Byberry Mental Hospital's Last Days - Part I

[flygangsta99]

i remember when i was about 10 or 11 in 1195 or so and me and my buddies were exploring "the berry" and found an old file from a patient who cut his mom's nose off and was eventually let out to live in the woods..it was pretty cool exploring..

[FlamingLavaOwl]

@Shannakeely your not crazy i heard it also.

[mwerner584]

Great video. I actually grew up on Carter Rd (my neighbor's car is filmed at 2:24) and have explored Byberry more times that I can count. I actually ran a website dedicated to Byberry at one point (around 2001-2002). This video and it's subsequent counterparts really bring back fond memories. Does anybody remember the haunted house that was run out of the building at 2:45? I believe it was only open for a couple of Halloween seasons during the early 90s. Anyways, thank you for the great post!

[andrewbyrdful]

Goddog. I have much respect for you. You were not one of those idiots who vandalized Byberry, but you restored it in a way. You are the one who made the site on Byberry's history, are you not? And you take great photos. I'm sorry Byberry is gone, and I'm sure you must be, too.

[jettenjetta]

ha taggers and party people and so on. Look in every room in that dam place his name is spray painted in every room in that place

[Anddos25]

This would make an awsome horror level for a scary pc game

[TheInunah]

8:18 is the first sign of paranormal activity!!!!

[FlamingLavaOwl]

@TheInunah yes i fucking hear it! its crazy as hell, children singing or something.

[NegiSpringfieldof4ch]

I love this video and post it on 4chan's /x/ from time to time. I like the mystique of Byberry and how it has stayed with me despite it being gone. It's not gone in my perspective, but people don't remember so easily.

[jej0701]

i myself have been to byberry after the abandonment.... it was the scariest thing ever..i live 3 mins down the road from it in parkwood...byberry is somerton...i really really would never ever go back if it was still up....oh and it wasnt because we were twisted youths it was to play FREEDOM.....philly

[jamschnitter]

that's freaky hearing those kid cries at around 8 min in

[jtcroydon]

put the lights out, i think they said.

[jtcroydon]

and its in haunted hallway

[barbqpope1970]

@Shannakeely It sounds like pink floyd

[transformers07fan]

@Shannakeely

You're not crazy; I heard it too! I don't think there were any kids around...near or far. This is pretty interesting.

[hydra]

Cool videos i live like 20minutes from there!!

[2Cool4you1013]

i would have loved to go in there! i cant believe they knocked it down. this stuff is awesome

[TheHebrewqueen]

they experimented, on my uncle 4 years !! i know the whole history of this wicked place also holmesburg,prison, who sent him there! just wicked!!

[ohdienah]

deff heard screaming @ 8:20.

[H2Ohexagon]

7:44 'the childrens cottages' :-(

[wildypadussy]

between 8:20 and 8:22 i could actually hear voices please tell me I am not crazy!!!!!!!

[radzyne]

i heard the voice! thats soo crazy!!

[swendh]

I sounded like someone screaming

[HolyKripple]

Sounds like a bunch of kids or someone group of ppl praying if you put some headphones on you can hear them, or also some kind of group meeting

[tommyd417]

great video, you preserved byberry by posting this. At 2:50 you mentioned the two buildings that were still intact on southhampton rd. They were the old nurses quarters and also served as clerical offices. There are tunnels in the basements that went underneath southhampton rd. to the main c buildings.

the second of the two buildings is a drug rehab called self help. It started in the farmhouse across the blvd. in 1976 and moved to it's current site in 1978.

thanks.

[seriouscc]

Look at the window up top on the left at 7:07-08 looks like some one fades to the side...

[Yunasight]

I live in this area and grew up with tons of stories of it. My bubby acutally worked there when she was nurse in training back in the 50's or 60's. Whenever i passed it, I always got a creepy yet intresting feeling from it, like I knew something bad use to go on there. The place was huge!! I can't tell you how many times I tried to count all the buildings when we use to ride by. I'm sad it's gone, altho the place was closed and had a horrible past, you couldn't help but admire it in a way.

[phannig]

yes I did visit years later and drove down the same street that you video taped....Southampton rd.I drove that rode every day to work at the hospital,from my home off of Bustleton av.

[phannig]

I worked at byberry hospital from 1968 to 1974 as assistant director of training in the psychology training section. i can tell you that we had some of the most innovative and effective programs for rehabilitation and helping patients to reenter the community. At that time, our program was able to reduce the population from 6500 to 35 ..... Paul J. Hannig PH.d

[gone2graf]

have u been back after it closed?

