Abandoned Laundromat in Gary, Indiana: Dryers Marked Out of Order and Clothes Left Behind

This laundromat in Gary, Indiana looked like it was partway through being gutted. Ceiling tiles were scattered across the floor, most of the washers were gone, and almost every dryer still standing had an out of order sign on it.

There was still plenty of the old business left in the room. Price signs, rules for customers, a kids’ play area, a vending machine up front, and a pile of what looked like clothes from the laundromat itself.

What we found

It started with trash. The floor was covered in ceiling tiles and debris, and near the front was what looked like the counter where the tellers would stand, next to a door marked private. The signs were still up. One listed a ten dollar fee for any clothes left more than 14 days. Another said management would remove clothes left in a washer or dryer after the cycle finished. The play area sign told parents to supervise their own children because the laundromat was not responsible for their welfare.

The dryers were Maytags and Speed Queens, and almost every one was marked out of order. One was out of order for a loud noise. I found a key stuck in one of the lint pans, and we tried it in a few machines, but it did not fit anything. A coin box on one machine had been broken open, ripped off with what might have been a crowbar. The laundry carts had markers attached so they could be seen across the room, a way to keep them from being stolen. I wished there was power. I would have started the dryers just to see.

My guess at why it closed was sitting right there on the machines. If nearly every dryer and washer is out of order, you do not have much of a business.

The washers had the usual cycle labels, heavy soiled, permanent press, normal wash and delicate knits. We found top load and front load machines, and a sign saying one cost six dollars to use. Many of them were gone. Either scrappers pulled them out or a worker was clearing the place before demolition or a reopening, and I could not tell which. Most of the old ones were broken anyway. Out front was a pile of clothing that looked like it came from the laundromat, and a sign said we were not allowed to occupy the building.

Further in there were more washers, and the change machine was out of order too. Fabric softener had spilled on the floor and there was a bin full of soap. The folding tables were still there, with a posted warning about letting children climb on tables, machines or carts, and someone got in a cart. Another sign said the play area was for children. The copper seemed to be gone and the ceiling tiles were knocked down, so my guess is scrappers came through.

The back of the building was maintenance equipment and a giant hole in the floor, which we steered around. The dryer exhausts run out the back wall.

Why Gary has so many empty buildings

I do not know when this laundromat closed or why, and the video does not say. What I can point to is the city around it.

Gary was founded by U.S. Steel. At its peak the population reached nearly 180,000, and about 40,000 more workers commuted in every day to the mills, according to WBEZ. U.S. Steel layoffs began in the early 1960s, and the city has since lost more than half of its peak population.

By 2015, ABC7 Chicago reported more than 6,700 abandoned buildings in Gary, about 20 percent of the city’s properties. The city said it had demolished 163 buildings in 2014 and 111 so far in 2015, with a goal of 400 by the end of that year, which the report called a drop in the bucket. In 2016, city officials estimated about 6,000 abandoned structures that pay no taxes, and between 8,000 and 12,000 abandoned properties in total, counting small lots. ABC7 also reported that arsonists had targeted many of the empty buildings and that there was little money for boarding them up.

Those numbers are years old, but they show the scale. A city with that many empty structures cannot tear them down as fast as they empty out.

Upstairs there are a couple of empty apartments, and we left them alone.