I used to visit Gary for photography. Like, a lot. Over time, as my horizons broadened and I started traveling further afield for photography, I started going less and less often. Lately, most of the time I’ve spent there is showing visitors around. And each time, I’m reminded just how much there is to see here.
My friend Holly was in town with her husband, and we met up for an urbex day. We started on an abandoned stretch of route 66 (featured in the last post), then spent the rest of the day shooting in Gary. Our first step was the famous First Methodist Church downtown. Here’s a shot of the nave with most of the roof now gone.
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Now, that is the shot of the church; some may people prefer the straight-on framing, either way it’s hard to walk away with a bad shot. And though I may have taken this shot many times before, I was really happy that I found a couple shots around the church that were firsts for me. One was of the courtyard where, about a decade ago, the city decided to clear all the trees and brush. It has been growing back, and now nicely frames the side door to the building.
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Below, the top story of the back part of the building has eroded enough where this staircase just opens up into the sky.
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After that, it was just trying to cram as much of the best sites in town for my friends to see in the time we had left. One stop that was somewhat sad for me was the old Emerson High School; I had forgotten that it was the victim of arson a while back. Much of the building remains intact (or, at least in a state not appreciably worse than before the fire) but the attic is just… gone. It had been crammed with textbooks and junk, but the walls were covered by student graffiti, each featuring a name and graduation year. Seen below is the staircase leading up to the attic, just a half flight from the ashes.
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Other shots from the school: the same staircase a floor lower, and one of the classrooms with no windows, just fully exposed to the elements for decades.
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The post office was a must see, and another place I’ve shot many, many times. I revisited a favorite of mine, the row of basement doors, as well as a one point perspective take on the customer lobby.
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We visited the old stadium and athletic fields on the south side of town. The high summer foliage really made for some nice shots on the tennis courts.
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But it was the old theater where I had the best luck. It is another place I’ve visited many times, but it was always so dark that it was hard to even get any decent shots of the scant remaining architectural details that remained. But with more decay, more light has seeped in, and we wound up exploring more of the building than I had ever done previously. Finally got a decent shot of the old piano in the orchestra pit, and, among other things, found an entire wing of apartments with murphy beds in one section of the building. A theater would be a strange place to live, so my guess is these were quarters for performers passing through town, but I can’t say for sure.
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I hope my friends had fun, because I very much did! Two days after this, I left for a weekend visit to Detroit, which will be coming in the next posts…
Thanks for stopping by.
