Atlas Obscura states that the hospital served as the main smallpox treatment facility from 1856 until 1875. Smallpox is a fatal disease that killed over 400,000 people annually in Europe alone before a vaccine was developed in 1796.
Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York City was built in the 1850s.
Atlas Obscura states that the hospital served as the main smallpox treatment facility from 1856 until 1875. Smallpox is a fatal disease that killed over 400,000 people annually in Europe alone before a vaccine was developed in 1796.
The hospital was later converted to a nurses’ dormitory before being abandoned completely in the 1950s.
Simply the foundation and the outer walls of the building remain after it fell into ruin and became simply a shell of the imposing structure it once was. The run-down hospital was designated a city landmark in 1975.
Ellis Island in New York is home to two abandoned hospitals.
Immigrants traveling through the island in the early 20th century would get screened for infectious diseases. They would be allowed entry into the United States if they were found to be in good health. They might also wind up in one of the two hospitals on the island, one of which is dedicated to infectious and contagious disorders and the other to general medical care.
The hospital categorized patients based on illnesses, including whooping cough, mumps, TB, measles, and scarlet fever, according to a prior Business Insider story.
According to Insider, those who were admitted to the general hospital had a higher chance of recovering and gaining entry into the US. But the likelihood was significantly lower for individuals who were admitted to the second hospital.
The hospitals reportedly practiced some questionable medical tactics at the time.
According to Business Insider, some medical professionals peeled back patients’ eyelids with button hooks to check for trachoma and applied chloric acid to patients’ scalps to cure ringworm. Over the course of the hospital’s existence, 3,500 patients are said to have passed away.
The complex was transformed into a military mental health facility in 1924.
Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane in Ovid, New York, is one of the creepiest abandoned hospitals in the country.
Atlas Obscura states that Dr. Sylvester D. Willard, the Surgeon General of New York, inaugurated the state-run hospital in 1869. Patients with ailments ranging from nerves to acute or chronic insanity and lunacy were treated at the institution.
The campus was divided between men and women. “Violent” and “non-violent” patients were also separated.
Patients had access to a variety of amenities, including a movie theater, a farm with products farmed and cared for by the residents, a bowling alley, and a gymnasium, according to Atlas Obscura.
Nevertheless, the institution continued to provide ice baths and electroshock therapy—treatments for mental illness that were regrettably common at the time.
The hospital discharged its last patient in 1995 and subsequently closed its doors.
Following Geraldo Rivera’s shocking 1972 exposé of Willowbrook Asylum in Staten Island, New York, hospitalization at other mental health facilities started to sharply fall. Willard Asylum is deserted as of right now.
In the past, tours let guests to view and take pictures of the abandoned buildings of Willard Asylum. Tours have since been discontinued, though.
Geraldo Rivera’s documentary on the horrific conditions of “mental institutions” in America also shone a light on Letchworth Village in Thiells, New York.
According to Hudson Valley Magazine, the first patients were admitted to Letchworth Village on July 10, 1911. At its busiest, the hospital employed over 10,000 workers and was built to serve about 3,000 patients. It was also one of the largest employers in the community.
In the 1950s, it was there that the first polio vaccinations were tested on pediatric patients. The vaccine was considered successful even though it included a highly contentious procedure.
However, the institution soon surpassed its maximum 3,000-people capacity and became overcrowded and underfunded.
The facility was charged of mistreating patients and encouraging unfavorable living circumstances. As the state moved toward “institutionalization,” fewer people were Letchworth patients. In 1996, the hospital ceased operations.
This hospital in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, was left behind after the Chernobyl disaster.
Pripyat City Hospital No. 126 provided radiation treatment to patients in the immediate wake of the nuclear accident. But the city and the hospital quickly vanished since it was deemed too hazardous and radioactive.
The hospital is still littered with relics from before the 1986 explosion.
The hospital is undoubtedly one of the creepiest abandoned locations in the world, complete with rusty, abandoned cots, broken beds, and ancient chairs.
Beelitz-Heilstätten is an abandoned military hospital in Germany that once treated Adolf Hitler.
The Nazi leader received treatment for a thigh injury he sustained during a WWI combat in late 1916, according to an earlier Insider report. Later, as East Germany fell apart, the hospital was shuttered and used as a filming site for the motion picture “The Pianist.”
This hospital in Italy has been abandoned for years.
According to urban explorer and photographer Roman Robroek, the hospital was constructed as a facility for patients with mental illness towards the end of the 19th century.
The hospital closed about a century later and is still in excellent condition considering its age.
But nature is starting to overwhelm the dilapidated establishment.
The hospital is littered with relics from when it was in operation.
This dilapidated operation chair was discovered within the eerie hospital.
