The brick portions were almost certainly a later addition, probably around the time when the hospital staff either stopped caring about the place's aesthetic appearence, or simply no longer had the money to do so; I've seen a lot of sections at my local abandoned asylum (buffalo psych) where they evidently needed to add something to the structure - a chimney, an enclosure or whatever - and simply opted for the cheapest material available.

Their treatment of the complex is certainly light much, much better than the lot of far too many other asylums. Sadly, there's also been a lot of unneccesery damage due to the things they didn't bother to do. That the sandstone sections are in such fairly good condition is due mainly to the fact that sandstone - unlike the brick - doesn't allow water to seep in, freeze, and damage the masonry and interior, as well as the fact that the admin building and male wards were used for storage in the eighties. The brick wards, alas, are in a horrible state of preservation, and are quite literally falling apart on a daily basis. And a lot of this is damage that could've been averted if they had just left the heating on in the winter, or at least occasional maintenance.

Oh, and as far as I know, we're still waiting for them to actually do anything more in the way of repairs/preservation aside from the fence and, I think, doing something to stabliize the admin building (since I do remember seeing scaffolding set up on there two years ago, but nothing since).

And lastly, if I may ask, how did Kate manage to get a legal tour? I've always heard that its nigh impossible to get those arranged these days.

Moreover, I hate to say it, but this place is almost certainly well beyond repair, even if anyone did have any use for it. And even when there is money invested and even when the site in question isn't nearly as decrepit - take, for instance, the Richardson Complex in Buffalo, which has $1 million allocated towards restoration, yet which, so far, has nothing more than a stupid fence to show for it.

Often times, it seems that the mold and decay isn't nearly as damaging as human depredations. Even if floors and walls are slowly falling apart, it still tends to be a fairly slow process and, as it at least a natural form of destruction, it creates an aesthetic that willfull, wanton vandalism lacks. Not to mention that the vandalism tends to result in us simply loosing the equipment and fixtures that would bring this place to life better.

I'm pretty sure that this is the security room (seen in the previous picture; if you look closely, I think the broken glass is visible in the far end of the earlier picture). A patient's cell wouldn't have had so much glass, which could easily be turned into a weapon.

Does anyone know if these sorts of security booths were common to asylums? Or did Byberry just have a significant amount of psychopathic patients (and/or paranoid staff personnel)? I think that this is the first such one I've ever seen.

It sad to see how many people have so little respect for these places; the pentagram, in particular, looks like the handiwork of some teen trying to be evil/rebellious/scary. Though it does also make me glad that my local abandoned hospital seems to be very well guarded, by comparison.