THE ARCHITECTURE WHICH DEFINES OUR LANDSCAPE IS A TANGIBLE PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE HISTORY. WHEN HISTORIC STRUCTURES ARE DEMOLISHED, A PART OF OURSELVES IS RELEGATED TO MEMORY AND CONDEMNED TO BE FORGOTTEN. IN THE REDISCOVERY OF OUR ABANDONED, OFF-LIMITS, OR OTHERWISE HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTS, I DOCUMENT THEIR EXISTENCE AS WELL AS OUR OWN THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE ADVENTURES PRESENTED HERE
Portions of Fulton State Hospital date back to the mid 1800's. Unfortunately the original "Kirkbride" Asylum building caught fire and was demolished in the 1950's.. but the tunnel system still remains underground.
Today, a few older buildings remain on the campus and are obviously in a state of disrepair. On this trip, we entered two of them. These two buildings were constructed in the early 1900's and were in use up until the late 1990's. Building #1 appears to have been an activities building as it features several floor plans of spacious open rooms with large windows in addition to some resident housing and day rooms. On the lower level there is one prison cell type room likely used for disruptive patients. Building #2, constructed in 1910 appears to have been primarily used as housing as evidenced by rows of tiny rooms sandwiched together on both levels.
UPDATE: These Fulton State Hospital buildings have since been demolished.
This blog is dedicated to the pursuit of adventure and features urban exploration in Saint Louis, Missouri and beyond.
1. With the exception of historical photos, all of the photographs here are copyrighted and not to be used for any purpose without my consent. The historical imagery is courtesy of the Historical Society or as otherwise noted.
2. "Don't try this at home." I absolutely will not be held responsible for anyone else's stupidity. I do not recommend anyone try visiting any of these locations. Sometimes I am granted access to the things you see here and attempting to follow in my footsteps may get you arrested, hurt or killed.
3. I do not condone or tolerate: vandalism, theft, littering or any other disrespectful activity in any of these locations. I have the utmost respect for the history of these locations and for the history of my city, Saint Louis. "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints."
4. Do not ask me for (or post) specific location information. If identifying information is not provided in the post, there's usually a good reason for that. Any information will be provided either at the time of posting, or updated years later, at my discretion.
5. Any reference to "I/me, we/us" anywhere on this blog is probably just a metaphor. Metaphors are oten employed to simplify complex technical details when storytelling. As such, they can never be considered as admission, nor proof, of guilt; They do not provide sufficient evidence as to who (or what) actually took any of the photos shown here. I/we may or may not actually exist.
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