Abandoned Asylums and Swimming Pools on YouTube

Abandoned asylums and deserted swimming pools may seem like a strange combination to include in one article. The best known closed asylums are shrouded with stories. Once they were noisy places, where manic laughter befriended uncontrolled rocking and weeping. Unknown patients unclaimed by families too ashamed or too poor to give the deceased a proper headstone are often buried in a numbered grave on the premises. Dank and spooky underground tunnels traverse between buildings. Rumors of strange noises and misty glimpses of former residents beckon the curious to come explore. Asylums were once full of life, albeit a sad, crazy sort of life.

Abandoned swimming pools were also once full of life. The laughter surrounding a public pool invites you to enjoy the water and the fellowship of other swimmers and sunbathers. The laughter disappears when the swimming pool is abandoned. Or can you hear echoes of what once was in both asylum and swimming pool? Some YouTube contributors created haunting videos of these two types of places where life and laughter once resided.

Abandoned Asylums

The video titled For Eileen features Manteno State Hospital in Illinois. From 1929 to 1985 this hospital facility encompassing 1200 acres treated the mentally ill. About one third of the former hospital buildings are now utilized by the Illinois Veterans Home. Many of the abandoned asylum buildings have been demolished to make way for new development. This video of the abandoned Manteno State Hospital is a moving tribute by dalecaruso to his deceased aunt Eileen. She was a resident of Manteno State Hospital until her death. The music is "Dante's Prayer" by Loreena McKennitt. Warning: one of the rooms shown has graffiti containing a word some may find offensive. The end of the video includes a short segment showing an actual electroconvulsive therapy session.

Cherry Knowle Hospital opened as an asylum in 1895. It may be found in the Borough of Sunderland, Ryhope, Durham, England. The original section of the asylum, the Laurel block, operated until 1998. The abandoned asylum block has been slated for demolition. Some of the buildings added later are still in use. This video contributed by urbanlincs has both exterior and interior shots of the abandoned asylum. The music to this video is "To Build a Home" by The Cinematic Orchestra, a British jazz and electronica band.

As I did my research, I discovered many of these abandoned asylums, or state hospitals as they came to be known, have either been torn down or are slated for demolition. Some have been saved by preservation groups but many more have already succumbed to the elements and to real estate developers.

Abandoned Swimming Pools
This video of abandoned swimming pools covers outdoor as well as indoor pools. YouTube contributor Hellogals supplied the slideshow and chose the song "Die in the Summertime" by the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers to accompany the photos. The pools are from campgrounds, hotels, and other properties around the world. One photo is the abandoned swimming pool in the city of Pripyat in the Ukraine. The entire city was evacuated in April 1986 because of the radioactive fallout from nearby Chernobyl. See it here.

Another slideshow collection of abandoned swimming pools was prepared by YouTube contributor adamlusted and etoxin films. Set to the electronica song "Sleep Alone" by Moby, this slideshow has a few of the same photos as the previous YouTube video but several others besides. Some of the abandoned pools contain murky, black water while others have been scarred with graffiti tags. See the slideshow here.

Sources:
Manteno State Hospital History
Cherry Knowle Hospital Information
Cherry Knowle Hospital Photos