Most people have been to haunted houses, but very few have ventured into the past. The place I'm talking about isn't haunted by ghosts or goblins, its haunted with stories, memories, and eeriness. To look into what was once a great utilitarian structure, but now is and great industrial ruin, terrifies you. It makes you scared, worried, and frightened. Not knowing what or who is behind each door, each hallway, each turn can torment your mind. It gets inside you.
Abandon and decaying, the massive ivy covered brick structures were built in the early 1900's. Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane, or Byberry State Hospital as it is more commonly called, is certainly a terrifying experience. There are massive buildings, over 10 of them, some even destroyed, there are tunnels in the basement where the patients where transferred, there are the cells where they slept, an auditorium, the cafeterias where they ate, and most of all the morgue, which was their final exit from the petrifying lives they lived.
Walking in you see nothing but piles of broken cement from the slowly cracking ceilings, and desiccating walls, broken glass from doors and windows. When you look down the long dark hallways, every door is open, or broken off and laying on the floor. It is disturbing, knowing you are at what was once a functioning insane asylum, where people were so sick that they had to be locked up away from family and friends, people, and the light. Some of the rooms had windows that were able to let light in, unless the big piece of wood that was able to shut out the light was in place. Now, a lot of the windows are boarded up, keeping light out forever.
In the patient rooms, there are pieces of wallpaper glued to pieces of wood, which provided a bizarrely depressing ambience. What once was a cot where the patients slept is now just a rusted frame. The ceilings are mostly gone and the lights are laying on the floors in the rooms. Most of these rooms are on the upstairs floors of the left and right patient wards. I wish I was able to describe them better but I have not seen the first hand, also, the Wall of Shame is located on the wall of the Temple.
Let's move on. Between the Patient Wards is the Temple. Except it is behind it. I don't know much about this place except that it is often called the Church and there is said to be a torture chamber underneath it. That is probably not true though, even though there are stories of harsh treatment, torture is probably not part of it. The tunnels connect these buildings along with other buildings together. People who have been there have dubbed the tunnels “The Catacombs”, and say they are the best route of travel. However, a lot of homeless have been reported living in these buildings and in the Catacombs, so you take a great risk in entering these places. The Patient Wards, and Temple are directly off Carter Road.
From the Patient Wards going down the tunnels comes and un named building and the Mortician's building. The Morgue, however, is not in the Mortician's building. Straight down the catacombs is a place called the Echo hallway. Probably named as such for obvious reasons. After you pass that hallway, straight ahead is the Refrigeration building and to the right of it is the morgue building, which as I'm sure you have guessed by now holds the morgue. The Black Hallway connects the Refrigeration and the Morgue Buildings. In the Morgue, there are freezers, and some people say there are ten freezers, but I have heard there are up to thirty, which I don't believe is true. The freezers once held the bodies of the dead patients.
To the right of that area is what is called "Old Byberry". These buildings are not able to be seen from Roosevelt Boulevard. There are five buildings that are parallel to five other buildings with about 5 in the middle. In the left five buildings is what is called by the migrating explorers, the Haunted Hallway which can lead into the Large Auditorium, which we’ll get into in a minute. In the center of Old Byberry is the courtyard. Patients that were able, were permitted to get their fresh air here. Which is really a shame because it was such a harsh thing to lock out light from a person’s life forever, but still let some of the patient’s out, but it is surrounded by buildings, making escape almost impossible. On the right section of Old Byberry, the fourth house in, is the doctors cottages, and the catacombs of the right section lead into the Twin Cathedrals.
The only safe way to enter the Large Auditorium is through the Catacombs.
The reason being is that there is a guard shack just a few feet away.
That is the basic run through of Byberry. Here is my advise for those of you planning a visit. Don't wonder around outside carelessly. Especially near the guard shacks. Don't shine your lights off the roof, day or night. If security sees you, they will call the police and they will surround almost any possible exit. If you get caught, you WILL get prosecuted. When you run into a homeless person, approach with caution. If they appear distraught, best not take your chances with them. Anyone else you mostly would see there are homeless, security, and just curious people like you.
So, when you visit, be prepared with flashlights, and extra batteries because once your lights go out, you, like so many others who have stayed at that hospital, you'll be left confused, frightened, and worst of all, in the dark.
hey guys i wrote this so tell me what u think...
Submitted by: Sarah Contact
Note from Spooky: This was a very good piece! I know I said I was going to slow down with Byberry, but this was written so well, and the description was so good, that I had to print it for the benifit of those who are nowhere near Byberry. So, thank you to Sarah for taking the time to submit this!