St. Albans Sanatorium Part 1
I love, love, love abandoned buildings. I wish they could tell me their history and I love how they just feel different than other locations I photograph. I had the chance to go to St. Albans Sanatorium in Radford with an awesome group of area photographers in May and my lovely daughter agreed to come and be a model! What I didn’t realize–and I know I should have–is that there are no light sources in this building. So the bowling alley that is like 4 floors under ground is PITCH BLACK! Our cameras wouldn’t work right in the bowling alley, too, for a while. And the boiler room, where women are not supposed to go alone, is on this level and a group of us ladies went anyway. It is 55,000 square feet and that is one MASSIVE building!
There were a few really strange encounters but remember we went during the day…otherwise there is NO WAY I could have handled it. It’s called one of the most active paranormal locations on the East Coast. YIKES…one lady we were with felt a hand on her back in the suicide bathroom, there was a doll (in black and white in these photos) that many of us could not capture for some reason…I think I tried 15 times before I could get it. But we didn’t actually see a ghost or hear anything weird. But it was fabulous and I would so do it again! In the day time. With a group of people. I’m a chicken!
Boiler room was pitch black and so I just took a random photo and have no idea why there were so many cigarettes lined up!
Weird rusted pipe holder in the boiler room.
Cool bowling alley. My daughter was freaked to stand halfway down it for photos!
Bathroom off the lobotomy surgical area.
Wonder what these cabinets held in the lobotomy surgical area.
Electrical switch next to the electroshock therapy room. All I could think of was Sylvia Plath.
This is NOT the doll that wouldn’t let us capture it. They hold a large haunted house at Halloween and sometimes you’d round a corner and see a random doll–like this.
Pretty sure this is lead paint…love how it’s peeling.
So the attic was the most creepy to me. I walk off the stairs and see this tricycle in against the wall…just freaked me out.
Vandalism in the attic.
This building is MASSIVE!
OK there were several times this was written on the wall but this was the ONLY time I was freaked out by it…it was in the attic.
CREEPY doll that did NOT want to be photographed in the attic.
This was so strange to me…these random pages are glued to the wall …
Sums up how I felt all throughout the four hours we were there.
OK I never noticed the body outline on the floor until just NOW! I’m officially freaked.
Seeing a building falling down always makes me sad. I love that they’re trying to renovate it.
I think this was the lobby
This room freaked me out a little. I didn’t notice the black on the walls until I got the photos home. I did notice the drain in the middle of the tile floor… this was in the morgue. I figured autopsy maybe?
Weird bookshelves int he morgue.
I loved the rusted paint chips peeling in the morgue.
Like I said you just randomly turned a corner and saw creepy stuff like this…at night I probably would have peed my pants.
Stairs to the morgue.
This is the oldest part of the building. It was a Lutheran boys school until early 1900s.
Main entrance to the boys’ school with the grand staircase. It was also the guy’s side of the sanatorium.
Wow! Those photos tell some stories…that’s for sure! Really cool, Terry, & definitely creepy…
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Thanks for Sharing Terry, I love old places if only the walls could talk,
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