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.

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.

This particular set consists of a day that we spent primarily exploring a residential area in Gary that is largely abandoned. The place used to be full of incredibly wealthy people and the buildings reflect that. There's nothing under two stories on the block and one of the two houses that we checked out felt like a model home to show off retro technology.

First house was pretty much stripped bare. It looks like whoever owned the house had planned on renovating it at one point, but never got around with it. We could tell that the house was ancient by the method in which the walls were built.

It was a three story house that I unfortunately took no exteriors of. The interior on the bottom two floors was shrouded in complete darkness, so I took most of my photos in the upper story.

This particular photo was taken immediately after I ascended the stairs. They were surprisingly sturdy given the shape of the entire house and the wood banister alongside the steps barely gave even as I leaned on it a bit for balance.

The attic was impressive. Well lit, and the walls were just insane. The place wasn't even that dirty.

This photo came out ridiculously well given the perceived lighting in the room. Since I went from such a bright room to this room, I had no idea that any photo that I took would turn out successfully. The odd angle at which the light came into the room under the planked up window really ended up working well for this one. The photo looks insane, but it was barely edited from my camera to how you see it here. The blobs on the walls are created by water damage I assume.

We left one home and figured out a way into the second. Since they were right next to each other it was a pretty quick trek, although a few of the group and myself became lost in some of the tall weeds and had a bit of trouble finding the entrance to the damn place. Eventually we found an external stairway leading to an open basement door.

The basement was dark, but full of character. We could tell this place was going to be interesting already. Interesting side note: today was the day that I figured out that an animal can become mummified completely naturally in the dry basement of an abandoned building. There was a possum corpse on the floor that a friend of mine accidentally shuffled into. It sounded like paper mache as it slid across the floor. Unfortunately, it was a bit too dark to document.

Two variations of the basement - one underexposed to emphasize the "pi door".

We made our way upstairs and were greeted to a kitchen that would send any retro-fiend into fits of kitsch-induced bliss. Unfortunately, it was a dark kitchen with very little space to set up a tripod. In-counter stovetops, a retro clock built right into the wall, turquoise colors everywhere - the cupboards were actually still stocked with all sorts of old foods. It was crazy.

We moved out of that room and into another. Apparently the study as a bookshelf was built into the wall. The room was interesting, but full of other people trying to get a photo, so I just skipped it and moved to the entryway. The hallway was beautiful, with a curved ceiling and some pretty awesome push-button power switches.

We wandered around a bit more before finding another interesting aspect of the house - a stairway leading to a completely planked over top floor. From what I can tell, it seems as if the owner came upon hard times and ended up leasing the complete top story to a guest. Luckily, we didn't have to do any of the dirty work as someone else had busted through the floor before us. I took the opportunity to take a photo of my friend awkwardly making his way up the stairs and through the hole.

That's it for now! I hope to get back to a few of these places soon because they were really intriguing to me.

See more of my abandoned photos on my main site: http://www.cityeyesphoto.com/index.php?x=browse&category=29

It begins with a trip to Gary I took nearly five months ago, December 2008.

Cold day of course, but most of the buildings that we visited were completely enclosed, shielding us at least partially from the wind outside.

We started with the old standby, the factory. Since it was Mid-Winter, the piles of clothes usually sitting moist and moldy were rigid and frozen completely solid. The light beamed in through the window and reflected off of the shiny piles.

Frozen Piles of Clothes lay on the floor of the factory

Water dripping from the ceiling of the building was creating icicles down the massive warehouse ceiling. The streams of ice were pristine, lined up perfectly along the edge where each piece of roof met.

Ice hangs from the girders.

They continue all the way down the length of the huge building.

Even after decades of abandonment, pieces of the building's history still stick around. It's weird really, knowing how many people have been here before me considering how untouched the building and its contents are.

A packing sticker sits still coiled up perfectly after years of disuse

Even after many times visiting this place, I always find things that are new to me.

Inexplicable Spraypaint near a door.

A wall covered in what looks like soot.

After leaving the bolt factory, we swung by a building that we had always seen from the road, but never attempted to enter. The inside of the building was unremarkable compared to the interesting architecture on the outside, although we did run into a few surprises.

Although the photo might not be remarkable, those stairs definitely are.

Apparently, Efraim liked pastel colors a lot.

Disco inferno?

Stay tuned for the next half of the day which includes an apartment building that is practically falling apart and a recently (then, at least) closed high school. Hopefully, I'll get around to it tomorrow.

To see more of my abandoned photos, check out my main site.

One last photo before we left the school - Jordan taking a shot in the stairwell:

The rooms in the church show so much decay, it's incredible. This particular room was part of the "school" section of the building. The ceiling had fallen in and there was a single chair left. Further in, evidence of looters. The ceilings were torn out and stripped of all valuable materials.

I climbed to the top of the church as high as I could go and came upon a pile of cinderblocks against the wall. Luckily, they had been securely placed (or frozen), so they held my weight without collapsing. I lifted myself up through a hole in the roof onto a rusty old catwalk and found myself at the top of the steeple in the main sanctuary area (more photos of that on the post before this one). It was pretty high up and I was nervous, so I got down there pretty quickly. For good measure, Elise took a photo of me from the bottom. You can see my face in the center of the photo to the right.

Some of the rooms had some pretty interesting graffiti in them.

The floors in some of the rooms were completely covered in a layer of ice. Others were covered ankle deep with clothes and toys.

Finally, we ventured down into the basement. We hadn't thought of bringing flashlights, so we were navigating using the light of our cell phones. It was an ominous place. I found a piano from the 1800's, but couldn't get a shot of it due to the poor lighting. I was able to get a quick shot of a hole in the ceiling and a blindingly lit opening created by what seems to be someone pounding away at the bricks.

The last place we visited seemed to be where the fire started - an abandoned bookstore in the storefront area  of the church. There were so many neat things there. We found a poster announcing the original release of Stephen King's "Carrie" as well as a giant poster of "The Fonz" and a Mork and Mindy book. I also found a stack of resumes from the 70's. I might post them - important information blanked out - in the future.

More exploration to come.

After about three minutes of driving around a bit aimlessly, I saw a spire above a few old looking buildings about a street away from me. I navigated my way over and found myself at the base of one of the biggest and most beautiful abandoned buildings that I'd ever seen. The second I ducked into a side door, I knew that I'd found it. To the left, a stage littered with all sorts of clothing and wreckage. To the right, a small room leading into a huge sanctuary.

I left after snapping a few photos and returned later with Elise. Here are the results:

I plan on getting back there as soon as possible to take more photos - we had to give up eventually because the sun was quickly fading and our fingers were completely numb from the cold. I plan on exploring more of Gary with my  camera soon in the future, as well as the surrounding areas.

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