OPPOSITE: The Beaux Arts portico of Gary Union Station fronting Broadway no longer greets passengers. TOP LEFT: A lone chair occupies the main hall of the station. The staircase to the second floor rises behind it. TOP RIGHT: The town name is cast in concrete above the door. ABOVE LEFT: Looking out at the main hall from the rear of the station. Colorful graffiti covers most surfaces. ABOVE RIGHT: The great hall once had glass in its skylights. Today, all of the glass is gone, and the ceiling is slowly descending to the floor in pieces.
The complex also contains a separate freight and express building construct- ed in the same style as the main sta- tion. It too remains a derelict shell ex- posed to the elements.
Tucked away from downtown Gary, the main entrance fronts Broadway, nearly hidden by the two elevated main lines on either side of the station.
A shell of a station
On July 6, 2013, I was passing through Gary and made a very small detour off I-90 to the surface streets of what is now largely a ghost town. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I have passed literally within a stone’s throw of the roof of Gary Union Station while
on the interstate and never noticed it. Located between downtown and the steel mill, very little local traffic (auto or foot) passes through the area. The main entranceway is blocked with rotting ply- wood, and is big enough to drive a car through; in fact, some reports indicate cars were indeed stored inside the sta- tion at one point after its abandonment. Walking around the building through the weeds reveals an obvious entrance point for those who feel the need to wander in. Once inside, one is struck by both the beauty of what once was and the incredible decay of that same beauty. A constant eye has to be kept looking up, as the ceiling is slowly falling to the floor piece by piece. Access
to the second floor would have been via a staircase at the rear of the main hall, but many steps are missing and the top is blocked by debris; even without those barriers, it would be dangerous to test the floor of the second story. What’s left inside? The usual urban debris of mattresses and tires lie amongst the rubble from the falling ceiling. But perhaps the icon of the sta- tion is the lone chair occupying the cen- ter of the hall.
So what is the fate of the building? The walls are certainly strong enough to stand forever. But given the finan- cial condition of the city, even that might not be enough time to save the this icon from another era...
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