Top 10 Abandoned Places in Indiana

Indiana is filled with attractions, many of which draw crowds in the thousands every week. There’s the Indie 500, major concert venues, not to mention the many national parks in the state, too. That’s why it’s always so strange to hear about attractions that shuttered their doors and became abandoned. As an urbex fan, I love hearing about these venues. Ever wonder what’s up in eerie Indiana?

Indiana has a plethora of amazing abandoned buildings and ghost towns. The most impressive ones include:

At one point, Gary was one of the fastest-growing cities in Indiana. During the 19th century and early 20th, Gary had a booming industry. The entire town was erected by the U.S Steel Company and held over 150,000 people at its population peak in 1960. Today, the city remains largely abandoned. Around 14,000 different structures in and around the city are now classified as abandoned—despite around 80,000 people living there today.

There are tons of amazing structures just laying there to rot in Gary’s limits. Here, we see one of the most impressive: the Palace Theater. During the 1930s, this vaudeville theater entertained the elite of the rust belt. Today, it remains a testament to the beautiful architecture and structural strength of yesteryear’s buildings.

Want to visit an abandoned place without getting in trouble? Check out Charlestown’s 100-year-old theme park, Rose Island. This massive park was once one of the most popular attractions in Indiana. Unfortunately, things didn’t really pan out. Some say that the attractions at Rose Island got rickety and ill-maintained. Others believe it was a series of suspicious accidents.

Whatever the reason, the park shuttered sometime around the 1980s. The area was then ceded to the state’s park system. Today, you can legally see all the old structures, as well as the remnants of the swimming pool. It’s a truly fascinating hike. It’s now known as Trail 7 on Charlestown State Park.

We can’t have a blog post about abandoned places without a ghost story, can we? Well, this is a story for the ages. Salesians Prep was first established as an all-boys Catholic school. The concept was simple. They wanted to provide a proper Catholic education for boys in the area. Though it was erected in 1950, it only lasted for 29 years. Since 1979, the buildings were left to rot.

Now, here’s where things get spooky. Ghost hunters regularly visit the place due to urban legends of the place being haunted. Though no students were ever killed here, the school did have a reputation for being cruel to the boys. Was it legit? Did one boy end up coming back after death? Who knows?

If any item on our list was going to be haunted, it’s Central State. This hospital was erected in 1896 as a hospital for the mentally insane. Though it was meant to treat mental illness, the hospital was actually more of a way to remove the undesirables from society. As one can imagine, the way people treated patients here was inhumane to the extreme.

Unlike the prep school above, people did die within Central State’s campus. It housed as many as 3,000 people at its peak. The hospital closed its doors in 1994 amid reports of patient abuse. Today, it’s said to be haunted by shadow people as well as poltergeists. It’s understandable. Anyone would want to scare the living after what they endured.

Virtually everyone tends to think of the term “ghost town” and think of the Wild West. This isn’t always true. Indiana has a good example of a ghost town, too. It’s called Corwin, and it’s surprisingly well-kept for a place that doesn’t have any residents. Hoosiers who lived in this once-promising town were mostly farmers and people who worked at the local train station.

The entire town only existed for a brief period during the 1950s. Unlike other areas, there was no tragic tale that brought this city down. It just never really caught on. Walking through here is pretty eerie.

Technically, this isn’t abandoned as it is somewhat cared for by a group of locals. However, it’s no longer in use and people are no longer buried in it. So technically, it qualifies. Stepp has all the elements for a good set of ghost stories. The cemetery was founded by Crabbites, a now-defunct Christian cult that had rather unusual rituals.

The cemetery was home to tons of strange legends. One suggests that a woman dressed in black committed suicide after the burial of her baby. Another claims the place is haunted by ghosts from a lethal car accident. Still, more suggest that there is demonic activity due to a dark ritual held around the cemetery. All we know is that it’s creepy and you shouldn’t go there at night.

Elizabethtown is a strange town, indeed. It’s a town that initially existed in Tippecanoe County. There’s now a town by the same name in Henry County. This means that most of the buildings in the area are abandoned and demolished. Much like other abandoned towns in Indiana, this was once home to people who came to the state in hopes of a cushy factory job.

When the jobs dried out, so did the cities. Right now, many of the homes in Henry County’s Elizabethtown are totally vacant and people regularly break into places to explore. The one place that seems to bear the brunt of the damage is Elizabethtown Cemetery. This cemetery is left in disarray, and it’s said that the spirits of the deceased buried there let their opinions on the matter be known.

Revenant Farms is not only abandoned. It’s also haunted, pretty badly too. The name “revenant” is a term that is used for ghostly appearances. The gloomy home apparently lives up to its reputation for being haunted, and did so even when there were people who lived in the building, too.

According to the local legends, no one ever remained too long inside the house. Families fled within a matter of months, and it quickly became unsellable. People who spent the night often had horrible nightmares, felt themselves being touched in their sleep, or would wake up to screams in the night.

Depending on who you ask, part of the reason for its abandonment dealt with a mysterious spate of pet and livestock deaths. It’s said that whatever existed on the property claimed the lives of those animals. Regardless of what happened, people now flock to this farmhouse to do their own paranormal investigations.

Related Questions

What was the first town in Indiana?

Though there may have been other unofficial runners-up, the first town to hit the history books is Vincennes. This small town was first established in 1732 by a man known as Francois Marie Bissot–Sieur de Vincennes. As the name suggests, Mr. Vincennes was a French military officer who decided to erect a fur trading post. The post blossomed into a city, which was pretty awesome.

What is the poorest city of Indiana?

Gary, Indiana, is one of the most impoverished cities in the entire United States. It also happens to be the most poverty-heavy town in Indiana. Around 30 percent of this small town lives under the poverty line. Those that don’t, rarely ever have it much better. As a result of the lack of jobs in the area, much of Gary is now abandoned.

What is Indiana famous for?

When it comes to culture, Indiana is most famous for having a deep love of sports. The state is also a prominent member of the Rust Belt, being one of the more car-heavy states in the Union. Many people also know Indiana as one of the most heavily impacted states when it comes to the mass shuttings of auto manufacturing plants in the area. This led to a very high number of ghost towns throughout the state.