Coming back through, re-reading everything and looking at all the pictures that have been added and the ones that were already here when I found the site probably almost 7 years back...
Back then, I lived in East TN, north of Knoxville, and the only abandoned asylum I'd been remotely close to was over in Asheville, NC. It's gone now, I think. I have a few pictures of the exterior, but the trip my then-friend and I took that day was "We're bored, let's go do something outside." So, no flashlights and no way in the old place. Went back a few months later, found a fence around the building (not locked) got closer, more pictures.
Then I moved up to Bucks Co over 5 years ago. And I never realized, until well after being up here, that Byberry was so close. Sure I's cross Byberry Rd. when I too my fiance to his allergist, but never out two and two together. I remember my fiance's mother (who grew up in Philly) saying how her family used to scare her and her sister into behaving, threatening to leave them at Byberry if they didn't behave, giving them exaggerated or possibly completely false stories to scare them.
Really sad to see these buildings rot and eventually be knocked down, and all the drama from the abatement never being properly done. My old elementary school was purchased by a hospital for storage of medical equipment and possibly records after it closed. Then that hospital closed. I don't know what happened to it since the hospital was closed. But it makes me wonder. So many of the things I see in these pictures reminds me. The old wall tiles, the soap dispensers (that never worked, and sorry I had to bring it up, it's true though), and even seeing windows like this, with the spray-painted smiley. They all remind me of that school, not necessarily "happy" memories, but memories none the less.
There were grates over the lamps in my old schools in the gyms. The theaters I worked at typically had ceilings too high for most to throw things at accuraetly. (I had to change a few of those bulbs from a ladder.) We didn't have the stadium seating, but I've noticed in most theaters that do, the lights don't go all the way to the back of the theater anymore.
This gym/theater is in amazing shape. Those things over the doorways remind me of the speakers we had in a church I attended years back.
Yeah, those lanes would be worth something. The lanes are never outdated, just the equipment gets updated. A bowling alley near me closed and all the lanes were very quickly snatched up by a guy in Florida. *bowler, grew up in various establishments in the South East*
Back then, I lived in East TN, north of Knoxville, and the only abandoned asylum I'd been remotely close to was over in Asheville, NC. It's gone now, I think. I have a few pictures of the exterior, but the trip my then-friend and I took that day was "We're bored, let's go do something outside." So, no flashlights and no way in the old place. Went back a few months later, found a fence around the building (not locked) got closer, more pictures.
Then I moved up to Bucks Co over 5 years ago. And I never realized, until well after being up here, that Byberry was so close. Sure I's cross Byberry Rd. when I too my fiance to his allergist, but never out two and two together. I remember my fiance's mother (who grew up in Philly) saying how her family used to scare her and her sister into behaving, threatening to leave them at Byberry if they didn't behave, giving them exaggerated or possibly completely false stories to scare them.
Really sad to see these buildings rot and eventually be knocked down, and all the drama from the abatement never being properly done. My old elementary school was purchased by a hospital for storage of medical equipment and possibly records after it closed. Then that hospital closed. I don't know what happened to it since the hospital was closed. But it makes me wonder. So many of the things I see in these pictures reminds me. The old wall tiles, the soap dispensers (that never worked, and sorry I had to bring it up, it's true though), and even seeing windows like this, with the spray-painted smiley. They all remind me of that school, not necessarily "happy" memories, but memories none the less.
So strange. (sorry for tl;dr!)