Decayingmidwest

Gary, Indiana, exact building withheld, exact location withheld

Inside the Sinkhole Church in Gary, Indiana, With One Beam Holding Up the Floor

A Gary church so close to collapse that one beam was holding up the floor, with chandeliers, pews and a room of dresses left inside.

Watch on YouTube or search decay sinkhole on YouTube

I call this the sinkhole church, because the inside has dropped. At one point a single beam was pretty much holding me up and everything else around it had sunk in. It is close to fully collapsed, so this is a short one.

My video description says it looked like it went abandoned around 2010. I’m not naming the church. It won’t be here much longer.

What we found

Fallen beams and debris across the floor, dusted with snow.
Fallen beams and debris across the floor, dusted with snow. 0:15

The chandeliers are still up there, and obviously I wasn’t going up to them. Some of the pews are still left, tilted into the rubble.

A peeling plaster wall with a toppled red wooden piece and boards lying across the floor.
A peeling plaster wall with a toppled red wooden piece and boards lying across the floor. 0:45
A pew tipped into the rubble, with snow on the seat and a red cloth hanging at the left.
A pew tipped into the rubble, with snow on the seat and a red cloth hanging at the left. 1:00
An exposed brick wall with rubble piled in the corner beneath a red door frame.
An exposed brick wall with rubble piled in the corner beneath a red door frame. 1:15

This is all there really is to see without risking my life. From the outside you wouldn’t think there was anything in there, because the building doesn’t look that good. I didn’t find many items.

A snow covered floor littered with boards and a few cylinders.
A snow covered floor littered with boards and a few cylinders. 1:30
A wall with papers hanging off it and the paint peeling in patches.
A wall with papers hanging off it and the paint peeling in patches. 1:45

I did find one room with dresses in it, which was a cool surprise.

A red wooden railing in front of a wood paneled wall, with a white enamel pot on the floor.
A red wooden railing in front of a wood paneled wall, with a white enamel pot on the floor. 2:00
A stairway going into the dark, with the handrail painted pink.
A stairway going into the dark, with the handrail painted pink. 2:15

Why places like this end up empty

Gary has lost more than half its population since the 1960s, PBS NewsHour reported in September 2024, tied to fewer steel jobs. The city has roughly 10,000 abandoned buildings. Churches are part of that count.

Lakeshore Public Media reported on another Gary church, City Methodist, in October 2018. It closed in 1975 after its congregation had shrunk for years, and by 2018 most of its roof had collapsed. The city took a $46,000 federal loan that year to pay for asbestos removal there. That is a different building, and I’m not saying it is this one. It shows how a Gary church can go from a closed congregation to a collapsed roof over a few decades.

The date for the sinkhole church is unconfirmed. The 2010 figure comes from what I saw inside.

One of the last shots in the video is a stairway into the dark with the handrail still painted pink.

Left behind

  • A floor that had sunk in, held up in one spot by a single beam
  • Chandeliers still hanging overhead
  • Some pews left, tilted into the rubble
  • A room with dresses in it
  • A building that looked to have been abandoned around 2010

What I carried in

Same list as every video description.

Sources

More like this

The footage that never goes public lives on Patreon. It's paid, and it's where the rough cuts, the security run-ins and the early releases go.