Need a vacation spot?

[Allie]

This isn't really such a ride for me since I work right around the corner, but it's a little local color and a piece of history. This is the old main building of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital once a sprawling care complex, practically a town of it's own. It opened it's doors in the 1870s, and finally closed them three years ago, surrendering it's charge to a brand new centralized hospital building right around the corner. I believe it was for years the largest public building in the United States, until the Pentagon was built. Most of the surrounding buildings are knocked down now, making room for a recreational park. Here is a brief photo glimpse.

[Charlie G]

That is a nice building. The main entrance, with those coloums is spectacular. I bet you could pick it up cheap and make it a GS retreat. Thanks for sharing.

cg

[Larry D]

So.....it's just sitting there empty ?? Do you know who owns it ? Seems a facility of that size could be used for something......

[steve murdoch]

Looks like it would be good for a movie set, maybe background for music vidoes.
Hard to believe the stonework has not been recycled.

[Allie]

To get the place habitable again would take $$$$$$, but I'd love to see the building used for something, it's history and they're letting it molder away. It will never be fit to use as any kind of hospital again, by the time they closed it there was all kinds of mold worked into the walls and stuff. I'm not sure who exactly owns it, it was always a state facility. Any GSers that would like to visit the new facilities are welcome though, you'll fit right in I'm sure.

[simon kuether]

Knock it down I say .
Just don't drop it on that very sweet looking bike of yours Allie .
Leeerve that colour scheme (and the rest of it of course) .

Cheers , Simon .

[FiremanBob]

Nice post, and your GS is absolutely beautiful.

[Stahlgrau333]

Beautiful architecture. For some reason, it makes me think of Versailles.

[JEEPRUSTY]

Like all utilitarian structures it has no value at all.
it is as lovely as a sewer. To think it is stained by human misery of the most profound kind then bash it down to hell I say.

This place ain't pretty in no way ever no way.
The asbestos alone would make a sane man cringe.

[Allie]

Like all utilitarian structures it has no value at all.
it is as lovely as a sewer. To think it is stained by human misery of the most profound kind then bash it down to hell I say.

This place ain't pretty in no way ever no way.
The asbestos alone would make a sane man cringe.

I challenge you to make less sense. And thanks for the bikeliments folks! I am overpowerin' fond of it, for sure.

[nutsandbolts]

Great bit or architecture there. Nice pics.
Budgets always get in the way of beauty and short sighted vision obscures the long term opportunities. With each building bulldozed, we loose a little of ourselves and our history. okay... off my soap box now.
Out to grab the next tag

[bonanzadave]

Psychiatric Hospital

I bet that place is haunted by a bunch of lobotomized ghosts .

Looks like it would be good for a movie set

Yea ! One of those psycho killer movies. Id be freaked out to go down into the basement of that place.

[HatchA74]

Reminds me of the places they used as sets during the Highlander tv series...


Always a shame when History is left to rot away

[Allie]

I bet that place is haunted by a bunch of lobotomized ghosts .


Yea ! One of those psycho killer movies. Id be freaked out to go down into the basement of that place.

I bet the place has lots of ghosts. What would REALLY freak me out would be the environmental hazards of entering such a structure. Workers with protective gear are nervous about it, while bozos clad in tee shirts and jeans blithely plunge in looking for thrills.

There is certainly lots of pain and suffering attached to the place, by very definition. Yet to imagine that that is solely what defines the place would be to ignore the fact that many many people have gone there to recover, get discharged, and get on with their lives - a cousin of mine included. There is plenty of positive energy too. Regardless it IS a piece of history, and a fascinating piece at that. It would be a shame to lose it (that long central ave that I took the distance shot from used to be LINED with buildings, and I was only half way down it), and certainly a shame to white wash it as history so often is.

[bwringer]

Great pictures, Allie!

I used to work at the state mental hospital in Logansport, Indiana. It's been in operation for over 100 years, and the grounds and buildings are spectacular, especially in the summer. Most of the older buildings are still in use, although sections are closed off.

Sure, old mental hospitals can be freaky -- I remember visiting one area that still had strong metal loops in the walls for restraining violent patients. We also had the Isaac Ray "forensic" unit (high-security unit for people who used to be called "criminally insane"). Most of the people in Isaac Ray were

But as Allie points out, they're also places of safety, stability, and hope for people who need them, and many consider the hospital their home. And many do find healing and ways to cope, and are released. My mother was the director of the Rehab/Release unit at Logansport for several years, and they were very busy getting people ready for life on the outside.

I worked at Logansport for several months, then spent four and half years working at a hospital near Purdue. I still consider it the best and most significant work I've ever done.

One thing about working in mental health is that you will have a lifetime of stories for any occasion.