2/19-3/12/2011
Driving through campus during the week, Steaz and I spotted a smashed window on the Dietary building. "Oh, that'll be sealed by the end of the week" Krush told us. Fast forward to Saturday: Steaz and myself drop through the window, avoiding shards of jagged glass that seem to reach for any exposed skin. My boots hit the concrete floor with a loud thud, and i observed my surroundings.
A massive oven stood menacingly in the corner. After Steaz jumped in, we set off to explore the building. When the hospital was functioning, this had been the central kitchen and dining hall. Patients were provided with their own small dining room, while next door the staff had a noticeably larger room to eat in.
The main kitchen was largely stripped, although a large mixer remained. The front of the building contained administrative offices and the loading dock. Interestingly, we came across a fire hose that was still fully charged. Fighting the temptation to play with it, we wrapped up shooting and left for the day.
On a recon drive-thru the week following the Dietary mission, I spotted something that made my jaw drop. The central patient building that had been 3/4 disused since the Center days appeared to be empty. The staff cars were missing from the front parking lot, and gazing through the heavy mesh windows, I could no longer see the patients milling back and forth in their dayroom. Circling the perimeter of the building, I found an unlocked door.
That weekend, Krush, Scarecrow, Steaz and myself hit a few of the dorm buildings early. After spending a few hours inside shooting, Crow, Steaz and I decided to do the Central building while Krush bailed. Using the door I discovered, we entered a small lobby before passing through some heavy-duty emergency escape doors. The room we entered was pitch-black and the air had a heavy feeling to it. Gripping my tactical torch, I thumbed the switch and stopped cold. We stood in the darkened maw of the hospital's auditorium. A massive stage with a baby grand piano stood elevated to our right, while to our left, hundreds of seats illuminated in the sterile white glare of LED lighting stretched into the darkness.
We quickly explored the abandoned section of the building. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end the entire time we were inside, as we all knew that we weren't in a truly "abandoned" building. We had all watched maintanance doing their rounds, shutting down the steam and electrical connections to the very building we were currently inside. We knew all too well that they could come back at any second.
During the next week, I popped a door on one of the 8 pods that made up the building's dayrooms. This door led directly into the section that had been abandoned the week prior. I couldn't go that weekend, so Steaz and Crow went instead. When i saw their photos of a fully illuminated auditorium, along with jars containing lambs preserved in formaldehyde, I knew I had to get back immediately. The following weekend, the three of us returned. Steaz and Crow went off to hang out in the auditorium, while I shot the newly vacated section of building. I looked over my shoulder so frequently that it probably looked like I had a fucking nervous twitch. The circuit breakers humming in the distance and the sound of a broken pipe gushing gallons of water my only company.
After shooting the new section, I walked half the length of the building and entered the backstage door of the auditorium to find my friends. I felt a chill go up my spine as I stepped onstage, the piano illuminated under the crimson glow of the stage lights.
"WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKK" I exhaled. The auditorium, despite suffering a horrifying roof leak and having been abandoned far longer than the rest of the building was still connected to the electrical grid.
I can't properly put into writing just how incredible of an experience it was standing inside a decrepit, terribly decayed theater with the stage lights on and a large painter's lamp illuminating the rest of the cavernous space in an otherworldly glow. "The stage lights were on when we came in..." Steaz and Crow reported upon joining them. I had a very bad feeling about spending too much time inside. I quickly got my shots, trying to use the monstrous space and eerie lighting to my advantage.
The Central Building would prove to be the structure on property that we first explored every inch of. Over the next two months, we would return time and again to venture through every single room, hallway, pod and ward. The kitchen in the center of the building was massive in itself, and the sign "Violence is
Never The Answer" provided many entertaining group-shots. One great memory that sticks out is Crow playing with an apparently long-dead exit sign in the auditorium, smacking it lightly when it suddenly lit up in his hands. It stayed on until the power was cut to the building that May.
Every trip, whether i was with my buddies or by myself, I would enter backstage in the auditorium. Moving through the cocoon of curtains, I would find the switchboard. Pulling hard on the massive lever that read "Main Stage Lights", the creepy red glow would slowly wash over the piano and stage. I would sit silently in the front row of seats, having plugged in the giant painter's lamp, and inhale the heavy, dusty air. We had found nirvana.
Above: Self-Portrait in the Central Building's massive kitchen.
Above: The Auditorium, the main attraction of the Central Building.
Above: LtR, Scarecrow, Steaz and Mad Dawg waiting for the show to start.
Above: Perfectly clean hallway in the freshly vacated section of the Central Building.
