A question for the old timers

[JakelovestheSTL]

These days I have been doing a lot of research on history in STL and buildings that no longer exist (and that are no longer abandoned). Since I know this site dates back fairly far to a time when STL's abandoned landscape looked different than today, I wanted to leave a couple links here from Built St. Louis and see if anyone who may still be browsing this site has been to these locations, or knows anyone who has, when they were abandoned. The first link is to the old City Hospital which was restored in the early 2000s. Aside from that the other links are to a handful of spots that existed or were at one point abandoned. Definitely worth a look through if you haven't visited Built St. Louis before!

https://www.builtstlouis.net/cityhospital-intro.html
https://www.builtstlouis.net/crumble00.html
https://www.builtstlouis.net/vanish00.html
https://www.builtstlouis.net/return00.html

[SubLunar]

Just going off this list in order:
https://www.builtstlouis.net/crumble00.html

City Hospital was one I *could have* done (meaning that I'm old enough to have been around before it was renoated) had I known about it at the time, but sadly missed out. I did, however, get inside the other buildings on-site which as of 2008 were not yet renovated. The Power plant is now an indoor climbing thing and not sure what the state of the other buildings is. Tunnels connected all of them and it was a fun explore even though I never got to see the main building in all its glory.
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... 23-08.html

Wright Arcade is one of my ALL TIME favorites. Partially because it was brought back from almost certain fate and several demolition permits. Partially because it's one of the most beautiful buildings in STL and we had it all to ourselves for years. It was fairly well sealed up so it didn't suffer the same bullshit graffiti/vandalism/disrespect that a lot of the other long-time sites received. There was a window in the alley with like 12 screws holding it in place. The first few times I replaced every screw but after a while I was only replacing half of them. That was apparently enough of a deterrent to keep most assholes out. Also, it was alarmed for a long time with motion sensors on the ground floor but once you ran through the gauntlet a few times (and set off the alarms lol) you could figure out how to sneak past without setting them off.
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... 08-09.html

(I never did explore the Mullanphy building for some reason)

Saint Mary's Infirmary was absolutely awesome, one of the top STL spots for sure. Old time medical facility with beds and things still in place, all decorated like the '50's. (RIP)
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... 19-09.html

(Central Institute for the Deaf was never really fully abandoned. Went in one day wearing a hard hat during renovation but didn't stick around. Same problem with Shriner's.)

Carr School is one of the OG locations that's still around. Heavy decay. Unfortunately, after "Paint Louis" became a thing, graffiti bros decided that the paint wall wasn't enough and Carr was hit hard during one of their weekend events and now it's full of lame ass graffiti.
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... -3-4b.html

(I never did Cass bank, was sealed when I checked in on it once)

The Clemens House.. Goddamn. This place deserved so much better than what it received at the hands of our resident slum lord piece of shit Paul McKee. (RIP)
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... house.html

Bethlehem Church was awesome. Beautiful stained glass and a creepy Jesus statue. (RIP)
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... -10-9.html

(St Liborious is now an indoor skate park! It was notoriously un-explored as far as I knew and I had never gotten inside. )

Sky Bank (RIP) is an ongoing unsolved STL mystery. Why, you, ask? It had rooftop teller windows with no easy means of access. My theory is that the builder envisioned visits from hot air balloons on the roof. Think about it; Rooftop teller windows and the name "Sky" bank... I've been meaning to visit the historical society and library to get to the bottom of it but haven't made it back out there yet.
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... -2010.html

Murphy Building and Majestic Theater are still standing last time I checked but it's been a while.
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... a.html?m=0

(I never bothered with the Spivey. Totally gutted and large homeless population living inside. Didn't feel like it would be worth bothering the residents to take pictures of a completely blown out building)

[SubLunar]

Not sure if Armour (RIP) was on one of the other lists but this was arguably the coolest abandonment we had:
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... plant.html

Carondelet Coke (RIP) was a very cool ruinous hellscape that was a fun place to hang out:
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... -1-08.html

[JakelovestheSTL]

Thanks for the great response SubLunar, thats awesome you at least got to see a part of what was the City Hospital. Sometimes I wish I could just travel back in time and see some of these places before they got too far gone. I'm not sure if you've heard of this place, but the Nevada State Hospital/Asylum in Nevada, MO is another place I would've loved to have seen. That place seemed crazy and was an original Kirkbride. It got demolished in 1999 sadly.

[SubLunar]

Yeah that's definitely one I wish I'd seen.

There's also the Saint Joseph State Hospital which houses the Glore Phsychiatric museum, which I keep meaning to get to one of these days: http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/build ... intjoseph/

There was a kirkbride in Fulton, too: http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/fulton/. We managed to get into the remaining tunnels and some of the outbuildings not long ago. Some of the guys even got into the power building and some other parts that I didn't get to see on our trip. I don't normally call out locations by name, but once they demo'd the buildings I figured it'd be alright to call it by its name instead of just "Asylum #4".
https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... lum-4.html

I've always had a thing for old medical buildings so naturally Kirkbride's have been way up on my bucket list. I've recon'd a few of them over the years but so far I've only been able to explore a couple. Normally my comrades and I set off on road trips all by ourselves and without any local help. But in this case, and to give credit where it's due, we had some local help getting in here. And it's a good thing too, because most of the interior doors were locked and without the local assistance, we probably wouldn't have been able to see the whole thing like we did. Unfortunately, it's all the way up in Minnesota eh. Fergus Falls State Hospital: https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... lum-3.html. The other one was Hudson River State Hospital up in New York, but that place was pretty fucked: https://sublunarphotography.blogspot.co ... pital.html



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Oh and get this...

there's ALSO A (STILL STANDING) KIRKBRIDE IN SAINT LOUIS !!1!!11

I knew nothing about it until I stumbled upon the historic records form which listed it as UNOCCUPIED and needless to say I fucking shit myself to death. Completely to death.

I knew that if it was still abandoned, there's no fucking way it would have been stayed so thoroughly "unknown" so I knew it had to be active in some other form by now so I set off to take a look knowing I was going to be disappointed in some way. Turns out, it's a boring ass apartment complex now. Section 8 housing, which I discovered on-site means: security will immediately approach you in the parking lot and tell you to leave.

CHECK THIS SHIT OUT

Unoccupied as of the late 70s until who knows when. Imagine how FUCKING AWESOME this was at the time. And how long was it abandoned for?

UGGGHHGGGGGHGHGHGHGHGHRRRRNNGNNGGGHHHH!!!!!

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7347

St. Vincent's Hospital was built in 1858 as an "Institution for the Insane". The hospital, occupying a city block, opened with three patients, but numbers were soon swelled by the closing of the state mental institutions as a result of the disruptions of the Civil War. By the 1870's, St. Vincent's Asylum was "one of the most renowned in the west."

The 1930 St. Louis Census lists 357 residents. By 1978, it was unoccupied. It is the current home of the Castle Park Apartments (or the Normandy Nursing Center or both...).

"Unoccupied" circa 1978




7301 St Charles Rock Rd, St Louis, St. Louis County, Missouri 63133

http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/82004722.pdf



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They don't like people taking pictures outside. I went back in 2009 and was chased off within minutes. A security guard promptly came out and infromed me that this is a HUD subsidized building, therefore it's government property and I can't take pictures there. You can see the building from the roof of the Soap Plant.

[JakelovestheSTL]

Man that Kirkbride in STL would've been so cool back when it was abandoned. I'm glad to see its still intact and was not demolished.