The City Methodist Church in central Gary, Indiana is a spectacular ruin and stands there as the definitive symbol for the phenomenon of American city de-urbanization. Built in the 1920s, the then prosperous US Steel covered 40% if the construction costs and the church had in its golden days more than 3000 members. The combined force of the plunging steel industry, rationalization and a fleeing working class forced the church to close in 1975.

Today, the building seems to be owned by the city of Gary and given the grandness of this ruin, one can really understand the magnitude of problems this city faces - the church is by no means alone in its absolute sense of despair in Gary. One can just silently wonder for how long time it will stand before starting to collapse by structural failures.

Sic transit gloria mundi – Eternity is not the state of man's creations.