The Brooklyn Naval Hospital is on the grounds of the perpetually changing Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is half abandoned, half commercial/office/film studio space. The hospital opened in the 1930s and was decommissioned in the ’70s. The hospital catered to injured soldiers and veterans; its peak usage was during WWII. I don’t have exteriors of the hospital itself, being that it’s not a wise idea to run around the navy yard willy nilly taking photos, unless […read more…]
The Jayhawk State Theater of Topeka Kansas was a permission visit during a road trip I took in 2013, so I don’t have any good stories for you. For a full history of this place, please go to After The Final Curtain. For more photos, go to my Jayhawk State Theatre flickr set. _______ Disclaimer: If any information is incorrect, if you have more info, or if you’d just like to tell me […read more…]
Brief description: Crownsville Hospital Center operated in Crownsville, Maryland from 1911-2004. Crownsville originally opened as the “Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland” and treated only black men, women and children. It bears noting it did not have a black superintendent until 1964. As with many asylums during the 20th century, conditions were deplorable, and patients were mistreated. Currently, the Community Services Center at Crownsville is seeking funds to restore the abandoned buildings.
In the world of urban exploring, there is a common phenomenon one could aptly refer to as the “money shot,” meaning an explorer will spend all day dicking around in asbestos-laden rubble just to photograph one, infamous scene. The Grafton State Hospital hydrotherapy tubs are a prime example of that. Grafton State Hospital was built in 1901 in Grafton, MA, as part of a farm colony for “chronically insane” patients at the nearby Worchester State […read more…]
I’ve spent the night at a couple of asylums over the years, mostly for photographic and legal reasons (like, you know, avoiding the cops) but Athens was maybe one of the toughest nights I’ve had, despite being indoors and fairly warm. It was rough because I was trapped in a room with three snoring, farting dudes and I had the wicked road trip shits, which led to one of my most genuinely embarrassing moments. But […read more…]
Originally called the New Jersey Sanitarium for Tuberculosis Diseases, this hospital eventually became the Glen Gardner Sanitarium, and lastly, Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital. It opened in 1907 to treat tuberculosis before branching out to other diseases, briefly leading to the name change of the New Jersey Hospital for Chest Diseases. In 1977 it became a psychiatric hospital and was used that way until its closure in 2012. Parts of the campus are still active. See […read more…]
Belton Court, constructed in 1905, is a historic estate in Barrington, Rhode Island. The medieval-inspired, castle-like mansion has undergone numerous incarnations in the past 100 years, including Ferrin Hall, Gibson Memorial Building, Peck Mansion, Barrington College, and most recently, Zion Bible College, which used it until 2008. The campus was purchased in 2011 by ShineHarmony Holdings LLC, which stated its intention to turn the mansion into elderly housing. When I explored it in 2014, there were a […read more…]
The New Milford Plant of the Hackensack Water Company was constructed between 1881-1911 on a little manmade island in New Jersey. It operated as a water filtration and pumping plant until 1990 when it shut down. It was one of the first plants to bring safe drinking water to the public, which was an imperative necessity at the time since the cholera epidemic was at an all-time high because people kept dumping their shit water […read more…]