This place was probably my second favorite asylum of all time and one of the longest running abandonments I've ever seen. It was closed forty-nine years when demolition started and I had been visiting it for the past twelve. It sucked seeing this one go, but at least I managed to make a farewell trip
1. I started out in the basement of the newer building (1933), which housed some interesting odds and ends like this old incubator
2. Here was the famously unimpressive morgue, which I've always liked none-the-less
3. I found this x-ray suite in a backroom, complete with lead shielding. Too bad about the demolition, this place would've been great for fall-out
4. The oldest building in the group (1903, I think) was, at the time of my visit, well on its way to being gutted, but there were still some interesting details to see
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6. Over in the 1933 building again, I realized I hadn't spent much time upstairs, which was the only part of the group to have been used since the early 1970's. The paint was newer up here, but most of the hardware looked original
7. Paint can graveyard
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9. Most of the old bedroom doors were built like this one
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11. It was cool to see this place without having to peer through almost fifty years of new-growth
12. Some very classic 90's graffiti down here from the neighboring school
13. The famous continuous baths: There were other rooms in this part of the basement with a similar configuration, but for some reason only this room was left intact. The duck cloth covers, no doubt sewed in the hospital's workshops, were refitted sometime around 2008 for that particular effect. I should mention that these were never used as ice baths. Ice baths were an 18th century invention widely ridiculed for over a hundred years before this building was built. For the most part, they were maintained at, or slightly above normal body temperature, but for longer periods of time: 12-48 hours, making them an easy substitute for mechanical restraint
14. The remains of a control panel
15. This really was one of my favorite places in the entire world
16. A closer look at some of that hardware
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18. Some of the doors in the older buildings were pretty robust
19. I found this much older continuous bath discarded in the basement of the 1902 building
20. There was a small cafeteria in the basement of the violent ward, around the corner from the old bath
21. The acoustic tiles that once covered the ceiling had been removed, no doubt on account of the asbestos they contained
22. This was a pretty typical door down here
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24. Good bye old friend
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Thanks or looking!
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