Photographer Joseph Fouts also has a passion for creating high-resolution virtual tours of his photography, which he's parlayed into a business called 360 Comes Alive. Fouts recently contacted us to share with us links for virtual tours he's created of Holy Name Cathedral and City Methodist Church in Gary, IN.The City Methodist Church tour sucked a good portion of our work day away yesterday as we zoomed in and out, enraptured with the detail of Fouts's work. more ›

All week long we've been sharing our photos of sites and sights we saw during our recent weekend tour of Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana. On Monday, we showed you the Gary, Indiana Public Schools Memorial Auditorium; on Tuesday, scenes from the Marktown Historic District; and yesterday, the cavernous insides of the abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary. We wrap up our series with a collection of miscellaneous shots from our adventures: A shot of the entrance to the "Heartbreaking Park of Staggering Greenness" that is southeast Chicago's Eggers Grove (pictured); the St. Simeon Mirotocivi Serbian Orthodox Church at 3535 E. 114th St.; the mound of salt that will one day end up decimated and dispersed on our city's icy streets; the Chinese restaurant in downtown Gary that had both "Grand Opening" and "For Sale" signs in its window; the Palace Theater across the street; a little bird that was hanging out at the Indiana Dunes; and some signs we spotted along the way. more ›

If the congregation of a church is the heartbeat of a city, City Methodist is Gary's broken heart. Located at 577 Washington St in downtown Gary, Indiana, City Methodist was built in the 1920's to hold a congregation that had grown alongside the newly built City of the Century, with U.S. Steel covering $385,000 of the construction costs. The sanctuary could hold 950 including a choir, although the plot of land it was set on turned out to be smaller than originally thought. As a result, the columns inside the sanctuary are set in close along the pew lines. The building also held a church school, a gymnasium and an auditorium - Seaman Hall - named for the pastor who helped raise the $1 million to pay for the construction. The auditorium was used for musical and dramatic presentations, community meetings, and various social and educational events. more ›