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I used to live in CI. My friends and I used to explore these tunnels. They were all blocked by fire doors which were locked by a master skeleton key (which we had in our posession). The darkness at the end of this tunnel is most likely from one of these doors being closed. My guess is this is the old tunnel that used to connect the men's violent ward near the old Med Surg building. Excellent shot. It sure does bring back memories.

makes you wonder if there's a lot of toxic material still in there the bird came into contact with....

No, Hobo, it was the chapel of a Catholic girl's school, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Eden Hall. I attended daily Mass in that chapel, as did all the students and all the nuns. I'm afraid we took its beauty for granted; I appreciate what we have lost more than I appreciated it when I had it. Hopefully, a lesson learned.

Interesting photo Motts. Ozzy....nice photo on your web site. I saw the Ghost Hunters episode about this place. Than I saw that Motts had some old photos up so I just had to check it out.....cool. I good someone is restoring it. Does anyone know what they are going to use it all for? Its really large isn't it? Thanks for the info anyone....

sort of looks like a very old fume hood used in most chem labs

i like the reusable stainless syringe, those are still used a lot in the veterinary industry... wonder how old that one is.

a lot of chemistry students i see. Organic chemistry 101... where i distilled my very own alcoholic beverage. ;) nice to see there are some educated viewers in the house

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS stuff in here

Does anyone know what the purpose was in having the two different colors on the walls? Was it just a decorating trend at the time? (I've seen walls painted like this in buildings and private homes in the Middle East even today, but I don't think it's as common in the US now as it was in the past.) Was a better quality (more expensive) paint used on the lower half of the wall that would get the most wear, and a cheaper paint on the upper half? Did they want to avoid a huge expanse of one color or create the illusion of a lower ceiling? Or maybe to be able to just repaint the lower half ? Sorry...I wonder about things like this...

I meant to add that beauty is also in those who go out of their way to take these pictures, preserving our past, and are generous enough to share their work with us.

"Beauty" does not mean "perfection." For me, the beauty is in the creativity of the people who invented elevators and safety devices, the pride and skill of the workmen who installed them with their own hands, the inspectors who made sure they worked correctly, the people who used them every day to get from one floor to another, the abilities of those who painted the walls and swept the floors to make others' lives easier, and how all of those souls can be remembered by looking at a picture. I would feel like less of a person if all I saw when I looked at this was some rust and peeling paint. Oh, and even "crackheads" are people too, and deserve compassion. "With God as our Father, brothers all are we." "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto Me."

that is a light so the doc can see "what's goin on"

This picture prompted many thoughts about how the world has changed, become much "smaller" in terms of ease of communication, and yet at the same time much less personal, summed up by the old telephone. Remember how heavy those phones were? And how you didn't own the phone, you rented it from the phone company? No direct dialing of long-distance calls (you had to use an operator). International calls were often an all-day process--you called the operator, were patched through to an international operator who hopefully spoke English, gave your information, and then hours later, when an international line was available, the operator called YOU back and connected you with an operator in the country you were calling to complete your call). It reminds me of the day my son came home to tell me about the fantastic thing he had seen at a friend's house--this machine with an arm that raised up and moved over, then went down to a thin round flat thing that was spinning, and music came out! I hadn't realized that digital age children had never seen a record player and didn't even know the word. I've tried to explain keypunch machines and card readers and getting up to change the tv channels (where I lived there were only three, and none of them broadcast between midnight and 6am), but it's like describing another universe. With all those changes in our lives, it should not surprise us that methods of caring for people with mental illness have also changed dramatically. It's more important to learn from the past than to judge and condemn the people who were doing the best they could with what they knew.

Thinking of all the people I've worked with over the years, I think most of them would have felt safer and been more comfortable in a small room like this, with a window to the outside and that didn't have to be shared, than in a large open dormitory with a dozen or more other patients, no privacy, and lots of noise. When a person feels out of control and perhaps thinks the world is out to get him/her, a small private space can be good. I know if given the choice of this room or the dormitory in the previous shot, I would choose this room every time.

I've got one just like this (but in perfect nick)! I'll make sure it never meets the same fate as the one in the photo.