Gary’s first Methodist church was established in 1906. In October of 1916, Dr. William Grant Seaman became pastor. Seaman relished his role in the growing congregation, but he had bigger dreams; he wanted to build a new church to serve the social, cultural, and spiritual needs of the town’s citizens.
Seaman wanted to offer a religious oasis in the midst of a neighborhood dotted with saloons and brothels at the time.
Perhaps one of the most iconic abandoned structures in Gary, was once the pride of the community. Built in 1925, the classic Gothic edifice was the result of an ambitious priest backed by U.S. Steel dollars. But the huge structure would burden the church with enormous maintenance costs for decades, and when Gary’s population declined in the 1960s and 70s the church struggled to make ends meet.
When the parishioners left town, so too did the dollars. Now one of the most photographed churches in Indiana, City United Methodist sits exposed and crumbling since it was abandoned nearly forty years ago.
Something Interesting in Gary, IND.
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