The environment for exploring here is truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen… we saw this building from the roof of the Methodist Church and thought it looked interesting, so we walked down 6th street toward it. A local saw us and our cameras and, instead of being suspicious or avaricious, asked us if we were going to see “the Aristocrats”. I said, maybe — we didn’t know where they were — and he told us that it was the abandoned hotel we saw, and that it was once the residence of U.S. Steel executives when they spent time in Gary, before being made into apartments and finally abandoned in the 90s.
(Upon further research, this wasn’t quite right. This building was actually called the Ambassador, and the US Steel executives actually stayed at Mahencia, a few blocks further down 6th Street. But it was the thought that counts!)
It’s not exactly in the best shape anymore. The stairs were, to put it kindly, an adventure, finding some with enough steps intact to even get to the upper floors.
Not going to the roof. Nope. Nope.
Overall, it was a pretty trashed place, and a total asbestosfest, but quite a big building for a surprise discovery… from there, we got back on our intended course through the “buffet line” of Broadway, to the old Post Office. Like most of Gary so far, it’s a cliché destination, but who gives a damn? We aren’t trying to compete with anyone, just to see as much as we can in one weekend.
I have to wonder what the architect was thinking having offices connected by this impossibly narrow corridor?
Actually not much made sense about this building at all. I can’t even guess what this room might have been.
Oh look! We found the morgue!
(continued in part 4)