These 5 Creepy Asylums In Michigan Are Still Standing… And Still Disturbing
The very thought of an asylum conjures up disturbing images of lobotomies, patients wasting away in decrepit cell-like rooms, and the criminally insane mixing dangerously close to depressed housewives. It also has us thinking about the thousands of unfortunate souls who had no chance of ever leaving. Instead they were left to die, their ghosts forever remaining to haunt the halls of their earthly prisons. Here are some such places in Michigan that still keep you up at night with fear.
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Perhaps the creepiest place in the Traverse City area, this state hospital originally opened as an insane asylum in 1885. Patients with tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and polio were also treated in this facility, appropriately designed in Gothic-style.
Rumor has it, there is a portal to Hell under what is known as the "Hippy Tree."
Also known as the Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric, and General Hospital Complex, this once sprawling asylum served the invalid and mentally ill for more than 150 years. Abandoned in the 70s, the facility remained a spooky oddity for thrill-seeking teens, where it was said that discarded medical waste and even human bodies remained. The place has since been razed and turned into a golf course.
In its heyday, this facility, also known as the Southwest Michigan Tuberculosis Sanitarium, was considered a state-of-the-art facility for treating patients suffering from TB. As the deadly threat of tuberculosis subsided in the 1960s, the place became the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital. To this day, neighbors of this building are said to hear the wailing of souls of those who spent their last years confined to the institution.
Another former institute for treating tuberculosis patients, this santitarium opened in 1907. Like the Kalamazoo facility, it also switched to treating the mentally disabled, changed hands a couple of times, and then was shuttered for good in 1982. Years later, the property was torn down to make way for upscale housing, however the area was said to be haunted.
Pictured here, the former Boys Cottage
This facility opened in 1952 and was considered one of the finest facilities in country for treating psychiatric patients. But that reputation did not last, as reports became public decades later that patients were forced to sleep in hallways, were left with nothing to do but chain smoke and watch television all day, and were even subjected to attacks by staff members and other patients. The facility now sits derelict and subject to trespassers, curious to see this haunting place.
The seats in the auditorium still remain.
Though aged markedly by the weather, this sprawling facility is still quite in tact.
These are some of the more prominent asylums, sanitariums, and state hospitals with haunting pasts in Michigan. Which of these do you find most creepy? Tell us in the comments below!
