Gary Public Schools Memorial Auditorium

Gary, Indiana

Summer 2007.

We settled on this place, the Gary Public School Memorial Auditorium (Image courtesy of Preserve Indiana).  Built in 1927, the current building is only an approximate 25% of its former self.  The other three fourths of the building was destroyed by a fire in the Great Gary Arson of 1997.

What remains is the entranceway and the vestibule for the former auditorium.

As soon as I had walked in, I recognized the place from somewhere on the interweb.

Nothing special, but it was wide open and had an old school feeling to it.  I liked.

A look at the doors and an entranceway.

A walk up the stairs and a look down at the main level.

Up the stairs to the third floor and we found that the roof was absent and the concrete floors beneath us were breeding a garden of life in this vanishing structure.

The building was interesting because the top floors just had giant drops where the adjacent building used to exist.  I saw another web site and you could definitely tell that the building did have an adjacent building because this wall was unfinished.

The Gary Public Schools Memorial Auditorium looks to be staying put where it is.  Although, when you have such an impoverished city, it takes time to get things done.  This building has been slated to be saved because it was originally a tribute to war victims.

That news has to be taken with a grain of salt though; after the Great Gary Arson Fire of 97', Gary officials erected a fence around the building to protect it...but it doesn't look as if the fence has been maintained since Bone Thugs won a grammy for Crossroads.

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