Night Investigation of Abandoned Northville Psychiatric Hospital

It's that time of the year where people get their kicks by making themselves a part of haunted houses, trails and even exploring the abandoned areas near their homes. The Northville Psychiatric Hospital near Detroit, which closed down in 2003, seems like a perfect place to investigate after dark, if it weren't for trespassing. Luckily for us, some people like to take that risk and provide evidence of their findings. Psychiatric hospitals always have that lore that they mis-treated their patients and tortured them, but not at this one.

In its early days, Northville was apparently a pioneer in the use of art and music as part of treatment, as patients had the opportunity to learn musical instruments, put on plays, study mechanics or home economics, worked in hospital facilities, and tended the grounds as well. In fact, it's said that this facility was one of the best of its kind:

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Consisting of 20 buildings spread out over 453 of wooded, sometimes swampy land, NSH was lauded as one of the best psychiatric facilities in the country when it opened. Patients suffering from varying degrees of psychological problems were treated in different wards and buildings around the campus, arranged around a gleaming eight-story tower on the north side. The hospital was almost completely self-sufficient with its own laundry, kitchen, gymnasium, movie theater, swimming pool, and bowling alley, powered by a steam plant which supplied electricity and heat through a network of underground tunnels.

Today, the facility is riddled with graffiti, tarnish and abandoned. Let's take a peak what it looks like when the sun goes down...