One of my hobbies is to look at pictures and videos of abandoned buildings. Seeing what's left behind long after use - and maintenance - of a building ceases is often awe inspiring. In most buildings it takes decades for decay to become severe enough before collapse. Of course, that's assuming they are in sound structural condition at the time of abandonment, and are not demolished or the victim of arson or severe vandalism.
Odyssey Indoor Paintball began life as Tittle's Supermarket circa 1972. The supermarket closed at an unknown date and the building became Odyssey on May 25, 1998. Odyssey Indoor Paintball is listed as "inactive" since September 5, 2001, meaning the arena likely closed on or before this date, probably at some point in summer 2001. It was finally demolished in 2016.
Here's Odyssey in 2015. Shocking, isn't it? Most of the roof and some of the exterior walls have totally collapsed. The interior is basically a debris field. This is about 14 years of abandonment. If we go back to April 2008 - that's less than 7 years abandoned - there's still a large portion of roof collapse. Going back further to September 2006, roof collapse is already evident, and the roof looks in bad shape in this May 2004 photo. According to jonrev.com, the roof was beginning to show collapse that year.
To think that this paintball arena went from opening day to roof collapse in 6 years at most, and that the roof was collapsing on an arena that was being used just three years earlier.
I've seen plenty of houses and buildings abandoned around 2001, on Flickr and on YouTube channels such as this one. Normally, they haven't had time to begin collapsing.
But wait! Only half of the building was collapsing - presumably, this was the sales floor during the supermarket days, and evidence left behind suggests that it was the play field for paintball. The rest of the building - offices, etc - looked pretty much as it should have for an abandonment of its age. Definitely a mess, but the roof looks solid in this 2013 photo.
The roof structure is far different in the office area than it is in the play field area. The play field area had a wood roof, while the office area had a sturdier metal-based roof. But it would seem unlikely that a building would remain abandoned for over 20 years and then find use, but this was during Gary's period of decline.
It also seems possible that the office area was built at a later date than the play field area, perhaps during an expansion of the supermarket or even as part of Odyssey itself.
I saw in a comment on one of the photos of the abandoned building that the original owner died in the mid-1970s. Does this mean that the store was closed in the mid-1970s, at which time maintenance would have ceased, and then revived by Odyssey from 1998-2001? I have heard that Odyssey likely closed when the roof began to fail. The presence of a Marlboro sign from 1987 that says "Thank You For Shopping Here" would suggest that the supermarket did not close in the mid-1970s. I would guess that the supermarket closed at some point after 1987, but some years before 1998. Early 1990s, perhaps?
Here's my theory. The supermarket closed at some point around the early 1990s, at which point the wood roof had probably already begun to decay, possibly due to marginal construction quality. It's likely Odyssey picked the building up for cheap, as this was Northwest Indiana's first indoor paintball arena, and the hobby hadn't reached the popularity it would attain in later years. Perhaps the arena didn't prove as popular as predicted, but for some reason, when the roof started to fail, the arena was closed. It seems probable that vandalism also played a role in its extremely fast decay.
But this is all speculation. Ultimately, all that I know is that there was a paintball arena for some time beginning in 1998, and that by 2004 it was starting to collapse.
Odyssey Indoor Paintball began life as Tittle's Supermarket circa 1972. The supermarket closed at an unknown date and the building became Odyssey on May 25, 1998. Odyssey Indoor Paintball is listed as "inactive" since September 5, 2001, meaning the arena likely closed on or before this date, probably at some point in summer 2001. It was finally demolished in 2016.
Here's Odyssey in 2015. Shocking, isn't it? Most of the roof and some of the exterior walls have totally collapsed. The interior is basically a debris field. This is about 14 years of abandonment. If we go back to April 2008 - that's less than 7 years abandoned - there's still a large portion of roof collapse. Going back further to September 2006, roof collapse is already evident, and the roof looks in bad shape in this May 2004 photo. According to jonrev.com, the roof was beginning to show collapse that year.
To think that this paintball arena went from opening day to roof collapse in 6 years at most, and that the roof was collapsing on an arena that was being used just three years earlier.
I've seen plenty of houses and buildings abandoned around 2001, on Flickr and on YouTube channels such as this one. Normally, they haven't had time to begin collapsing.
But wait! Only half of the building was collapsing - presumably, this was the sales floor during the supermarket days, and evidence left behind suggests that it was the play field for paintball. The rest of the building - offices, etc - looked pretty much as it should have for an abandonment of its age. Definitely a mess, but the roof looks solid in this 2013 photo.
The roof structure is far different in the office area than it is in the play field area. The play field area had a wood roof, while the office area had a sturdier metal-based roof. But it would seem unlikely that a building would remain abandoned for over 20 years and then find use, but this was during Gary's period of decline.
It also seems possible that the office area was built at a later date than the play field area, perhaps during an expansion of the supermarket or even as part of Odyssey itself.
I saw in a comment on one of the photos of the abandoned building that the original owner died in the mid-1970s. Does this mean that the store was closed in the mid-1970s, at which time maintenance would have ceased, and then revived by Odyssey from 1998-2001? I have heard that Odyssey likely closed when the roof began to fail. The presence of a Marlboro sign from 1987 that says "Thank You For Shopping Here" would suggest that the supermarket did not close in the mid-1970s. I would guess that the supermarket closed at some point after 1987, but some years before 1998. Early 1990s, perhaps?
Here's my theory. The supermarket closed at some point around the early 1990s, at which point the wood roof had probably already begun to decay, possibly due to marginal construction quality. It's likely Odyssey picked the building up for cheap, as this was Northwest Indiana's first indoor paintball arena, and the hobby hadn't reached the popularity it would attain in later years. Perhaps the arena didn't prove as popular as predicted, but for some reason, when the roof started to fail, the arena was closed. It seems probable that vandalism also played a role in its extremely fast decay.
But this is all speculation. Ultimately, all that I know is that there was a paintball arena for some time beginning in 1998, and that by 2004 it was starting to collapse.
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