From Apartment Buildings To Post Offices, Explore Abandoned Buildings Galore In Gary, Indiana
There’s just something so fascinating about places that once were. There’s something about wandering the halls of a dilapidated and decaying structure and imagining the days in which the place was once alive that has strange but beautiful magic to it. The Hoosier State is no stranger to interesting abandoned places, and there’s one town that gets a lot of flak it doesn’t necessarily deserve. Gary, Indiana, is a mostly abandoned little place that tops almost anywhere else when it comes to urban exploration. With more than 13,000 abandoned buildings and structures, Gary is among the most abandoned places in Indiana – if not the world.
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Today, it's not quite "abandoned" - folks still call it home, and efforts have been underway to try and revamp the area - but 1/3 of the town is effectively deserted. Most people speak of Gary as if it's something of a dirty secret. Hoosiers aren't proud of it, but perhaps they should be - albeit for totally different reasons than, say, an excellent tourist economy.
For the artists, the photographers, and the wanderers, Gary is a kind of mecca; it's a sacred holy grail in the Midwest for urban explorers and those with roaming hearts.
Urban exploration is the art of combing through long-forgotten buildings and taking photos, taking videos, or simply taking it all in. It's an entire subculture of people who find beauty in urban decay - and trust us, there's most certainly an enchanting beauty to the decay of Gary, Indiana.
You'd be amazed at the buildings you can find, and what some of them contain.
There's an old school with furniture and books and desks still scattered about (pictured above is the library of the abandoned Gary Elementary School). There's a stunning apartment complex (or two... or ten) whose walls once held families and lively residents but are now quietly decomposing, taken over once more by nature and the occasional graffiti artist.
We don't recommend entering any of the buildings; urban exploration can be risky, even dangerous, if you're new to it (or if you make a simple miscalculation in terms of, say, if a rotting floor can hold your weight).
Luckily for those who prefer to admire from afar, there's plenty of that to be done in Gary, too. Every old building seems to ask you to come closer so it can whisper in your ear, and they're intriguing from the outside in.
Pictured below is the old Ambassador Apartment complex, which was built in the 1920s and abandoned entirely by the mid-1980s.
It's strange to think that every one of these places was once a living, breathing part of a town - a town that, slowly but steadily, is becoming more and more extinct year by year.
One thing is for sure, though: despite the poor reputation Gary has earned over the years for varied (and valid) reasons, those who appreciate the beautiful sense of longing that comes with exploring abandoned places will find plenty to appreciate about it.
What are your favorite abandoned places in Indiana? Tell us about them and you might see them featured someday! And remember: at Only In Your State, we encourage exploration, but we don’t encourage folks to enter old, dilapidated buildings where injury is very possible should something go wrong (and it easily could – remember that many of these buildings haven’t been kept up in decades), nor do we endorse trespassing of any kind. It’s best to admire these places – and the other 13,000 places throughout Gary – from afar.
Tori Jane Ostberg plays with tornadoes for fun. When she's not out chasing the biggest and baddest storms mama nature has to offer, she can usually be found writing something, somewhere, or exploring the United States with her camera.
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