[continued from part 5]
Just like everywhere else in Gary, all it took was a quick look around the block to find yet more places to explore. Above and next to the theater there were more storefront-type places that weren’t all that interesting on their own, but did still have a few products left, and this idyllic mural — could this have been Gary in its early days?
There isn’t much of a village left here, but who knows, maybe Gary will rise again someday…
I didn’t have to go far to find still more abandonment, this time an entire block of storefronts and factories that seem to have met their fate quite a while ago.
These buildings surrendered most of their front walls to the sidewalk, literally wide open to explorers and the elements. Someone, though, left helpful hints through them of where there were danger zones or holes (most of which led straight into collapsed, flooded basements)
Behind this, headed back toward Broadway again, the entrance to the Coronet store, one of far too many abandoned retail relics, presented itself, along with a reminder that we weren’t quite in Illinois.
Even for an abandoned building, Coronet was a disaster, ravaged, it seems, as much by fire as the water it took to put the fire out.
We took a try at a school on the east side but this opening wasn’t going to do it for me…
[continued in part 7]