Hard to imagine a time when the floors were all shiny and the paint was fresh and bright.

Did you mean the floor in the hallway was ready to collapse or the stuff falling from the ceiling has collapsed and clutters the floor?

You've corrupted my mind, Motts! (don't worry, that's not a bad thing)

I took my mother for day surgery today and wondered what would happen to that hospital if it were to close and be left abandoned; what would look decrepit first, would the high glossy shined linoleum peel and detach all at once like so many of the floors you photograph....stuff like that.

I also saw all of the various equipment and decor in a whole different perspective, too. The reclining chairs, the gurneys, the ugly green tiles that decorated 2/3 of the wall in one long hallway in the basement where radiology was hidden....(I also saw it differently because I'm dating an RN, too, but your photographs changed my perspectives on things a great deal more than he has)

It was one of those moments when if I were to know the place was closing, I'd want to be there on closing day to photograph it, then continually document its decay over a long period of time.

Thanks for the COOL notions you've planted in my mind! :)

At least you got THEM in the shot instead of them getting YOU for being on the roof for a long exposure shot.

Did you get any photos of the patterns on those two sets of doors? What was inside?

Motts, did that table extend through the glass block? Doesn't look low to the ground enough or comfortable enough to be a patient's room. Baffling to me, too! Maybe it was for ECT since the table is made of non-conductive marble?

I just looked again....were those RED panes on the windows (second rows from the top)??? Or is it just a glare from the sunrise or sunset playing on that?

Oh, how it must've looked when the wood was all shined and pretty, the glass sparkling, and the paint crisp and fresh.....just like an old school where the principal's office would be! LOL!

Wonder what the significance of the red was....in most studies, red is usually a color more likely to cause agitation than pacification of a person.

I think that looks like moss, JAVA.

Such an odddity that a lovely fireplace like that would be marred by the glare of fluorescent lights.

Looks to me like they just built a concrete and brick box then added the electrical afterwards (cheaper than having to hang a ceiling to hide the conduit lines).

The windows at the far end look like two odd sized windows because of the way they were left open....neat effect!

A turn of the century Cathedral of Electrical Power.

Was there any way to get closer to that little alcove sticking out on the second floor?

So the lack of ceilings was part of the asbestos abatement, as far as you can tell, or was it some kind of fire in the attic (hence the blackened color)?

Looks like the stainless just oxidized to a faded finish versus being painted.

In a hospital designed to house a total of 15,000, they may have needed to save space in the morgue and the 4X4 would help save space.

Motts, what were the various selections?

These are nice respectable homes these MDs had. I wouldn't want to be a child growing up on the campus of a large mental hospital, but they are nice homes. Hopefully the developer could renovate them and develop more stately homes around them.

Looked like an OR lamp on the bottom (parts of it missing) with a ventilation system attachment at the ceiling....sort of like a 2-in-1 thing.

Nice special effects.

That hand would've been totally decayed or dehydrated if it were real.....looks like a fake hand and a wig to contribute to the "hair".

Maybe this was an emergency generator for the elevators in case of power failure it at least allowed people NOT to be trapped in them?

Turning on something like that would be something you might see on MythBusters when they blow stuff up....in a VERY controlled environment.

Don't need to have Southern Fried Motts around....we like your pix too much.

Yes, it's surprising there hasn't been a bad electrical fire that burned out of control in the places where the windows are all sealed....

.....it would be a terrible loss to the beauty of the exterior.

This room must've been SO BRIGHT when all the lights worked and were on!

What a treasure!

Cyrus, it's not only the things you mention in the lack of buildings that look like that. Architects seem to want simplicity instead of ornate features like these. There hasn't been a Victorian revival period as of yet.

Now, see what happens when you leave the water running? LOL! Just kidding!

And this one is from A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Master (the tunnel where the wheelchair-bound kid gets 86-ed by our favorite 3rd-degree burned nemesis)