There are so many abandoned places in Gary! This is a list of the top three abandoned places in Gary. Browse through all abandoned places in Gary
The now abandoned Horace Mann school in Gary adds to the many other monuments that have been left to rot by the city of Gary. The school whose construction began in the early 1900s and took seven years to complete operated for 76 years after which it was closed and deserted.
Horace Mann High School’s existence began in 1920 when residents of Gary appealed to William Wirt for a school. This was brought about by the increasing population of the town. Being one of the most trusted and invested investors, Wirt who spearheaded the construction of Emerson School (one of the best-built schools in Indiana state) was the best fit. At this time, Mann School was operational but had less than 50 students due to a lack of funding to complete other buildings in the school. After consultation, William Wirt began the renovation of Mann High School into a complex high-end public school. As if that was not enough, Wirt went further and landscaped the whole property making Mann unique from other schools. Many confused Mann to be a private school after the facelift. The main building was the largest of all the structures, the central building featured 48 classrooms as well as offices, gyms (2), swimming pools (2), a man-made pond, and many others. These grand finishes attracted many in Gary and beyond. First enrollment in 1929 recorded a population of more than 800 students. By 1940, Horace Mann High School had a population of 2600 students.
Over the years that the school was operational, racial segregation was the order of the day. Many of the students (about 99%) were all whites. This was an issue as most parents and the administration were not ready to accept negros. This did not only cause conflict and strikes among the community tainting the school’s name but years later led to its downfall. Years later, the population of the school began to diminish. This was brought by white flight that came about when a black man took office as the new Mayor of Gary. By 2003, the school was made up of 98% negros and 2% Latinos. Due to the low number of students, the government cut down funding at the institution. This in turn forced the school board to close the school since it was becoming increasingly expensive to manage.
Today, Horace Mann High School is in total ruin. Furniture in the building has been broken and the rest scattered all over the floor. Books, trophies, lab equipment lie on the floor of what looks like a storage room. Graffiti has colored the walls of the building giving it an archaic and modern chaotic building of today. Inspectors declared the building a safety and structural problem. The plan to demolish the building has not been made clear by the managing body. The old school is out of bounds to the general public.
Palace Theater in Gary, Indiana, USA is an abandoned 1900 atmospheric theater. It operated for four and half decades, as one of the grandest theaters in Gary. Palace theater slowly declined to close in 1972.
Palace theater was a brainchild of Young and Wolf Enterprise (a legendary entertainment company). The company had several theaters not only in Indiana but in the whole of the USA. In 1924, the company decided to build one more theater at 791 Broadway in Gary. The theater which would later be called Place Theater groundbreaking therefore began. Uniquely designed from all the other theaters, it was designed by John Ebberson with an atmospheric finishing that had never been seen in Indiana state. It was the only atmospheric-style theater in Gary. A year later, Palace Theater was opened for business taking almost all movie enthusiasts in Gary. Live performance, dances, and ballet were some of the other activities that were performed in the theater.
Palace theater did well for the first 3 decades having the highest number of customers than any other theater in town. Though competition was stiff, no theater had the resources that it did, giving it an upper hand in every way. The turbulence began between 1950 and 1960 when there was an economic decline in Indiana State. The economic decline escalated unemployment in Gary which in turn increased violence and crime in the neighborhoods. Palace theater being centrally located in the most depressed region of the state, frequent violence and crime followed it like a shadow. Attacks and muggings were reported in and out of the theater. This discouraged many locals who were afraid of setting foot in or around the theater. Two crimes that would lead to its permanent closure were in 1968 and 1972. A 15-year-old teenager was stabbed to death in the crowded lobby of the theater. Four years later a lady was attacked and sexually assaulted while in the theater’s washrooms. These two incidents forced the theater to be shut down permanently in 1972.
Shortly after closure, the theater changed hands and use. William Carl purchased it in 1975 and turned it into a residential building and offices. The business failed and it was again purchased by a group of doctors, Gandhi King Corp. They too abandoned the building after it became expensive to restore. Today, the building is in complete ruin. The roof has since collapsed exposing the interior to rainwater and sunshine. Graffiti covers a major section of the looted interior. Currently, it is a haven for drug dealers and other illegalities. Extremely contaminated and dirty, locals are discouraged from exploring the property.
City Methodists Church is a ruin in Gary, Indiana that has stood in disuse for more than 7 decades. The church which was built in 1924 under the leadership of Pastor William Grant Seaman served for a very short time as a house of God before it was abandoned.
City Methodists Church also known as “City United Methodists Church” was built in 1924. Though the Methodist Church had been present in Gary since the beginning of the 19th century, small churches dominated. A need for a mega complex church was therefore a necessity. This prompted church leadership to build a larger church to accommodate the increased number of congregants. Groundbreaking was done in 1924, taking 21 months to complete. Inside the complex building was a gymnasium, dining hall, Sunday school, and a pool at the top. This made the church the largest in the Midwest. The construction capacity of the church was 1000 but the complex was able to squeeze in more than 1600 congregants. Closure For years, economic difficulties and bad management threatened the existence of the church.
This dwindled the population of the church as congregants began to leave the church. In the 1950s and 1960s, the white flight would also contribute to the large loss of congregants of City Methodist Church. It was also at this time that there was a high crime rate brought about by the decline in the economy. This too increased the rate of relocation of the locals leaving the church with less than 400 congregants by 1973. Due to the low number of congregants, in the massive church, the city Methodists church was shut down in 1975, and the building was sold to Indiana University.
City Methodists church has faced a whole lot of vandalism and fire outbreaks turning it into a ruin. Most of the furniture and other valuables have been looted and others destroyed beyond repair. Graffiti dominates both the interior and exterior walls of the building. The roof has since collapsed exposing the interior to further deterioration. Rumor has it that the church is used by drug dealers as a spot for their illegal businesses and transactions. Plans to put down the building have been for a while but implementation is yet to be launched.
City Methodists church has been reduced to a pile of hazardous ruin in the middle of the city. Being an old building, pillars and walls have weakened. The presence of asbestos is also a factor to take into consideration since the building was built in an era where asbestos was a common construction material. It is out of bound for locals due to safety and security reasons