Old Reid Memorial Hospital

Location: Richmond, Indiana

Date Visited: July 26, 2016

Ever since I saw the Old Reid Memorial Hospital online, I knew I had to see it. This was my first hospital exploration, and the biggest by far.

Old Reid Memorial Hospital opened on July 27, 1905. It was financed by Daniel G. Reid. It was in operation for over 100 years, and closed in 2008. The name was changed to Reid Hospital and Healthcare Services in the 1990s, but is commonly known now as the Old Reid Memorial Hospital. Several additions were added over the years, but the older infrastructure and limited space led to its decline. A new Reid hospital was build just a mile down the road in the early 2000s, and serves the community today.

After the Old Reid closed its doors, it was sold to Whitewater Living. Much of the furniture was left at their request. They wanted to develop the old hospital into commercial and residential spaces, but the 2008 recession stalled those plans.

The hospital was sold to Rose City Development in late 2008, but they also failed to make any developments. It was sold a third time in 2010 to Spring Grove Development, LLC. They failed to secure financing and abandoned the hospital, along with the tax payments that went along with it.

The hospital went to auction in 2014, but didn't sell. It was declared an environmental hazard in 2015.

For more history, check out this article. It's where I got most of the information for this post and I thought I'd give credit where credit is due.

My friend and I parked at a nearby nursing home and climbed down a hill to access the hospital from behind.

Looking through the trees.

Back of the hospital.

 

Old trailer.

 

Old trailer again. I couldn't tell if there was anything inside.

Tiles.

"Warning Truck Entrance"

Back of the hospital again.

Old driveway.

Lots of overgrowth.

Leed's tower.

Not quite sure what this structure is.

Sidewalk.

Today is....

 

It was like walking through the forest.

Octagonal structure.

Some sort of fan.

This place was huge.

Entering the first room.

Boilers.

There were lots of brightly colored pipes.

I didn't go up these stairs.

I'm always here! to Rob you

We ran into our first problem due to this playful piece of graffiti. My friend suddenly didn't want to be here anymore. While I admit that it was definitely the creepiest abandoned place I'd been in, I was determined. Therefore, I went in alone.

Most of the ceiling tiles were missing.

Empty room.

Dark hallway.

With the amount of vandalism here, I'm surprised both the windows and the blinds are still intact.

All this decay after only eight years.

Desk.

Lots of things were hanging from the ceiling.

Desk again.

This desk looks like it belongs in a school.

What is it doing in a hospital?

I'm not sure if that is peeled paint or mold on the walls.

Still alone at this point, I decided to stick to the places with windows.

Kitchen or a break room maybe?

Peeling wallpaper.

This window was broken, as with most of the other windows.

A less dark hallway.

I'm not sure what these rooms were for.

Another broken window.

Shattered toilet.

So. Much. Broken. Glass.

THIS DOOR IS TO BE USED FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY

Another desk.

It was about this point when my friend yelled "Where are you?"

I didn't know for sure.

Bathroom.

So I retraced my steps.

Old electrical box.

Drawer handle.

I somehow found my way out and back to my friend. She joined me for the rest of the exploration.

High voltage.

Back on the path.

Handicapped parking sign.

As I said, nearly every window was broken.

Broken window.

It had just rained and many of the rooms were very damp.

Concrete jungle.

Stairs.

Peeling door.

I heard the lower levels were flooded, so I did not go down those stairs.

Dark room.

I'm surprised none of the ceilings collapsed on us.

"Female"

Breaker box?

Wall of (broken) windows.

Leed's tower was built in the 1970s.

This was pretty much the center of it all.

There were a lot of fire extinguishers lying around.

Once again, I'm not sure what this room was for.

Sanitizer test station

There was a ton of unidentifiable debris.

Inside looking out.

You could say I was a fan of this place.

I often had to use the flash from my camera to navigate.

Vegetable cooler.

Probably not cool anymore.

It looks like someone pulled the fire alarm. There have been a couple of fires here thanks to arson.

Even he ceiling was peeling.

Heavy doors.

An office of some sort?

This place was absolutely trashed.

Peeling.

The tiles made me feel like I was in a restaurant. Maybe this was the cafeteria?

Desk.

The wheelchairs here didn't look like regular wheelchairs.

Tiles.

Elevators. I hate elevators.

