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This gallery is composed of three more trips to the old hospital; after so many visits, I remembered which sections of the wards had collapsed, and the various ways to traverse through the splintered wood and rubble. Usually it was possible to take a parallel passage in the basement, or squeeze between the collapsed floor and the stone walls, but some piles of debris warranted a trip outside the building and back in through a different entrance. I was also seeing some new collapses since ...
The origin of this structure begins with a history of steel making in 1740, when an entrepreneur named William Bird constructed several iron forges where the Schuylkill River met with Hay Creek; an area that would later on become Birdsboro, named in William Bird's honor. The company expanded greatly over the years as the demands for iron, and subsequently steel, rose during the wartime. During World War II, the government expressed an interest in acquiring steel for the U.S. Navy from The ...
The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company's old Saint Nicholas breaker was constructed in Gilberton PA, just outside of Mahanoy City. Clearing of the land began in 1930, then construction on the breaker started in 1931 with the plant opening on September 16, 1932. With 20 miles of railroad track laid down and 1.5 miles of conveyors, the breaker was one of the two largest in the world in 1938 (the other was located at Locust Summit, demolished in 2002). Half of the surrounding ...
Last December, NPR ran a very interesting story on the World War II pacifists who were sent to work at state hospitals by the government, specifically focusing on a man named Charlie Lord and his exposé on the Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry). Mr. Lord managed to sneak a small Agfa camera in his pocket to show the world what the conditions inside Byberry were like behind closed doors; his drive was to promote the quality of life for these patients and others in similar institutions. These photos, initially shown to Elanor Roosevelt, spurred public outrage when they were published in LIFE magazine's article Bedlam 1946.
The story at NPR put much more context behind the images, and also include some detailed letters written by another conscientious objector, Warren Sawyer. Lord's photos (some of which did not appear in LIFE) were also displayed in a slide show. Follow the links below to NPR's story:
A Peaceful War On Mental Institutions
A Mental Ward Exposed (Lord's photographs)
On January 25th, more of the Bannerman's Arsenal crumbled to the ground during a winter storm. This followed a previous collapse of a corner of the main tower on December 26th. Senator Charles E. Schumer met with members of Bannerman's Castle Trust Inc. to discuss the need and importance of preserving the structure, and is lobbying for federal funding and to secue the island as one of the 11 most endangered sites on the National Register of Historic Places.
An interesting quote from a tour guide was found in this YouTube video:
When we first came to the island we started to clean up we started pulling these vines down that you see on the sides of the building... we had an architectural engineer come on the island and took a look at that, he said 'You'd better not pull those vines down, they're probably holding the building up.' He also told us something else interesting. If you take a look at these buildings, again remember what I said, Mr. Bannerman would draw a picture of it and say 'Build me this.' Well, he knew the space that was left between the building, so sometimes you'd have a building that was like a parallelogram, sometimes you'd have trapezoids, all different geometric shapes. So the architect told us that what was happening was these buildings were leaning against each other, and that's what's holding them up.
Were the vines really holding the building together after the masonry eroded away from between the bricks? If so, perhaps this mistake can be prevented in the future with other similar ruins (nearby Renwick Smallpox Hospital comes to mind, whose wall collapsed in January 2008).
Thanks to Xydexx for finding that quote and the research. More photos of the collapse can be found at Hudson Valley Ruins.
I'd like to share a collaborative book that showcases photographs of gurneys in abandoned hospitals, called Dead Rollers. The hand-crafted book is part of the Transport exhibition at Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, NY. Along with the photographs, it also features straps from an abandoned gurney stitched into the cover.
Click here to check it out! (Requires Flash player 10 or higher)
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This site is dedicated to documenting various abandoned places through both text and photographs; recording their transformations through time before they are demolished. The abundance of abandoned asylums and psychiatric hospitals in the New England area create the bulk of the locations here; these beautiful state funded structures are vast and complex, giving insight to both the humanity and mistreatment towards the mentally ill over the past two centuries.
In the past few years, there has been a surge of redevelopment projects for these places, and states have been lowering land prices and pushing for bids to buy. Soon, all of these beautiful structures will fall down to meet their fate of becoming golf courses, condos and strip malls.
This project has been collaborated by myself, with help from many others, and all photographs and images are copyright opacity.us unless otherwise noted.
