Exploring A Creepy Abandoned Nursing Home and Dentists Office
Built over 100 years ago as a hospital, this now abandoned nursing home has been left in a vacant state for over 20 years.
The building, which takes up a half of a city block had been renovated and expanded over its many years in service as the need for rooms increased with time. In 1960 it was then converted from a hospital to a nursing home until the doors were shut and the windows boarded up in the 1990’s.
There are attempts to get this building a historic designation which would save the abandoned nursing home from demolition. Sitting as a major eye sore to the few houses on the street it occupies, it has been a playground for urban exploring, curious adventurers and photographers for many years. Sadly it has also fallen victim to scrappers who have stripped much of the metal from the building to be sold for cash.
The basement and 1st floor of the abandoned building are nearly pitch black with thick air, the higher you climb the better the air becomes and the more light to photograph the beautiful decay of this abandoned building.
Myself and my partner RiddimRyder enjoyed a day of exploring and photographing the many floors and wings of this grand old building, from the dark basement to the roof with a beautiful view of the city as well as the chapel, many rooms and the highlight of the explore – the dentists office!
History of the Abandoned Nursing Home
Construction of this former hospital and nursing home began in 1912 and was opened on November 11, 1914. Designed in the Neoclassical Revival style, it was constructed at a cost of $400,000.
The hospital has a central nine-story tower flanked by matching five-story wings, connected with a central seven-story corridor. Inside, the ward layout reflected the type of patient care needed.
Waiting rooms flanked the main lobby on the first floor, with patient rooms running through each of the three ward blocks on the first three levels. A chapel was located on the fourth floor while the fifth floor contained the operating room and X-ray departments.
The sixth floor included the laboratory department, nurse training classrooms and recreation spaces. The new building incorporated music therapy into the building design, whereas an organ playing in the chapel was able to be heard throughout the facility.
Population continued to grow well into the mid-1950’s, topping out at 102,400 in 1960. Due to limited room for expansion the hospital became overcrowded.
In 1960, plans were developed for a new 220-bed hospital, that $5.5 million hospital was completed in 1965. This building was then renovated at the cost of $1.5 million and reused as the 104-room nursing home in 1966.
Plans for a new nursing home were drafted on July 6, 2000. State approval for a new nursing home to two local nursing homes came in December of 2000.
Construction of a new 250-bed facility began in September 2001 and opened in 2003 at the cost of $39 million.
This nursing home closed immediately after the new facility opened, having been vacant since 2003, this former nursing home has been sold at least five times since the closure…but has been left in a vacant and decaying state ever since.
Abandoned Nursing Home Photo Gallery
