Inside an Abandoned Illinois Hospital After a Fire: Burned Rooms and a Piano That Still Works

I do not know when this hospital in Illinois closed. I believe a fire shut it down, because I found rooms burned black on more than one floor, smoke damage everywhere and an elevator that is nothing but metal now. The exact location stays off this page.

Everything else was left behind. Beds, binders, exam gloves, a patient board and a piano that still works. The building is two levels plus a basement, and the basement was frozen over when I got there. I almost fell through the ice.

What we found

The first rooms were strange already. There was a water shutoff, hospital beds, a piano, and a pile of books somebody had been burning, mostly encyclopedias. Down the hall was what was left of the elevator, a chair that looked pretty cool, and some exercise equipment.

Further in were the medical rooms. In what looked like a nurse’s closet there were needles, syringes, ointment and pads, and there were old trays for food. There was a janitor’s station and rooms that looked like two rooms sharing one very small bathroom. The tubs were where people would have been bathed. I always think those tubs look super cold. There was another exercise bike too.

Then the fire shows up. Upstairs the fire alarm was still in the pulled down position, and the smoke damage was everywhere. There were so many medical beds up there. You can see how big the place is, because it wraps all the way around. I found a nurse’s handbook.

The elevator is where I think most of the fire started. All the equipment around it is burned down to nothing but metal, and the safety cover melted. A stairwell was marked as a fire zone, and it was. I kept hearing banging that seemed to come from the elevator.

Some things survived. The piano works, which I did not expect. There were cotton swabs and cotton balls, exam gloves and vinyl gloves, and a linen closet marked soiled linen. Social services paperwork was just left there. I found a second bathing tub with a lift chair beside it for helping people in.

The patient rooms mostly looked the same. One had an oxygen in use sign but no tank. Another had a private bathroom and someone’s glasses left behind. There was food in a fridge, which was gross, and binders everywhere. A medical bed had candy cane spray paint on it. A belt or strap hung nearby, and a comb was tucked behind a mirror.

There was another nurse’s station with a TV and some old lights, a patient board where doctors would have written, and a big old safe. The front entrance was probably pretty at one point. There was a lot of mold. The medication room was nothing but empty drawers. Past a coffee club sign was the laboratory, with a little lock, specimen supplies, small scissors, compresses and ointment.

The basement was flooded. The water was higher than I expected, and it was not as frozen as it looked. At least I can say I tried.

Why places like this end up empty

I do not know this hospital’s story. What happens to a closed hospital building is documented, though.

A trade article from the National Demolition Association describes one vacant hospital building in Illinois that sat empty for 16 years before it was cleared for reuse. The city had disconnected the water and electricity, so pipes froze or broke and the building was open to weather. Squatters and scrappers stripped copper and other valuables. Sump pumps stopped, and the basement flooded. The flooded elevators had been scrapped.

Reuse could not start until asbestos was abated and lead surfaces were dealt with. The crew also had to run generators because the grid was disconnected, and the abatement and demolition phase alone took 75 days. A closed building is cheap to leave alone and expensive to open.

I almost fell through the ice in the basement, and that was the end of the explore.