Very rarely do I feel a chill go down my spine and my blood go cold as I walk down a New York City street, but this was creepy. I was watching my friends dogs and I took them down a block I'd never been- East 30th St between 1st Ave and the FDR approach road (the runs parallel to the highway entrance ramp from 34th to like 28th). I know that Bellvue Psychiatric Hospital is on 1st Ave because I've passed it a million times taking the M15. I'm guessing this building is part of it, but I'm not sure since it's not connected to the main building on 27th, and for some reason the front entrance to this one is on 30th St not on 1st Ave. And it's the creepiest entrance to a building I've probably ever seen- and I grew up in a rural town with some pretty unnerving vacant buildings.
The entrance is a huge brick facade set out from the rest of the brick building. It has a dingy stone carving nameplate that reads "Psychiatric Hospital." The creepy part was that some of the windows were boarded and others were half open with sheets covering them. One had a mattress blocking it. Others in the building had lights on and you could see curtains blowing in the evening breeze. There was one uniformed guard in a booth in front of the double doors. Clearly the building was in use, but it in no way resembled a modern hospital or anything from this century. It looked like it should be on Shutter Island or in some horror film, not in Kips Bay. I shuttered to think of the people inside and what their lives were like.
Someplace I've never been past before and will certainly not go past again (although there is a part of me that REALLY wants to go inside...)
The entrance is a huge brick facade set out from the rest of the brick building. It has a dingy stone carving nameplate that reads "Psychiatric Hospital." The creepy part was that some of the windows were boarded and others were half open with sheets covering them. One had a mattress blocking it. Others in the building had lights on and you could see curtains blowing in the evening breeze. There was one uniformed guard in a booth in front of the double doors. Clearly the building was in use, but it in no way resembled a modern hospital or anything from this century. It looked like it should be on Shutter Island or in some horror film, not in Kips Bay. I shuttered to think of the people inside and what their lives were like.
Someplace I've never been past before and will certainly not go past again (although there is a part of me that REALLY wants to go inside...)
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