Explorations and Adventures?

Where The Stores Are All Closed

[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…

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It’s A Cold And It’s A Broken Hallelujah

After lunch and a few more failed attempts at hospitals and schools, our wanderings brought us to another unassuming church, the "Miracle Faith Word Center". Judging just from the name, it seemed to be of the charismatic, if not Pentecostal, type: the kind of church that began with one minister and his flock and with the right combination of generous donations, fire, brimstone and praise the Lord Hallelujah AMEN! could have joined the ranks of televised megachurches. This one, though, followed the opposite trajectory, disappearing altogether and leaving its building behind not for a sparkling new tabernacle, but for first…

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Politics and Religion

...seem to be the biggest business left in this town, other than the rotting, but still partially operational, US steel mill fouling up the lakeshore. That being said, it hasn't exactly been the best territory for the Republicans, who seem to have closed up shop and left sometime in the 90s, leaving behind an incongruously cluttered headquarters between the post office and the state office building. Half campaign office and half hoarder den, the place avoided having its windows smashed in long enough to develop an oppressive odor of mildew wafting off the soaking, rotting contents. The main candidate, eternally…

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The Aristocrats

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,…

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Apocalypse: Here

Union Station, though, was only a quick stop while we were there. Our real destination in Gary, like most explorers who find themselves here, was City Methodist Church. Located on 6th St, just a block from the (former) downtown, this enormous church was open from 1925 to 1975, before suffering from declining enrollment and a fire that put an end to any plans for restoration and re-use. Unlike most iconic abandoned sites, entry is trivially easy, and after walking through the open door, you're immediately in the lobby, between the sanctuary and auditorium. We began with the sanctuary, far larger…

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Take The Last Train

After my amazing trip to Providence, and the flurry of bans and blocks and deleted "friends" that brought on, I spent most of the next month afraid to explore again, abandoning my idea of a new place every week and canceling what would have been my grand finale meet, realizing that despite my best efforts no one would show up. I was surprised enough to even have a chance to explore again that of course I took it when an explorer I hadn't seen in over a year invited me for a very sudden trip to Gary, Indiana, which I'd…

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