Abandoned Mid-Century Hospital - Found Morgue and Bone Stretcher

in today's episode we're exploring a massive abandoned hospital somewhere in the u.s the facility began its life as a tuberculosis sanatorium but soon became a general hospital the largest building remaining was built in the early 1960s and features many staples of mid-century architecture minimalism tiled walls pastel color palettes and space age metal ceilings at first the building appears to be nothing but sprawling hallways and empty sunlight filled rooms but look deeper and there are several hidden secrets to be found join us as we explore [Music] so [Music] a portion of this video is sponsored by audible get access to a huge selection of audiobooks with audible pluses holiday offer six months for just 4.95 a month visit audible.com proper people [Music] when we arrived we found the hospital site to be absolutely covered in construction workers apparently the site was sold to a redeveloper who plans to build a massive warehouse and land clearing was taking place this obstacle only made us more determined to get inside however as it's possible the buildings could be demolished before we got the chance to return we began in one of the outlying buildings so we could try to better ascertain the situation at the main building is wrecked in here [Music] just half a wall left well even if there's nothing interesting in this building at least it'll allow us to get a view of the workers and see what they're doing this place is looking really strict i just hope they're not inside the main building that you want to get into yeah everything here is in that building the rest of them look like this here's the elevators so the main entrance would be right here yeah it's not that grand no it isn't this is definitely like a 50s building or at least late 40s there's no like grand staircase or anything it's already the time when elevators were the main method of going up and down and the staircases were all hidden away i really miss grand staircases being an architectural feature second floor is looking just as bad as the first aren't there balconies somewhere on this yeah where are those at the door right there oh yeah this is a tile room i don't think this would be an operating room but it's tile this building seems pretty un interesting straight to the top yeah let's just do that so [Music] where are these workers at i'm really low here i see them or i see cars there's a car an rv in an american flag someone lived there maybe this is going to be tough to get to the main building yeah we could try to do this smaller building in front next that gets us closer to the main building at least we heard some construction back this way too oh right there there's a truck out here with some equipment behind this building and this building's in the back of the property so they're really all around everywhere here i hear banging coming from the left too this place was supposed to be easy of course it never is let's go back inside okay try to make go right in the next building check this out there's a save hospital sticker looks like it didn't work out you ready your camera we're going up here yeah yeah this building's a lot more intact than the other one still every window pane smashed out it's got light fixtures left this is a very hospital looking building oh yeah hallway this little connector was added probably in the 50s based on this time let's go in here these hats have been patient rooms there's a vanity here i hear a generator too and there's there's two cars right there there's a pickup truck next to the white suv yeah they're in that fucking building we might have to wait to see if they leave or something i see windows spreadsheet on ground level we can go peek in there if we can yeah they're definitely in there though if they're pulled right up in the loading bay of it and i hear some generator running [Applause] it's a pool table oh wow a little rec room yeah i mean it was once patient rooms there's still a vanity right there all right i think we're just gonna make a go for that building even though it's so sketchy i just don't want to give up on this place yeah we're going to be very sneaky inside though be very quiet so we can hear the workers before they hear us i really am convinced that there's no work over there but there could be i don't think so workers are usually loud so at least we'll be able to hear them they'll be like using tools and banging or whatever yeah there's a window right there that door has a door to the left that door might be open brian look don't go in there michael just saved my ass from a lot of work for no reason i didn't check around the corner yeah this building's wide open all right the door is open on that end we're like the workers are parked we gotta be so cool let's go upstairs yeah it doesn't seem like anybody's in here no this definitely has the uh medical building vibe to it look oh this place is so vandalized oh my god even this is still up right i just smashed it geez a washing table yeah for the morgue this isn't the more tape isn't that a training table but [Music] yeah we're just watching it yeah okay you think so yeah i think so instead of like a bathtub yeah all right maybe yeah look slab bath okay all right it's just a bathtub the hand rails are slightly kind of a streamlined mode iron there's graffiti in every fucking wall i actually like this kind of ceiling yes when it turns this color very old style of drop ceiling it predates it but i like it because it rusts you know what you know what's above this tile ceiling what they had radiators they had a radiant ceiling so the ceiling was the heater yeah that's why there's holes in it it's a radiant ceiling oh look there it is this one has a slab bath intact with fake blood on it of course maybe on one of the floors we'll find one in perfect condition i do like how all the doors have hand-painted names yeah that's pretty old-fashioned very medical in here you can see where they have all the beds and the curtains six patients in one room it's kind of packed tight so this place started off as a tuberculosis sanatorium yeah but this is a newer building on the product by the time this building was built it was already like a general purpose hospital you see i don't know exactly this building but like late 40s early 50s feels late they didn't make nice buildings like ornately but they were still nice yeah like this feels very nice to me it turns out we were a little bit off with our estimates of how old the building was it was actually built in the early 60s here's the uh old communication thing for like where patients can call the nurses but there was a phone or a microphone that hung up on those guys we found our first chair just chilling off the hospital even places as