Do not email me for directions or information on how to enter these sites, otherwise your e-mail will be ignored. Comments, both good and bad, are welcome in the comment boxes underneath each photo, but inflammatory and "trolling" remarks will be deleted, and you will be banned from this site. Posting unmentioned location names will also be removed, it kinda defeats the purpose, no? With that all said, enjoy the site!
-Tom (Mr. Motts)
Archived Sites: Acme Coke Plant, Adonia State Hospital, Armorcast (Birdsboro Steel Foundry and Machine Co), Ashley / Huber Breaker (Blue Coal), Bannerman's Arsenal, Barnes Hospital, Beelitz Heilstätten, Belchertown State School, Bennett School for Girls, Berliner Bunkerwelten, Broadacres Hospital, Buffalo Central Terminal, Buffalo State Hospital, Camp Bluefields (Tweed), Central Islip State Hospital, Château de Mesen, Château de Noisy (Miranda), Cherry Knowle Hospital, Citadelle de Namur, City Methodist Church, Clairvaux Tuberculosis Hospital, Cliffside Mental Hospital, Clinique de la Faisanderie, Coal Brook Breaker Power Station, Continental Rubber Works (Hannover-Limmer), County Morgue, Crypt of Barons, Cynthia Lee Memorial Hospital, Dadipark, Danvers State Hospital, Demon's Alley (New City Village), Dever State School, Dixmont State Hospital, Eagle River Power Station, Eastern State Penitentiary, Eden Hall Chapel, Erich Wagner Kindersanatorium, Fort de la Chartreuse, Fort Marabout, Foxboro State Hospital, Franklin Power Plant, Fuller State School and Hospital, Gaebler Children's Center, Glenn Dale Hospital, Glenwood Power Plant, Gravesend Asylum, Great Barr Colony (St Margaret's Hospital), Green Hill State Hospital, Harperbury Hospital, Hartford Drive-In, Hasard Cheratte (Coal Mine), Haverford State Hospital, Heidelberg Thingplatz, Hellingly Hospital, Hendrik Monastery, Heptner State Hospital, Heusden-Zolder Coal Mine, Hewitt State Hospital and Prison, High Hills Developmental Center, Hinchcliffe Stadium, Hotel Sterling, Huy Mill, Irrenanstalt Weiler, Isolation Hospital, Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Kingsley Psychiatric Hospital, Kokerei Zollverein, Königin Elisabeth Hospital, Krankenbunker "Breuning", Krankenhaus Eichelberger, La Crypte des Fleurs, Letchworth Village, Linfield Industrial Park, Linton State Hospital, Lungenkrankenhaus Thalberg, Malone Psychiatric Center, Manteno State Hospital, Margate State School, Marquette State Hospital, Mesa State Training School, Metropolitan State Hospital, Michigan Central Station, Middlewood Hospital Chapel, Mount Rose Cemetery, Normansfield Hospital, North Wales Hospital (Denbigh Asylum), Northam Manor Psychiatric Hospital, Northampton State Hospital, Northwood Asylum, Norwich State Hospital, NRL Satellite Facility, Old Essex County Jail, Old Saint Nicholas Coal Breaker, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Pennhurst State School, Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry), Pilgrim State Hospital, Plymouth County Hospital, Pratt Greenhouse, Prora KdF Seaside Resort, Renwick Smallpox Hospital, Riverside Hospital (North Brother Island), Riverside State Hospital, Rochester Subway, Rocky Point Amusement Park, Roseville State Prison, Roseville State School, Ryhope Pumping Station, Saint Michaels State Hospital, Saint Remigius Military Hospital, Salesian School, Sanitarium Joseph Lemaire, Säuglings- und Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee, Severalls Hospital, SNCB Train Works, Staten Island Boat Graveyard, Stella Artois Brewery, Studebaker Stamping Plant, The Enchanted Forest, The Ladd School, The Pines Hotel, Thompson Mental Health Center, Université de Dubois, Usine de Senelle, Usine Terres-Rouges, Valmea Convent, Verden Psychiatric Hospital, Vineland Training School's Menantico Colony, West Middlesex Hospital, Whittingham Hospital, Worcester State Hospital, York County Prison, York Street Jail, Ypsilanti State Hospital