[JimmyJamesee]

Where were the deceased buried? Byberry had 8 - 10 body drawers in its morgue as well as a large autopsy theater thus there had to be a steady flow of dead patients. I know Oregon's famous mental hospital ala "Cookoo's Nest" has a basement filled with cremains, and I have seen extensive cemeteries at other hospitals (Danvers and Western State in Virginia).

Yet, no mention or evidence of any burials or cremations at Byberry. It's odd.

[albertb50]

yu tore down a historic landmark tht was in my community more the less a chill spot for teenagers i wish it was still there today i hope the fuckers tht liv in those condos get haunted by byberrys ghost

[bethann2779]

the are building a 55 and older community....as if southampton road is not crowded enough....self help is the there across the street for the criminals still....go figure

[LifesaGardenDigit1]

Buildings would make a nice condo/commercial development site. Good realestate potential. Are they all gone??? What is there now??

[BrynMawrYamBag]

I will give you some support...I know labotomies were performed on people who didn't need them. Dig up old man Kennedy and ask him about what he had done to his teenage daughter who was going through normal teenage rebellion issues...He had her brain chopped. Ok maybe 25 percent of state hospital patients should not have been there...But there are a LARGE portion of patients that the system abandoned by "mainstreaming" them.

[lonelyboy03]

Check out the story of Howard Dully. Same thing.

[BrynMawrYamBag]

apatcher...whoever the first wino at byberry was Im sure was not forced at gunpoint to guzzle gallons of alcohol. The nut hatches were and still are needed. I worked 5.5 years in corrections and got only 2 hours a year of training in how to deal with mentally defective inmates.Mainstreaming has more often then not worked. Once they are out,they go off the needed meds and can be a real risk to society.Ive seen it as a Correctional Officer AND an EMT. And psych patients are the worst to deal with

[BrynMawrYamBag]

Are the tearing the whole thing down?? Damn.

[cyprien23]

Seeing this video made me very sad. I almost cried in fact. I'm gonna miss Byberry.

[termikesmike]

Hospitals for the 'insane' were Asylums for the outcast people 'worked' growing crops, kitchen, dairy

when things are turned over to bureaucrats

distant 'do-gooders' who haven't a clue > bottom-line saving money rather than

helping the 'least among us' >things go to 'ell

lambs to the wolves

we need Sanctuaries

let the 'inmates' run the Asylum

[sonofbadabbage]

The more I learn about mental hospitals in the late 20th century, the more I understand that they were "underfunded" on purpose. They were wards of the state and "throw away people". The eugenics movement was a big reason for that. Often, they were victims of sham drug experiments too. The book "Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine..." is a very good resource and is available on ebay or in libaries.

[jej0701]

@sonofbadabbage, there was also the building across the street on the other side mabey 2 sec down the road, right before carter they put a haunted house there..q102 held it...and all i kept doing was looking at the laundry building because something was lighting something...and the doors were chained...ahhh f'n crazy....did u by any chance the stairway that is written 'ARROW UP HEAVEN AND IF U CHOOSE TO GO DOWN HELL...JILLY FROM PHILLY

[sonofbadabbage]

parts 1, 2, & 3 = roughly 30 minutes.

[iamth3walru5]

wow the children singing

[sonofbadabbage]

THERE WAS NO ONE ANYWHERE NEAR US - definitely not kids singing. I am not making this up. I didn't even believe it at first and did hear it when we were there.

[sonofbadabbage]

Meant to say "didn't hear it at the time" -

[gimzak]

Great video man. I happen to be one of those "urban explorers". Most of what we spray painted was in the maintenance tunnels and morgue. Our thing up there was never about destruction and more about exploring and just having fun. I still have the original blue prints I found in one of the rooms. Check out the videos on byberry by jirimar, you'll see me with the flashlight 13 years ago lol

[mdoobie17]

weird. at about 8:20 there is a distinct audio of what sounds like children singing or yelling something. the camera man then says the place must have a spiritual presence. the others say no, but make reference to a 'haunted hallway'.

[nhoverhaulinfan2]

Interesting, 5 stars

[soulsaflame4135]

oh shit. i couldnt make out beef until i saw the trademark L.e.d. blue

[helllohips]

i like this video. if you get a chance check out the piece i made about byberry.

[sonofbadabbage]

I watched your video a ways back - very artistic - it actually was an inspiration to film and post... thanks for your good work.

[SargeShea]

There's still another building across Route 1. The farm thats now abandoned was run by Byberry.

[goddog215]

Good stuff Jim! Thanx for posting this...

[vwgti101]

great video, i ahve always wanted to know what it looked like on the outside on the rd wow what a great job