empty as this they still have geristers chilling there's big elevators in this one for wheeling kids around it's very nice and symmetrical yeah everything is exactly in the blue tiles the blue glossy tiles you want to go this way do you want to go straight let's go down this way i have a feeling that this board is going to be where the special stuff is yeah and that hallway is just definitely on the part that sticks out definitely oh wow there's wood floors in here oh yeah they'd have patience in here yeah with these curtains it's a lot that's kind of old-fashioned i like this old clock too that's very retro what do you think this track was for looks like there were hooks over here physical therapy probably maybe moving patients that had some kind of disability [Music] hmm oh shit it's the hydrotherapy room oh yes they're still here oh these are awesome [Music] so i wonder why it's such an odd shape have like a patient in each corner check out the tracks above to like lift patients out for lifting them in and out okay let me just pick you up from that table you in here there's the track switcher here's one that you could stand up in last inspected was 1991 so it was used at least until the 90s whitehall hydrotherapy equipment this stuff almost seems like industrial kitchen appliances a big mixing bowl or something i guess they would be like this so a doctor can stand here and have better access to oh true you can have like a patient yeah and maybe another one i don't know maybe just one but you can like stand here yeah have access and then you can also stand here and have better access that has to be what it's for these move oh yeah it's like a track that goes all the way around [Music] [Music] it smells like wet paint it does really paint painting uh graffiti maybe uh which sure is among us graffiti which you know that's new that's gotta be recent yeah x-ray let's go that way i don't think the extra machine is still left in here though i've never seen a picture of it at least [Music] x-ray department oh there's some heavy doors here's the x-ray room it's gone you still see the tracks on the ceiling yeah that's about it and the control booth with the film passthrough yeah the graffiti is terrible left this was part of the uh developing process this was the dark room even this x-ray developing thing looks very 40s 50s this uh style right here this has an x-ray machine a very old one holy cow it still has one i expected them all to be gone this was the other one looking probably like a newer system because the tracks were white this one's very old this is old for sure at the table they probably just stopped using this for a while and just david bothers over here picker x-ray [Applause] westinghouse that's quality if this thing still moves smoothly i feel like this is not in the right [Applause] position i guess it is this would be like where the lens attached or something so [Music] so wow look at this one [Applause] the control panel is pretty cool this was cystoscopy systol how do you say cystoscopy cystoscopy cystoscopy listen i had very little exposure to the medical field so i don't know this is a urology table i feel like cystoscopy sounds right just ignore that ugly graffiti on the table [Applause] i really like this place even with the vandalism this stuff is just so retro looking [Applause] this green tile and this gas stuff makes me think operating room definitely is there's the light that was the loudest thing i've ever heard wow of course tag on the light it's still a really cool light it is i just love the rusty ceiling the green tiling they have these hangers for like fluids or something too yeah on the tracks big counterweight big light needs a big counterweight the sterilizing room yeah is this a more modern version of an autoclave i don't know if they can just put it in a cabinet it says steam supply so yeah get blasted with hot steam to sterilize this operating room doesn't have a light it was bigger though you know i bet you there were two lights in here you see the two tracks that's not a track is it uh not the vent the two tracks there's the two tracks that's one track yeah and then the other track was right there oh the spot on the ceiling where it's not rusty yeah but there are two lights yep let's see if we can see what's going on out here trying to be very quiet yeah the floor is very crunchy which kind of sucks but i must be like the construction office [Music] careful let's not be too risky over here yeah but some come around the corner and you're fully visible let's go check out the autoclaves in this room yeah i like the door latches they're always cool it's like three different eras of autoclave that one's the oldest and the one on the left and the one in the middle this room's got some nice green decay going on okay let's go down two floors here we came up one floor yeah we started we didn't see the first store at all this office looks like it was remodeled in the 60s or 70s or something carpet just absorbs cheap wooden packing that was a dead thing that's why it smells so bad where's the dead thing that's why it smells so bad what is it a raccoon oh this is cool chemistry number one oh the labs i like that they even painted the inside of the fume hood pink you got to get that pink and green aesthetic going electro nucleonics the miniature centrifugal analyzer a ton of papers in this room it is patient related patient name age room number still probably a hipaa violation any personal identifiable thing is is a hipaa violation um they're all from the 80s so do you know when this building closed nope you see a 90s calendar i saw inspected 90s for the hydrotherapy tub oh here's a draining table wow the grates are gone yeah here's the more the freezers that's so weird why would someone take the grates i don't know someone took a door i feel like the door's always missing i guess it would have swiveled it's just not attached to the ground attached to the ground do you think someone took the grating or it's just lying around somewhere here i have no idea there's papers here 1980s also absentee report form so it's not like autopsy forms that would have been cool i actually forgot we were supposed to be looking for a morgue too it's like we just walked into it when we were looking for the bone stretcher the bone stretcher's gonna be more that's the most exciting thing in here in my opinion we better find it this morgue is not great if it's gone or something i'm gonna be mad how could it be gone it's huge i don't know like who's just gonna take it i guess i shouldn't underestimate the dedication to some of these people he'll take anything yeah all right let's move on there's no light in this room it's pitch black without our lights so it's kind of hard to get nice shots another one of these cool