“We do, we do.” – Masonic Temple Pt. 2
We made our way out of the theater to explore the rest of the half demolished building. We climbed past a pile of rubble, and finally located a staircase that was not caved in or demolished. We made our way to the second floor to find a door that opened to absolutely nothing - a crane had demolished the building past this door.
Remnants of what the building used to be used for litter the hallway. Mason-branded seats, paper donning the masonic symbol, even this large masonic symbol. The G in the center of the compass/rule stands for God and geometry, if you were wondering (I was, that's why I Googled it).
The walls to the right of these rooms were completely gone, allowing light to flood into the structure.
Finally, we come to the sad but inevitable demolition photos. I went back on an active demolition day to get one of my favorite and most short-lived abandoned buildings.
“Welcome to the club, Number 493″” – Masonic Temple Pt. 1
I'm usually very secretive about the places that I go, this is not because I'm trying to be stingy with the locations that I photograph or that I wouldn't like others to be able to experience the places that I do, but also because there are a lot of bad people out there looking to scrap, tag, and vandalize these beautiful places. The easiest way to keep my information from leading a vandal to these locations is to only give the information to those that I trust.
In this case, I'm going to be completely open. What I'm about to post are photos of the now completely demolished Hammond Masonic Temple. Unfortunately, this beautiful place went from complete building to pile of rubble so quickly I was only able to get to it twice before it was completely gone.
First off, a few views of the main theater - this place was MASSIVE. A large sign hidden above the stage behind a faux ceiling read "Orak Temple", most likely placed when the theater was originally built and hidden from the public during a renovation at some point.
Indiana Exploration
Exploration Catch-Up first post:
First off, an abandoned hotel. 
Second, we hit a schoolhouse in the area. Built in 1922, it has been shut down since somewhere around 1960. 
This hallway is actually in the basement. Originally, it was made of poured concrete and could withstand the blast of an atomic bomb. 
Some of the cool paintings we found in the building: 
For some reason, a single chair and desk were all that was left in this room. The floor was drooping pretty badly, so I didn't spend too much time tromping around up there. There was a hole in the ground that led to a classroom below: 
There were a lot of weird goth things painted around the building: 
One last photo before we left the school - Jordan taking a shot in the stairwell: 
Dead Mall: Exploration of an Abandoned Shopping Center
Went out to Chicago again this weekend. Took a few photos of some new places.
First destination - An abandoned shopping mall. Once in an area of great promise, now the area has descended into high crime and depression. The mall, used for the chase scene in the Blues Brothers movie, closed in 1978 and since then had been the site of a murder, multiple rapes, and a few other very nasty things until the police station moved nearby.
Fire damage is apparent in the building and the once sturdy concrete upper floor has caved in at multiple sites within.
A sign hangs from the position where it once stood. Vandalism has removed much of what was once in the mall, but sometimes you'll stumble upon signs of what used to be:
Walls are torn down - only flaps of wallpaper and wood grid remains in some areas:
This room was particularly interesting to me. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I think that the blue tint in my photo is due to the holes in the ceiling becoming a giant pinhole camera type device. The blue and white is actually a projection of the sky above:
An escalator, once part of a bustling JC Penny, now stands silent. Water collecting at the bottom makes for a tricky climb as well as corroding metal steps:
Two escalators cross in a large department store area:
Colorful murals and wallpaper adorn the dreary halls of the old mall:
My second destination was, as far as I could tell, an abandoned chemical research factory. I'm told that it was once an oil company, but I can't for the life of me tell exactly what they did in there because I found all sorts of obscure chemicals not related at all to petroleum.
A piano is in the hallway across from a lab. I have no idea why it's there:
Some insane machinery fills up one of the rooms in the building:
Various equipment, bottles, and papers create shadows in this room. It smelled of sulfur, so I didn't stay in there for long:
Notice the "asb 9" in this photo. I'm pretty sure that means that there was asbestos present and needed to be removed. Still, the least of our worries:
As always, you know where to find more and larger.
Gary Indiana Exploration 08-31-08
Ok, as you guys know, I went out to the most abandoned city in America again on Saturday. Said I'd post a few photos. As always, more photos and larger versions available at my flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityeyes
Here they are:
A shutter, busted out from either wear through time or a vandal, sits in the center of the hallway of an abandoned apartment complex connected to one of the most famous theaters of the 1950's.
Stage lights litter the floor near the exit to the theater. I'm surprised they haven't been broken, but many explorers that come to this area of town are dedicated enough to leave things where they were found and smart enough to watch their step - you never know when you'll hit some rotten wood and burst through the floor.
The main hall of a disused auditorium. This is actually the first time that I've visited this area. The actual "auditorium" part of the building is completely overgrown with weeds. The stairs of the auditorium were carved out of ornate limestone. It almost seems as if someone had swept them because they were oddly clean considering the condition of the building that they were in.
Obligatory Peeling Paint Shot. I don't usually like to take these, but the lighting in this room was too good to pass up. I also couldn't get over how green that paint was.
A gigantic pile of clothes sits among many others in the abandoned warehouse. I ran into another explorer on the same day and he filled me in on the whole situation - apparently some woman had promised to fly all of these articles of clothing over to third world countries and instead ditched it all in abandoned buildings across the city. Sneaky. Equally messy - piles of paper littered the floors in what seemed to be a storage room. Receipts from the 50's on are present in this room.
Andrew sees the light - the dust from the floor of the old warehouse highlights two beams of light which happen to fall right on my friend. In another room, a door sits - signatures dotting the entire surface. Some of them even date back to the 50's.
