More on the "coffin staircase" - they were designed as such to allow the casket of the recently deceased to be lowered to the bottom floor, so they wouldn't have to carry the casket the entire way down the steps. To think - in a time when most people died at home, they actually designed a house around such an idea.

http://www.uglywomansg...hp/tag/coffin-niche/

For some people, electroshock therapy did help. It's not like their hooking you up and you look like Frankenstein - Hollywood totally glamorizes, for good or bad, some of these things to the point where we have a completely ridiculous idea of what it was like. That and lobotomies - some patients actually *did* benefit from them, apparently, but they were few and far between.

How refreshing to see just normal, natural decay rather than loads and loads of graffiti. You can certainly enjoy the natural beauty of the woodwork and architecture a lot more when it's not saturated with spray paint.

I love the Fleur-de-lis pattern behind the hardware - gives you something interesting to look at while peeing ...

Please tell me that's not a lovely grand piano on stage ... I would love to have one of those! I'm sure it wasn't long before it was rendered completely useless, if they didn't get it out of there.