In todays video we will be taking you inside this 200,000 square foot monster of an abandoned hospital that was last used as an educational hospital. The origins of the hospital date back to the 1880’s when it first opened as a Hospital for the various railroad workers and coal miners that lived and worked in the local area. These laborers continually hurt themselves while working the notoriously harsh conditions often associated with the grueling jobs. These workers routinely injured themselves and in many cases, workers lost their limbs, and in several cases lost their lives, as it was a couple hours trip to the only hospital in the area. The local leaders and state officials saw this as a great opportunity to fund and build an obviously much needed hospital in that area. They figured that the sight of mangled and dying railroad workers and miners was bad for the business aspect of the work. The leaders and officials provided money for both the purchase of the land and the construction of the hospital and helped to fund the hospital after its opening. The mining and railroad bosses, likewise, contributed money to the hospital to help reassure their hard working employees that they could be properly and quickly treated in the event of an accident and/or injury.
During its first decades of operation, the hospital had a constant stream and influx of aging, older men struggling to breath due to the ravages of black lung. For those of you that might not know about black lung, it was an awful and painful respiratory condition caused by overexposure to deadly coal dust often found deep in the mines. Many miners worked long days and for years at a time, causing them to breathe in the toxic dust, which would then scar the lungs, impairing and limiting the ability to breathe.
The consistent hospital admissions and medical treatment for these conditions eventually caused a shift within the hospital. The hospital doctors and physicians soon began to educate and teach other health professionals how to treat and care for these specialty cases of black lung and the other various diseases caused by the brutal work conditions of the miners and railroad workers. By the 1960’s the hospital had outgrown its original building and a new massive 6-story tall structure soon took its place. This new hospital would primarily focus on educating and training students and residents, as well as the other health professionals. The hospital went on to train thousands of doctors and nurses, both women and men, many of whom went on to have life-long careers in the medical field.
Although the hospital was quite successful in both treating and caring for patients, as well as teaching and training many medical professionals, the Great Recession of 2008 would eventually take its toll on the hospitals financial stability. After failing to secure a lucrative partnership and a financial bail out, the hospital was in serious trouble. In 2012, the near 130 year-old hospital was left with no other choice but to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy, close the doors, and liquidate all the hospitals assets. As of 2022, the former hospital still sits abandoned, but there has been some push from the local community to sell the old deteriorating hospital and at least reuse the nearly 20 acres of rolling landscape that surrounds the place.
