Ever Wonder What the Inside of a Nuthouse Looked Like??
 

An abandoned one, anyway.

I found this site when I was looking for images from Byberry, which is the old Philadelphia State Hospital.

Motts, the photographer, who does awesome work, explores abandoned places and takes some really artful photographs.

Pennhurst State School is another closed facility in the Philadelphia area. They specialized in treating mentally retarded children and adults. Pennhurst was pretty notorious. There are still a lot of former residents in the Philadelphia area, and because of the lawsuits that ultimately closed the place down, there are specialty funding streams for their case management and continuing care.

Many of the buildings and interiors, except for the decaying run down aspects, look very much like the nuthouse which is near and dear to my heart. Many state hospital buildings were constructed as part of the WPA, putting people back to work to bring the country out of the depression. My own building is from 1936. My building has the same tileblock and windows, and many of the rooms had the half-height dividers instead of walls that you'll see in some of these pictures. We still use one of the original seclusion room bolts too.

If you have seen the horror film "Session 9," it was filmed at Danvers State Hospital, which is also featured on this site.

Not everything he shoots is an old nuthouse ... there are some pictures from an abandonded theme park, a subway line, some TB sanitariums, and factory sites.

Obviously, though, it's the mental hospitals I found fascinating.

One of these days, when the weather isn't so hot and humid, I'll have to do some wandering around on the state grounds and get some exterior shots, and see what areas of my hospital I can get into that are less rennovated.

Like the basement. Our basement looks JUST like a lot of these places.

The very first one, Dayton State, is by me. I worked for the "new" Dayton State hospital--now called Twin Valley Behavioral Health Hosp. Pretty scary place--but you should see the ORIGINAL crazy hospital. Really incredible building. They converted it into a high falutin' retirement home back in the 80's. I wish I could find some pics....it's now called 10 Wilmington Place. Very, very cool building.

As for the actual ground the "new" state hospital is on--its very near where this building was and looks very much like it. It's got a very creepy aura. Very soaked in ghosts. Lots of deaths: suicides, murders. A nurse was stomped to death by a NGRI inmate, another patient hung himself and wasn't found for hours...lots of bad mojo.

Thanks for an interesting site, wolf. Very cool!

After seeing the remake of House on Haunted Hill, I've pretty much given up the idea of visiting abandoned mental hospitals :worried: . Actually, I can automatically think of 4 recent horror movies set in abandoned (or active) mental hospitals. Mental hospitals might just rank as the number one location for horror movies, next to high schools (I can imagine the Masters thesis on that).

Mind you, the black and white photo of the castle in the Enchanted Forest amusement park also looked like a potential horror film set.

My high school was located at the site of a former hospital, and until just a couple years ago all the buildings were former hospital buildings (and related functions--for example there had been a nursing school, so there were dormitories).

It was common knowledge that the math department was located in the former psych ward.

I love the abandoned amusment park - reminds me of American McGee and Tim Burton.

and thank you Wolf. Neat stuff.

Wonderful photos--thanks for sharing, wolf. It never ceases to amaze me how interesting places become when they are "trashed." They are so textural, from the residues of all the elements that have passed through. The tags almost seem desperate, as if to say "Yeah, there was a human being here, beeotch!" When we were kids, my friends and I never passed up the chance to explore an abandoned building. Wow, thinking back on it...we were lucky little fuckers that nothing bad ever happened.

In the 80's, my arch. studio class toured St. Elizabeth's in DC...we were apprehensive beforehand, but once we got there, it was fine. The grounds were beautiful and peaceful. We passed by some occupied quarters where the patients were yelling stuff at us, but no big deal. We got a little freaked out when our guide informed us that John Hinkley, Jr. was allowed to freely roam the grounds. I have no idea if he was kidding or not.

Scarey scarey stuff, but great photography.

I went to the Enchanted Forest theme park when it was open. About all I remember is they had ice cream.

He wasn't.

I'll have to take pictures of the St. Louis State Hospital for you, Wolf. You'll feel at home when you see them, I think.

Incidentally, there is a car down the street right now, whose license plate reads as follows: NUT CAS.

they ae amazingly creepy photos.. there are some in there of coffins and caskets.. whoa shivers!!

WOW, really neat photography. Thank you for sharing!

Maybe you'd like to live in one of these old places?

I couldn't live there because I can't pronounce Boastin.

May as well go ahead and call 'Ghostbusters'. I know this /these places are rich in spirits. To believe or not to believe.....hmmmmm.......