Gary, Indiana Winter 2014

Once again, my obsession for abandoned buildings has drawn to me another amazing place! I saw this GORGEOUS abandoned church in Gary, Indiana on pinterest and knew I HAD to go see it!

Here is a link showing more photos from the inside:
http://www.preserveindiana.com/pixpages/nw_ind/orrcitymeth.htm

Everyone told me Gary is SCARY. So, I knew I couldn't go alone. Mostly everyone didn't want me to go at all, but dreams don't come true from being afraid. So, I asked my dad (who is a truck driver and drives through Gary quite a bit) if he would come with me to photograph this amazing place. He agreed! :)

So, at 6:37 am on 12/27/14 we left on our way to Gary, Indiana.

It was about an hour and half drive for us. Which wasn't bad. However, he did almost run over a squirrel. My favorite animal. That was traumatic for me ;)

 

As we approached the church and I finally saw it, I let out a bit of squeal to which my dad laughed and told me to calm down. I was so excited! Another item on my Bucket List was about to come true :)

Much to my dismay, there was a fence around the church making it difficult for me to get in. Apparently, the roof of the church had collapsed. Which is why I'm assuming they put the fence up. I wanted to jump the fence but, there was a policeman around the corner and my dad said it would be really risky. So, I took my losses and didn't go in. Which, was really hard and sad for me, but as you can see from the photo below circled in the red it seems as though so much of the roof had collapsed that I probably wouldn't have been able to see a whole lot of the famous photos from a while back anyway. It was beautiful, nonetheless.

This town just left me completely overwhelmed. Street after street, completely abandoned. Which to me, is gorgeous and I could have stayed for months photographing it. However, it was very sad. Photographing it all would have been impossible. To get any type of full effect, you'd have to go for yourself or just attach a video camera to your dashboard and film it as you drove. One of the first buildings I photographed, I didn't even notice the slogan till my dad showed me on my camera. Made me laugh a bit. See if you can find it!

Next, we drove to the St.Mary's hospital where Michael and Janet Jackson were born.

Around back, it was just wide open. (Photo below) Where you could walk right in. I'll save that adventure for another day. This building is located right in front of the police station too. So, you have to be pretty sneaky.

After that we traveled to the abandoned train station. Another sad, beautiful, interesting place.

One of the most interesting things in this building to me, was the graffiti.

And then on the wall on the left side towards the back was this giant beautiful ice cream cone.

My dad insisted whoever did this must have been on some type of drugs. Or they just needed a wall to practice on. Either way, it's gorgeous, but, just very, very random.

This photo above was in a music school. It was just sitting wide open. Like if you could just walk into the post office or something.  

This building was interesting because it was completely lost beyond repair but, right behind it was a brand new building. Where people were actually working. Just very strange?

Here are a few others from around the town.

Then, my dad took me down to the old steel mills to this stretch of abandoned brick buildings. 

On the ground in front of this building was a sheet from out of a book. The title reads "National Debt." Ironic. 

Something else ironic. On the last building, an "Employment Office" sign was falling off and swinging in the breeze.

Around the side of the building was this open door. So, I asked my dad to go in with me. As he walked in he shouted, "HELLO! ANYONE IN HERE?! THIS IS THE GARY POLICE!" I freaked out some because I am always about being quiet when I go in these places and I probably would have had a heart attack if someone came running out! Haha! Luckily, no one did though. 

On the counter inside appeared to be some sort of book with all the employees and their employee numbers. I think, but, I could be wrong. 

By this time, it was around 10:30 and the town was starting to get busy. So, we just drove through a few more of the neighborhoods and I got a few more shots. 

In the house below, those are Christmas lights hanging from the front window. From the looks of it, it wasn't Christmas of this year...

And last, this house. Right in the front door, sat a laundry basket. Makes you wonder what happened.

All these houses, were on one block. One after another. Almost as if our towns were just completely abandoned. Was quite a culture shock. A beautiful one for me, but perhaps sad for others. I'd love to go back someday. 

Anyway, thanks for joining me on my journey to Gary, Indiana. You may see more photos of other abandoned places on my facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coveyou-Photography/308094059213009

Until then,
adventure awaits! 

Abandoned House Hunting

If you know Coveyou Photography, you know I love two things. Models and abandoned houses. Shawn text me a while back telling me about this abandoned house she found and got permission for us to go in. 

As we drove up, we noticed the back of the house was wide open. 

We walked around the whole house to see if there was another entrance to no avail. So, our only choice of getting in the house was to scale those boards. Nothing was stopping me from getting in. So, I started scaling. Shawn followed but, wasn't too happy about it as she was in a skirt and sandals. But, she did it like a champion! Part of me wished I had filmed her though. Because it was really a hilarious site to behold. (giggles) Here is some of what we saw:

On the staircase, we found this dictionary. Whose pages were turned to "prosecution and prostitution." Both are pretty unsettling...

Upstairs we found this broom. To which Shawn replied, "If someone had used that, we wouldn't be in this mess." Haha! 

Upon the end of our upstairs look through, we hear a pickup truck and Shawn looks out the window. Panicked she goes "someone is here!" Then she realized it was just her boyfriend. Haha! But, she really had me scared for a second too! 

This photo means so much to me! It sums up the day quite wonderfully. Something about going into an abandoned house that just makes you feel, nostalgic. You wonder what happened to make it that way. A beautiful, sad mystery. And being able to experience it with my best friend is pretty great too! :) 

To see more of my abandoned house photos please visit my facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coveyou-Photography/308094059213009?ref=hl

Until then,

adventure awaits :)