GARY, Ind. — Back when work at the steel mill was plentiful and newcomers flooded into town, Union Station was Gary’s front porch. A jobseeker could step off the train and set off down the brick driveway toward the booming U.S. Steel plant a block away.

These days, Union Station is empty, rotting in plain view alongside a highway exit ramp. No train has unloaded here in decades. Trees grow wild in the baggage area. Rubble covers the waiting room floor. The sun glints through a partly collapsed roof.

Still, there are dreams to revive this train station.

A few months ago, the city sold the building for $10 to a group of artists who have cleaned the outside and have plans to haul away the garbage and put windows back in. Perhaps it could become a restaurant. Or a museum. Most of all, they say, it could serve as a sign that this city, which has lost more than half its population and struggles with violence and blight, is heading toward a long-awaited rebound.