Byberry Mental Hospital

Byberry Mental Hospital was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was opened to the patients in 1907; it was a work farm from 1910-1920 until construction for a larger asylum was began and completed. Asylums were at a popular high and with it came more and more patients, Byberry was one such place. As the population of the patients grew so did the tales of patient abuse and neglect.

Without the right funds for the place the patients were left naked, starving and sleeping in sewage filled halls, not to mention the state of the hospital itself that was in disrepair. The patients would be huddled together in dingy rooms, they did not socialise correctly and they often had little to no supervision.  So imagine the stories of the very worst asylum treatments and you are probably close to their experience.

There were padded cells, they had restraints, they would use solitary confinements and physical punishment. This in turn went with the lobotomies and the electric shock. Byberry was known as a “real life house of horrors” and there were murders and suicides, the heavy handed regime was a part of many patients lives. In 1990 the doors of Byberry were closed by state authorities, there had been an investigation into the place and the awful conditions within its walls.

And so, here goes! There are many stories about Byberry and after it closed it invariably became a den for vagrants, delinquents and satanic cults. It also possibly would have had former inmates returning after it closed as they had no other place of knowledge and would have likely been institutionalized   Underneath the asylum there are catacomb like tunnels that give way to an urban legend, a violent and psychopathic patient hides in waiting with a large knife to slice the throats of anyone in his path.

Of course if that isn’t enough for you, do take note that apparently at some point the Satanic cultists have managed to open a doorway to hell, and here was me thinking Buffy had closed it at her school…

(I have found out that this place is now demolished but decided to post it anyway)