“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.
Gary Homes
I'm so backlogged. I have a ton of photos to post before and after this, but I figured since I'm sitting around doing nothing I'd share a set with you guys.
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
Playing Catch-Up – Gary Exploration Part 2
The Garython continues. I never thought I'd be able to span two posts with one day, but we visited a lot of places.
Following the small housing unit that we hit, we figured we'd take a trip to a large apartment complex across from a high school that I had been observing. Time hasn't treated it well and it's falling apart. The stairs that lead up to the higher floors are crumbling, flights stacked upon each other because they had become detached from the concrete walkways.
The rooms were all shaped the same, but looked completely different from each other:
Two Windows
White Room
Pink Room
Walls are gone
We left the crumbling building for a newer one - a recently closed high school. Jordan had been here before (shortly after it had closed), so he brought us through to a few interesting areas.
First off - the band room:
Empty Band Room + Trophy
We walked back through the empty hallway and found a storage room in which all of the extra instruments and band outfits were stored. As much as I wanted to have one of them for myself, I didn't want to take away the chance for others to see this crazy stuff:
The Band Storage Room
We made our way upstairs to the auditorium. I had one of those moments where I'm just struck by how such an incredible area can just be left to rot like it has. Since the first time Jordan had gone, some scrappers had managed to cut down a giant metal chandelier but apparently didn't have the smarts to figure out that they couldn't get it out of the door.
The Auditorium. Missing chandelier is on the floor near the entrance in the center.
Towards the stage.
On the Stage
Behind the stage was what seemed like an extra rec room, although I have no idea what its true purpose might be. I would have guessed that it might have been a computer lab, but the hardware seemed far too outdated for the time that the school closed. These macs were actually equipped with 5 inch floppy disc drives.
Computer Room
More to come, of course. I have a lot of catching up to do.
To see more of my abandoned photos, check out my main site.
Playing Catch-Up – Gary Exploration Part 1
I haven't posted in months due to extreme lazification. That ends now (hopefully). I'm going to start a weekly (hopefully daily) attempt to catch up to exactly where I am now as it comes to exploration and photos that I've taken for work.
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.
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: 
Gary Church Revisited
Here's a few more. I've been busy at the paper with all of the floods going on in the area, but in my downtime I managed to stop by my old favorite to take a few shots.
In the rain, the church takes on a whole new mood. Water floods in from the ceiling and collects on the floor of the once great church. The brickwork is exposed where the water hits, dirt washed away. Water runs down the limestone pillars. It was absolutely beautiful.
I climbed up into the church bell tower in order to get a shot from above. I knew that I probably wouldn't be in the area next time it was raining so hard so I figured I'd capture the moment.
Cold water hitting warm glass caused my lens to fog up a bit. I took advantage of this situation and shot a few more before I left.
Finally, the result of exploring a very wet abandoned church:
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.
