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The church was built at a cost of more than $1 million by the Rev. William G. Seaman in 1926. United States Steel Corp. donated funds to complete the building. The church is in the traditional English Gothic style of architecture, like some of the buildings that the famed United States Military Academy at West Point and elsewhere throughout the United states.
This was, and is, a remarkable building: besides the cathedral, there was a four story community center with classrooms, an auditorium, a motion picture booth, a banquet hall and kitchen, a fellowship garden, a large meeting hall, a gymnasium and a rooftop garden. The building was built to be not only at church, but a place for the entire community to gather. Sadly, due to the shifting population of Northwest Indiana, the congregation of the church shrank drastically in the 1960s and could no longer afford the upkeep of the building. A committee held a meeting in October 1974 to determine the fate of the church. They decided to relocate and close the church as of January 3rd, 1975. The building was sold to Indiana University as a campus extension but nothing was done with it.. The building was used sporadically as church by another congregation, a local dance center and a halfway home for underprivileged children and single parents, but it eventually fell into abandonment and disuse. The building stands open to the elements and vandals. Previously. the building was under the ownership of B&R Realty in Gary, listed to a Trades, Inc. but now may be owned by the city of Gary.
The Church in Wintertime
View older, pre-fire pictures of this church
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