South Carolina Lunatic Asylum

These are some interesting photos. Being an old lunatic asylum it's probably haunted but who knows maybe not.

The photos and essay are courtesy of grave addiction. I tried linking directly to the site but couldn't. It kept giving me an error message and I know how annoying that can be for someone to open the window only for nothing to be there so I put it right here on my blog. The excerpt is to the site owner.


Mitch Oates sent me the following information about this old, abandoned mental hospital:
The South Carolina Lunatic Asylum was built in the late 1850's, and its design was cutting-edge for its time. The photographs are of the Babcock Building, the second oldest building, but the most impressive on the campus. The 140 acre campus itself is a nearly deserted city within the middle of Columbia, South Carolina, but the grounds are patrolled by state police. There are old wooden houses used by the doctors, an old church (Ironically named Chapel of Hope), a canteen, a library, and an auditorium...all abandoned. The state is eager to sell the property to developers hungry for real estate within the city, but historic preservation groups are attempting to block development. The grounds may also hold some archeological artifacts. During the Civil War, the hill behind the Babcock Building was used as a prisoner of war camp for Union soldiers. There is also a story of a serial killer on the grounds of the Asylum during the 1800's, who turned out to be a painter on the groundkeeping staff. I cannot vouch for the validity of that story.

There are several more photos which can be accessed at grave addiction.