Time has not been kind here. Neither have the vandals.

"Growing Together" One Hundred Years 1905-2005

Fisher HealthCare 2000/01

Couldn't tell what these books were.

All the doors were wide open.

So many books.

New Testament

Radiographic Positions and Radiologic Procedures

More books.

"Leave all the furniture behind!"

I have no idea what these machines are.

Something to do with lasers, apparently.

I wonder how much this stuff cost.

Not sure what these are.

Some places were inaccessible due to the amount of stuff.

Computer guts.

Old monitor.

I wonder what this is.

Microwave.

Missing ceiling tiles.

Notebook.

More computer guts.

Even more computer guts.

Broken umbrella.

I love taking pictures of chairs.

Walking Dead reference.

Drinking fountain.

Skylight.

Be careful where you go...

"you are here because the outside rejects you"

Hallway.

We found a lot of these masks lying around.

Colorful pipes.

More colorful pipes.

Another fire extinguisher.

This small building looked like it was about ready to collapse. The floor and ceiling were already on their way.

Laundry basket maybe?

Not sure what this is.

Fire extinguisher #3.

I don't know why, but baby stuff at abandoned places give me the heebie jeebies.

This chair was in surprisingly good condition.

The scene of one of the arsons.

Receiving dock hours

This room was incredibly dark.

Random furniture.

I'm pretty sure that's a bathtub that fell through the ceiling.

I avoided going down most of the dark hallways.

Caution wet floor

A common subject on this blog: the toilet.

We constantly had to avoid hitting our heads on things hanging from the ceiling.

Some type of meter.

Outside again.

Where the ambulances came in possibly?

The hospital was a mix of old and new.

I did the one thing I said I'd never do. I climbed something.

The roof.

It seemed steady enough.

Though the ceiling tiles were falling below...

Views from the roof.

Views from the roof part 2.

Views from the roof part 3.

Looking into the Leed's tower.

One of the tallest parts of the building.

Inside the Leed's tower.

So many windows.

From the roof, we had access to this section.

Rust.

Big Brother is watching.

Thank you for not smoking.

Empty hospital room. I wonder how many people stayed in here over the years.

R-4

Blinds and broken toilets.

How did the main elevator sign get on the roof?

Parking lot.

Helicopter pad.

Helicopter pad again.

Parking lot again.

Lights.

If it wasn't for my friend, I probably would've been lost here forever.

Seriously, it was huge.

One of the entrances.

Once again, doors wide open.

Smoke-Free Zone

Another dark hallway.

Warped doors.

Nature Vs. Hospital

Nature taking over.

Old bed sheets maybe?

It's a long way down, but we managed to step around it and into the next section of the hospital.

Leftovers from Christmas?

Art.

Another wheelchair.

Looking out the windows.

Yet another wheelchair.

There were random chairs everywhere.

Everywhere.

EVERYWHERE.

There were a ton of these books laying around.

ATM.

Desks.

Boxes of plastic things?

Another arson scene.

They set a chair on fire.

EXIT

Hanging from the ceiling.

---->

Financial Counselor

I hope those aren't bullet holes in the wall.

Another breaker box maybe?

Yet another broken window.

Fortunately, the stairs weren't crumbling.

Bench.

More benches.

The defibrillator was no longer there, unfortunately.

If you haven't noticed, I love taking pictures of chairs.

So much potential left to rot away...

Newspaper machines.

Business Offices/Gift Shop sign

I think this was the main entrance.

This was the very front, and I believe the newest addition.

Tower of windows.

It may just be me, but that looks like a bullet hole.

This section faced the road, I believe.

These doors were actually locked.

We were able to peek inside, though.

Fallen cart.

Soap dispenser.

We were making our way back around because the front could be seen from the road. It turns out I was right about Big Brother. I'm pretty sure that helicopter was looking for trespassers because we got caught not long after. The officer wasn't aggressive, though. It sounded like he did this all day every day. The poor man sounded like a robot as he told us to leave. We got a good 2-3 hours of exploring before we got caught, and even met another group of explorers along the way. It was definitely worth the hour and forty-five minute drive. 

If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. I know it's a long one. I took a lot of pictures and it was hard for me to leave any out. This was probably one of the biggest places I've ever explored, and I know we didn't see all of it. It's definitely one of my personal favorites.