Month: February 2022

As promised in my earlier photo set on demolition in Miller Beach (Gary), here is a photo set of all the demolition in Michigan City. I originally was planning to do this in March or April after all the snow melts, but the construction schedule forced a change of schedule. It looks like they’re planning on starting new construction on 11th Street right at the beginning of March, and I wanted to photograph everything after demolition was (mostly) completed but no new construction had started. As a result, there were a few buildings left standing that will be demolished in the future and there is a bunch of snow in my pictures.

Unlike Miller where only a few buildings near the station were demolished to make way for station expansion and a new parking lot, the demolition in Michigan City was widespread. They are moving from the current alignment of a single track down the middle of 10th and 11th Streets to a double track alignment adjacent to a one-way street, repurposing the southern (eastbound) lane to take the place of a second track. As part of the process, a number of buildings need to be demolished. Additionally the area north of 11th Street between Franklin and Pine Streets is being demolished to allow building a new parking garage and station building. As a result, there were a large number of houses and other buildings that needed to be demolished.

Additionally, to my knowledge, only commercial properties were demolished in Miller. However most of the buildings demolished in Michigan City were homes.

I did my best to capture as many homes as possible before demolition, but I didn’t really make concrete plans for this project until after some demolition had already begun so in a good number of these I am missing the “before” photo. Due to the large number of buildings, I don’t have much to say for most of these, just pictures.

Without further ado, I present the Requiem for Northwest Indiana, Part 2: Michigan City. This is without a doubt the longest post I have ever made here.

716 E 11th St

523 E 11th St

517 E 11th St

513 E 11th St

509 E 11th St

505 E 11th St

This house is still standing but will be demolished soon.

501 E 11th St

416 E Main St

1102 Cedar St (First Christian Church)

This site used to house the First Christian Church. This is by far the biggest building that was demolished, it was nearly a whole block long by itself. It is also used on Wikipedia (as of the time I write this) as the headline image in the article about the South Shore Line.

For those not aware, the South Shore Line is currently undertaking a major project to double track the line from Gary to Michigan City (currently mostly a single track) and make a number of other improvements to the line, including improving access and parking to stations, making most stations accessible to passengers with disabilities, increasing speeds, and other things. However, as is often the case with major public works projects, there are property impacts. Specifically, buildings near the Miller station (in Miller Beach, Gary), Portage/Ogden Dunes station, and all along 10th and 11th Streets in Michigan City need to be demolished to allow for the construction.

I have been undertaking a major project to catalog the construction, and as part of that I have been photographing as many buildings as I can before and after demolition. New construction hasn’t started yet, but demolition is mostly complete, giving a strange intermediate state with a lot of empty land full of what once was. This is a grim reminder of that progress always comes at a cost.

I thus present the Requiem for Northwest Indiana. This is part 1, specifically focused on the area around the Miller station.

For this photo set, I took the train out to Miller and arrived just before noon. This was my first time traveling out there in the snow (and thanks to the snow last week there was quite a lot). I got off the train at a snowy station:

And now, I present the buildings that were lost.

Warehouse

The largest structure demolished as part of this process was a warehouse. This barn had been seized by eminent domain before I photographed it and judging by the condition was probably already abandoned well before then.

The demolition was still in progress, but most of the walls had been demolished by this point.

Barn

There was a barn nearby that also had been slated for demolition. I have no idea what the barn was used for or who owned it. I also imagine this had been abandoned for quite a while before I photographed it.

Roxxy’s

Roxxy’s was a bar along the Dunes Highway. According to Google Maps it celebrated its 75th birthday relatively recently (the picture was uploaded in April 2019). I actually had to submit an update to Google to explain that the business was now gone (for my “proof” I gave one of the pictures below).

M&M Beauty Supply

Just south of Roxxy’s was the M&M Beauty Supply. According to Google Maps, they have a few other locations in/around Gary. The building itself was demolished, but the sign remained, at least for the time being. As I did with Roxxy’s, I had to submit an update to Google Maps explaining that this location no longer existed.

In this case, I was able to pretty closely mirror the viewpoints of the “before” pictures (I did not have the pictures with me when doing this photo set).

Garage

At about 5811 US-12, there was some sort of garage building that also looked like it had been abandoned well before I got there. I do not know what used to be there, unfortunately.

Porky’s Pit

Next to the garage was Porky’s Pit, a barbecue place which also appeared to be abandoned before I started my “before” pictures.

Empty Lots West of Lake Street

Next to Porky’s were two empty lots that were still empty before I started. They were overgrown at the time but it looks like they’ve been cleared.

With all of this, demolition in Miller Beach is mostly complete. New construction will start soon, and it will be interesting to see what develops. However we cannot lost sight of what was lost in the process.

In March or April (once all this snow melts), I’ll continue this project in photographing all the demolished buildings in Michigan City.