Exploring the abandoned Horace Mann High School in Gary, Indiana.
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Horace Mann High School – Flickr set of the abandoned school.
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Photographer Nick Forslund assembled a book for his senior art project at UW-Whitewater. Gary: A Texture Tour contains photos from our urbex trip to Gary, Indiana, which was funded by American Urbex contributors. I am thrilled that he used American Urbex and some of my own photos as a resource. The end product makes for one fascinating coffee table book. They are available for purchase at Blurb. We realize the cost is a bit steep, but there is no profit made at all on this product. Each copy is custom printed when it is ordered and the quality is amazing. In any case they make great presents for the holiday.
Congrats Nick!
Photo: A postcard depicting the Ambassador Apartments in its prime.
Photo: Bird’s-eye view of the Ambassador Apartments courtesy of Bing Maps. Notice the trees growing out of the brickwork.
Normally these articles begin with a bit of history about the urbex location. This one is a little different…
The seven story Ambassador Apartments building is probably one of the most dangerous urbex locations I have ever been to. When we arrived near the end of a full day of urbex in Gary, I never anticipated that we would traverse the entire building. My feet were incredibly sore, the heat was just enough to be uncomfortable, and I was thirsty as hell. Add open elevator shafts, buckling floors, missing walls, loose masonry and rusty steel jutting out from everywhere, the Ambassador Apartments is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately I was with two other urbexers at the time who took safety quite seriously. We kept a constant watch on each other while making our way through the building. We verbally called out dangers even though they seemed obvious. The Ambassador Apartments are not for those new to urbex.
Photo: The owner of this chair just got up for a minute, but never came back.
The Ambassador Apartments resplendent glory can still be seen if you stare long enough into the shadows. Ornate fireplaces, chairs, doorways, wallpaper and are few and far between in this large apartment building, but they can be found. Information on the building from a variety of internet resources pretty much say the same thing. The building was erected in 1927 to house white collar US Steel managers and was open until 1985. In 1995 the city of Gary considered the building a high priority for rehabilitation. Most of the goals in the Gary Consolidated Plan, however, were never completed. A snippet from Google Books turns up a quote stating that the Ambassador Apartments once housed 125 residents and was one of Gary’s few bomb shelters (Weekly Commercial News: Volume 100 1942).
I feel like I have reached a dead end on researching this location. If you have any more information about the Ambassador Apartments please leave a comment. This is such a fascinating building.
Photo: A Cathedral of the Holy Angels church bulletin from 1984 rests on green carpeting.
Video: A tour through the Ambassador Apartments by slworking2.
Research:
Ambassador Apartments – My Flick Gallery
Chicagoist – Some photos of the Ambassador Apartments
Preserve Indiana – Ambassador and Mahencha Apartments
BBC UK – Video discussing the economic stimulus that includes famous Gary urbex locations.
Photo: City United Methodist Church around 1955 (source).
Photo: Current view of City Methodist Church.
Gary City Methodist is described in it’s own history as an imperfect house of God. The cornerstone was laid in 1925, but rising building costs caused plans to change during construction. The US Steel corporation donated 50% of the $650,000 price tag for construction. ($650,000 in 1925 would be ~$7.8 million today adjusting for inflation.) To alleviate costs the windows were not entirely completed with stained glass. Measurement errors also prevented the church from being as large as originally planned. The large pillars supporting the balcony decrease the amount of floor space available for pews. The rest of the columns built after this oversight are smaller. (Source: How Our Church Began)
Photo: View of the church Sanctuary (where the altar is) in 1967 (source).
Photo: The Sanctuary still whispers of God’s glory.
City Methodist’s flock of worshippers were graced with a progressive pastor who held that people of any color were God’s Creation. Pastor William Seaman invited African-Americans into his congregation at a time where blacks where not welcome in “white churches.” Pastor Seaman took also public stand against racism in Indiana and was able to prevent the screening of Birth of a Nation, a film that glorifies to Ku Klux Klan.
Photo: Taken by Nick Forslund.
At its height the church had about 3000 members, but by 1973 it only had 300. In 1975 the church closed its doors to the congregation and the property was sold to Indiana University. IU did not utilize the property and today it is owned by the city of Gary. The church was populated briefly by another congregation in the 1980’s. The Great Gary Arson of 1997 destroyed much of the building, in particular the third floor gymnasium roof. In 2009 the building was used to film the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. The church was also used in August 2010 as a location for Transformers 3. Demolition efforts sporadically arise and immediately fizzle out as the city of Gary struggles to find funds.
Photo: Take a seat and have a long chat with God.
We arrived at City Methodist first thing in the morning on a Saturday and the church was already populated with photographers. There were even professional photographers using the church as a backdrop for wedding photos. The entire wedding party mulled about as the bride and groom captured the moment. The bride even climbed several flights of dirt covered stairs and through tight spaces with her wedding dress hiked up. The whole experience was quite surreal. I had become accustomed to the isolation that urbex provides in densely populated cities. City Methodist Church was originally built to be a community center with its large auditorium, storefronts, gymnasium and school. Despite being closed the church was still very much an active community center.
Photo: Seating in the auditorium balcony.
Photo: Taken by slworking2.
The other photographers who were there talked about how the next week the location was going to be used to shoot Transformers 3. There was concern that after the shoot the filmmakers would finance the demolition of the building. The city of Gary was paid a grand total of $1,550 for the rights to shoot at City Methodist… I don’t think demolition is going to happen any time soon. Given the volume of off the street visitors to this location it is only a matter of time before statistically someone seriously hurts themselves. I am glad I had a chance to visit it before its inevitable demise. It really was a beautiful building, but something about it’s popularity did not sit right with me.
Resources:
1967 City Methodist Church Directory has photos of church members.
Fantastic gallery of b&w photos of City Methodist in its prime.
Information about the Skinner Organ at City Methodist.
Historic Buildings of Gary, Indiana has some great winter photos.
Video taken inside of City Methodist.
Mention on io9.com.
Transformers 3 article on nwi.com.
Nightmare on Elm Street article on nwi.com.
The urbex trip to Gary, Indiana over the past weekend was funded entirely by American Urbex contributors. Although the heat was at times stifling, it was very refreshing to be surrounded by two more talented photographers. Starting early on Saturday we hit up as many well known urbex locations as possible. On Sunday two of us contorted our bodies to make it into an otherwise inaccessible location and spent the next six and half hours there.
The total expenditures for the trip are as follows. Some items are approximated until all locations report their debit transactions.
Some of the total cost was offset by Brett, who has a nice dinner coming his way some day in the future. Nick also deserves credit for pitching in for gas on the return trip and other miscellaneous costs. What remains of the funds contributed will go towards fulfilling contributor incentives. Extra funds will go towards future urbex adventures.
The trip was a smashing success. Thanks and keep an eye out for more Gary urbex updates than you can wave a stick at over the next few weeks.
Thanks to the generous contributions of American Urbex readers I will be headed to Gary, Indiana. Their contributions to date have totaled $400! ($240 via IndieGoGo and $160 cash.) This trip would not have happened without your support. Between grad school, a new puppy, and bills there is little spare change for travel. I’m looking forward to the adventure with a few other urbex friends. Rest assured our fascinating discoveries will be posted.
This couldn’t have happened without your help. Thank you.
American Urbex will continue to raise funds for future urbex adventures. So please, if you have a few bucks, it would be greatly appreciated!
-Ken