Failure
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been there, and now that I think about it I’m not sure that I’ve visited since I started this blog (October 2007). But a friend mentioned something about some abandoned schools, and soon I found myself in the passenger seat of a car speeding past a sewage treatment plant with a large sign that read “WELCOME TO GARY INDIANA”.
We met up with two more friends at the dilapidated City Methodist Church (which was in even worse shape than I had remembered) before heading to the first place on our list. As is often the case with vacant buildings in Gary, getting inside was not a problem–just open a door and walk in. From the outside it was hard to tell that the schools have been closed for years. Inside there were some signs of minor vandalism and copper wire theft, but overall the buildings were in very good shape. I was impressed–if these schools were in Chicago, every window would be broken by now. All of the building contents would be destroyed (by vandals, by fire, by water damage) and every available surface would be covered in spray paint.
In many ways the trip was uneventful–nothing unusual happened, and while the schools made for some nice camera fodder it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t seen before. Piles of slightly used but perfectly good school textbooks left to rot? Check. Rooms filled with school furniture–chairs, desks, shelves–that could probably, but never will be, used elsewhere? Seen it. Old class photos dating back to the 1940′s that are probably the only surviving documents on the history of the school, discarded onto the floor of a damp basement hallway? Yea, that’s actually pretty common…
Here’s the thing: these places are signs of failure–of the school system, of the government, of whatever. Yet whenever I learn of a school closing (or factory, or home, or any building for that matter) I can’t help but think, “Hey…that’d be a fun place to get into and photograph.”
Which, in a way, is kind of fucked up.