Comments on: Another Story

By: Headless Unicorn Guy

Headless Unicorn Guy — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:50:27 +0000

No, it’ll be bulldozed within the year and a particle-board-and-styrofoam “Gated and Planned Community” of condos built on the site. I’ve lived in Crystal Cathedral’s part of SoCal for some 25 years, and that’s how crazy real estate gets out here. Nothing large lasts long after abandonment because the land it sits on is too valuable for development. When I was working in Anaheim in the Eighties, I saw one lot across the street get bulldozed and built-up TWICE in the four years I was there.

The only exception is when we have one of our periodic real estate crashes (roughly every 10-12 years; we’re in one now). Then you get a lot of vacant lots and “investment real estate” developments sitting empty for the next five years while new investor-bilking developments go up right next door under the theory “If you build it, they WILL come. They have to! THEY HAVE TO!”

By: iMonk

iMonk — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:08:22 +0000

If you read the history, that is what the church did. They leased to a Pentecostal church. A fire destroyed the current facility in the 90s. If someone wants it, they better have some money in their hand. There will be millions spent to get it to usability and then no one will insure it.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:50:45 +0000

All of you, please, pardon my massive ignorance as displayed in the following question:
But with a building this beautiful, and many congregations struggling to find worship space, what on earth is preventing this building and others like it from being used? To the denominations who own them simply refuse to allow access to it even from their own churches? If the upkeep is too much for them to maintain, cannot they simply sell the building to a growing church body who might find it easier to buy than build? I don’t understand…

By: Howard Nowlan

Howard Nowlan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:09:43 +0000

These buildings certainly inspire. As a photographer, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to spend a day shooting in such an environment.
Speaking of photography, here’s an amazing way to enjoy the grandeur of such places:
http://teltip.com/qtvr/fullscreen.php?qtvr=ND

By: Will

Will — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:17:36 +0000

Thanks for that- I’ll check that out. I’m very interested to hear the perspectives on this situation. I’m a Brit (and from an admittedly strongly white upper-middle class background), and so have little comprehension of the history involved.

I suppose it parallels to some degree the increasing dominance of Muslim communities in what were previously white working class manufacturing areas. The big problem is that many of them are acknowledged to be breeding some pretty aggressive and politicised forms of Islam. It’s going to be a massive challenge for missions.

By: dumb ox

dumb ox — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:16:13 +0000

OK, a little collaboration on the segregation issue.

After it was announced in 2007 that City Methodist was to become a ruin garden, UMC Rev. Michelle Cobb lead a “Repentance, Reconciliation and Appreciation” service at the site of City Methodist . During the service, she stated, “What we are trying to do is publicly acknowledge the reason why the church closed in 1975 was principally racism, fear, apathy and lack of vision. We are coming back to repent for that sin before God and also through this service to recognize that we are reconciling a relationship with the city of Gary”.

http://www.inareaumc.org/2007/Nov-Dec-07/gary_city_officials_announce_new.htm

By: Curtis

Curtis — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:06:49 +0000

Ah yes, I forgot about the legal aspect.

I think that is more because those who fled to a church could demand to be tried under canon, not civil, law, which was considered more lenient. I guess it’s a bit like an embassy nowadays.

By: Oat Lion

Oat Lion — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:46:43 +0000

I’ve been to the Cass Park area twice. Worked with the Hope ministry center adjacent to it (which I hear is being torn down and replaced–sadly–with high end structures of some sort). Beautiful area. Check out more ruins of Detroit at detroitfunk.com.

By: D. Yaros

D. Yaros — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:49:48 +0000

To learn more about Gary, IN (GI); its past, present and future, check out the Dave’s Den web site at http://GDYNets.WebNG.com/gary.htm. It presents a lot of info.

By: Ross

Ross — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:42:22 +0000

“this scene is repeated over and over again across the rust belt (Detroit, Buffalo, etc.)…churches dying along with their communities. I don’t know if or how such churches could have stemmed the tide.”

I think they were following the trend. I lived just outside of Pittsburgh in the 80s. It was a surreal place. Entire neighborhoods abandoned. Stores, shopping malls, houses, etc… There was even a long newspaper article while I was there about the Carnegie libraries falling into ruin. The communities could not keep them up. Call it white flight if you want but it was more than that. By the late 50s the incomes in the rust belt factories, (steel, auto, whatever), had risen to the point that the kids could go to college. And the kids for the most part did not come back. (A variation of “How you going to keep them on the farm once they’ve seen the city.”) And as the parents retired a new group of non college educated people moved in to take their place. And to be blunt they were in many cases not white. Many were from where iMonk lives. Black and White. “Eyes on the Prize” documents this for the rural south black population. But the last wave got caught in the decline of the heavy industry in the US.

My point is that the population that supported these churches basically died out. And was replaced by people from other faith backgrounds.

This population movement to the suburbs started with the US winning WWII and is just now beginning to end. And since it occurred so rapidly (in historical terms) there was/is a lot of social upheaval. Does this tie into iMonk’s collapse thesis? I don’t know. But it sure has been a rough ride in many ways for communities in the US for the last 60 years.