clocks very minimalistic i hear some wasps buzzing in here bone stretcher where are you we're gonna find you cafeteria food line yeah those food freezers look kind of like a morgue freezer well guys we found the morgue there's big mixing bowls still the kitchen really goes back the super bowls this is a sheet folding machine it's funny how even on such an industrial machine like this they still put these flourishes on it it's pretty cool american air vents they got these big machines here but they also got these like little tiny ones just in case maybe this would dry sheets because there's like a vent i think it's it could be but why don't you just put them in a normal dryer it's something to do with like flattening them out i think flattening and drying they're hooked up with the same ventilation as the dryers it probably does do something like that where are you bone stretchers oh wait is this a theater in here no seats but it's a theater wow wow we got the door i've never seen pictures of this it's kind of small yeah it's still cool though still cool i didn't expect this in here floor is complete muck there are projectors looking things up there not sure if they're for spotlights or projectors and then there's a clock cool one i doubt they'll be still up there yeah probably not probably empty check out the stage it's just collapsed that stage is done i'm off on my own now we split up to search for this bone stretching machine it's really giving us a hard time but we can cover a lot more ground split up see who finds it first empty rooms everywhere well i didn't find the bone stretcher but we're in the projector right now there are in fact still projectors up here pretty cool i can't see shit i don't know if there's anything over there we're like looking in the windows of locked doors trying to find this thing there's nothing there but i don't think it's anything yeah that would suck if it's somebody somehow sealed the door that it's in god damn it i think we might not find it or it's not here anymore wait holy shit it's right fucking there we walk the other way down this hallway we literally but we were walking this way and walking this direction we just looked in here like this oh there's nothing there continue on we didn't see around the corner the bone stretcher all right who's getting their bone stretched first out of all of the hospitals we've been in now we've never encountered a bone structure like this is pretty special yeah this hospital also used to have iron lungs a long time ago not anymore i had a lot of special stuff i think they saved those iron lungs for a museum or something this is so cool though but this is cool so i don't even know like i feel like it's not the whole thing like stuff's missing obviously yeah but it's like the main base of it yeah like i don't know what these would be used for so what would you even do with a bone structure your legs would go in this somehow in those things or your hands i don't know i have no clue how this would even work we'll have to do some research i don't know would it be like if someone has a fracture you can like spread the bones apart so it heals and makes their bone longer like i know people do that to know it likes longer in like some asian countries and then there's like these things which is probably with a pulley or something on here and what is this there's a thing in the middle here this is definitely not the room this was supposed to be in though because look there's lights for each bed yeah this is just like a hospital bedroom don't know how it ended up in here [Music] i bet there was a strap or something you ratcheted out yeah that's a tensioner it's a pretty medieval machine right here i don't think that's doing anything no but that's something where a foot would go right like a heel would go in that little cupped area would go on top of that maybe or under it i don't think i can do your so what exactly is this device that most urban explorers refer to as the bone stretcher we believe it was probably a skeletal traction machine several years ago this building used to contain iron lungs a device that allowed polio patients who had lost control of their diaphragm to breathe artificially these skeletal traction machines were also used in the treatment of polio an attempt to resolve some of the complications from paralysis if a patient's spine was becoming misaligned they would be placed in the device in order to stretch it back into alignment paralyzed patients limbs would also be stretched to prevent them from naturally curling into the fetal position another possible theory is that this was an orthopedic table used for setting bones in the context of a decaying building this piece of vintage medical equipment takes on a sinister vibe but it's actually not too different from other devices still in use today [Music] after finally finding the fabled bone stretcher it was time for us to make our way out although the hospital lacked any impressive ornamental details the spaces found within felt symmetrical bold well laid out and overall pleasing to inhabit the mid-century was truly a time when architecture struck a balance between form and function whether others manage to see its beauty is likely irrelevant by now as the building continues to be smashed up by vandals and what could possibly be its final days before demolition but soon became a general hospital if you have a long drive ahead or just looking for something to listen to while getting some work done audible's audiobook library is perfect to fill your time audible recently launched a new plan audible plus that gives you full access to their plus catalog which is filled with thousands of select originals audiobooks and podcasts audible plus gives you unlimited access to these titles and stream them with no limit this makes it super easy to discover and try out new titles with audible plus you still get the usual book credits each month that can be redeemed for titles not included in the plus catalog we recently were on a long drive and decided to listen to something educational in a topic we were interested in we chose the title why architecture matters it's a great lesson for anyone interested in architecture the audiobook goes in depth of how culture shapes architecture and how 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Channel: The Proper People

Views: 644,581

Keywords: abandoned, urban, exploration, urbex, exploring, haunted, proper, people, theproperpeople, abandoned places, hospital, historic, bone stretcher, iron lungs, polio, hydrotherapy, therapy, sanitorium, sanitarium, old medical equipment, mid century, abandoned places in america, abandon, documentary, travel

Id: IOsvMFgvZZo

Length: 42min 22sec (2542 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020