Gary’s sad story is written on the payrolls of US Steel. When the mill modernized there were massive layoffs, as a result this grand gothic church’s congregation fell from 1,700 to 100. It closed in 1975.
history under ground
Gary-IN
City Methodist Church
Gary Screw and Bolt
Gary, IN
From 1910 to 1986, Gary Bolt & Screw manufactured an incredible amount of fasteners and steadily employed about 1,000 people. Then, something went wrong–today its walls are not filled with rusty equipment or even dust. Instead, hundreds of piles of rotting donated clothes fill in the space under the old gantry cranes…
Universal Atlas Cement Co.
Gary, IN
Construction of this plant, which would become the largest of its kind in the world, began in 1903. It processed byproducts of US Steel’s blast furnaces into Portland cement for nearly a century. Donald Trump and a partner bought half of the complex and demolished it for a hotel in 1995 and the city bought the other half in 1999. What wasn’t demolished is still abandoned.