Vault: Gary, Indiana
Update: I went back in the summer of 2023. This is Gary, Indiana. A city only founded in 1906, which peaked at a population of 178,320 in 1960, an increase of 33% from the 1950 federal census. In the most recent census of 2020, it has dropped to 69,093, a drop of 61%. These photos…