On my last urban exploration photography road trip with RiddimRyder and Carlo Paolozza, one of the top abandoned locations on our list was an old vacant hospital that dates back to 1893.
After a long 6 hour drive and a terrible sleep inside an old abandoned factory Carlo Paolozza, RiddimRyder Photography and I set off across town to our next location, a large old hospital that dates back over 100 years . The hospital closed within the last few years and we couldn’t wait to get inside and see it for ourselves!
I had seen photos over the last few years from other experienced and veteran explorers and I was very eager to one day get my chance.
It was with help from my friends Ludovic, Deconstrukt and Urban Downfall that we were able to get such an extensive explore inside this historic old building.
With active security inside the building who monitor many cameras and motion sensors inside, it was critical that we had people who knew how to navigate and get passed these barriers.
We were 90% certain that we were going to get caught at some point, so we hit the spots first where we knew we were safe, saving the best spots for last in the event that we have to run or take other measures to protect and keep the footage and photos that were captured.
Here is my video of the explore and the photographs and story are all below:
While in the early stages of exploring this old vacant and historic hospital, we spent a great deal of time navigating,exploring and chooting in the maze of tunnels in the basement.
As we broke off from one section, we followed the steam tunnels over to another section and we found this perfectly preserved maintenance room/locker room. The room was complete with magazine pages of nude women to offensive comic strips and all the other stereotypical items you would expect to see in such a room!
So, enough of the basement of this old vacant hospital, lets move on to the things we came here to see!
Did I mention this hospital is over 120 years old??
Here is one of few operating rooms in the hospital that still had the lights, most of the other operating rooms had the lights removed.
Our walk up to this floor was a bit nerve wracking as we passed many parts of the hospital where security could have seen us at any time. lso, the location of this part of the hospital was a real pain in the ass because it was all the way on the other end of the hospital from where we entered.
Then, to make things worse, we had to go to the opposite end and up to get to the next part that we wanted to see.
Here we have the number one reason why RiddimRyder, Carlo Paolozza and I wanted to drive for 6 hours to explore.
We had a good number of locations and lots of solid intel but if there was one room that I wanted to see more than anything on this trip, it was this!
The Operating Theater in the upper levels of this vacant old hospital.
We were 90% certain that this was where we were going to get caught, having to bypass many security cameras and motion sensors on our way to this room, we took precautions to save the photos that we had taken here all day leading up to this point.
We we approached this room and as we all explored and took turnas taking our pictures we all listened for that all too familiar sound of keys jingling.
An automatic door to the room kept opening every time one of walked passed it, and every time that happened we all looked thinking it was the secuirity guard.
Once we were all satisfied and had got the footage and photos we wanted, we all posted for a celebratory group shot and made our way to finish our day long explore of this very large vacant institution.
It was getting dark outside as we explored this old vacant hospital.
As you can see, the power was on, making it nice for shooting, however you may also motice the security camera at the left side?
We spent much of our time avoiding these cameras, ducking around them or just straight running like hell right by them!
The darker it got outside the more we risked being seen as we walked by windows that faced the area where the security guards sit, so this was one of the final shots after a marathon multi hour explore of this amazing old historic hospital.
And with that, we explored a little bit more, packed up all of our gear and made our way to the nearest exit out to the cold and snowy weather that we had been protected from all day as we explored this huge, well lit and heated vacant hospital.
The future of this facility is up in the air at this point as the institution that owns it works on their plans, until then it will sit in this state, an urban explorers playground as curious and adventurous explorers play games of cat and mouse with the security guards. Some times the explorers win and sometimes they lose – on this day it was the merry group of explorers who came out victorious!!!!
Huge thanks to our friends Ludovic, Deconstrukt, Urban Downfall and Marie Mini for being such excellent hosts to RiddimRyder, Carlo Paolozza and myself!
