Abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana - June 2010. Urban exploration

The city of Gary, Indiana was founded as a booming steel city as the twentieth century passed, and areas downtown saw the construction of several impressive buildings during these prosperous early years. In 1925, a cornerstone ceremony took place at 577 Washington St. to commemorate the construction of a Gothic Revival church called City Methodist. It was completed 21 months later, at the cost of one million dollars - $385,000 of which was contributed by the United States Steel Corp. (which also founded the city). Elbert Gary, the chairman of U.S. Steel and origin of the city's name, donated a Skinner organ as well. The Bedford limestone structure consisted of a 50-foot tall sanctuary nave and elaborate stonework, and was able to seat 950 worshipers; City Methodist had a congregation of nearly 3,000 members in its heyday. The building was also home to Seaman Hall - a 1,000 seat auditorium, and a gymnasium with a full size basketball court. Storefronts were built into the building, with hopes that the income would offset the enormous maintenance costs.

During the 1920s, Pastor William Seaman rallied against the power of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, and welcomed black worshipers into City Methodist during a time when African Americans were not permitted in "white churches."

Gary entered a downward spiral during the 1960s, like many other industrial cities during the period. As U.S. Steel employment dwindled, the residents of Gary moved to nearby suburbs; then as jobs left downtown, city many residents moved out altogether while crime and poverty rose. By 1973 the church's congregation had only 300 members and by 1975 the Methodists moved out of the structure. A second congregation occupied the building until they left in the early 1980s; some storefronts and office space was utilized for a while but soon the entire campus was completely abandoned.

City Methodist was burned in the Great Gary Arson of 1997, resulting in a large portion of the roof collapsed or missing. It is now owned by the city of Gary, and its future remains unclear.

In 2009, parts of a remake of the movie A Nightmare On Elm Street were filmed at the church.

http://www.opacity.us/site104_city_methodist_church_gary.htm
http://www.preserveindiana.com/pixpages/nw_ind/orrcitymeth.htm

See my Flickr photoset for photos of this building: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/sets/72157624076348593/

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• Indiana June 2010

[Offshoreorganbuilder]

Thanks for posting, but PLEASE stop waving the camera around. Hold it still, once in a while.

[slworking2]

@Offshoreorganbuilder NP. Check out my newer (June of 2011) video of this church. I've gotten much better at keeping the camera steady now. :-)

[TriFlow]

Looks like what happened to my old house on Harrison ST... Great video, but really sad....

[slworking2]

@TriFlow Thanks. And I agree - it would be nice to see this building saved. I'm not a religious person, but I do appreciate great architecture and the good things the congregation did for the community.

[blkguyjusttryn]

While I'm sure the history regarding the Pastor and his fight against the Klan may be accurate, Gary was very segregated til the late 50s early 60s. I remember not being able to eat in place downtown. Blacks weren't allowed north of the rail road tracks near 10th after dark, which includes all of the area City Methodist was in, and all of downtown.

[slworking2]

@blkguyjusttryn It's good that lots of progress has been made in lowering discrimination since that time.

[Offshoreorganbuilder]

@slworking2 Thanks for your newer video. The building is certainly impressive, despite its state of collapse. Very sad to see, not only the end of someone's vision, but the result of such amazing stupidity on the part of the vandals and arsonists.

[slworking2]

@arlichar11 Yeah - I'm quite fearless when it comes to exploring and climbing around on stuff like this. :-)

[arlichar11]

dang your brave......those stairs not loook safe at all