Bartonville
(Peoria) State Hospital II
(A CUE Ladies Only Exploration)
Photography by Megan and Erica
Report by Megan
 Power Plant |
 Power Plant Danger |
 Bowen from Shop Window |
It was a nice day in September when we headed out to the middle of the state in hopes to find what was left of the old Bartonville (Peoria) State Hospital, or historically known as the Peoria State Hospital for the Incurable Insane.
The trip was fairly uneventful and only lasted a couple of hours with miles of nothing laid out before us. Traveling down the prairie highway with music playing and engaged in pleasant conversation, we shortly arrived at our destination.
We pulled right up and got out of the vehicles, gazing in awe at the magnificent Bowen Building and gearing up for exploration. We decided to "save the best for last" and headed into the building we had parked behind. It had been some sort of old machine or mechanic shop. A building of apparent industry with it's massive pulleys and old electrical boxes still hanging in place.
 Shop Interior Floor |
 Shop Exterior Dock |
|
This building was in the worst state of all the buildings we encountered that day. It's ruinous beauty was enhanced by mother nature's green, clinging vines. This brought an odd feeling to it's old grey wooden interior, and one could almost no longer define whether one was on the outside looking in, or the inside looking out.
The western floor of this building was practically nonexistent. Time and the elements had rotted this floor into a dangerous sea of holes. More holes, than floor, it was best decided to avoid this part of the building and move on.
 Shop Window |
 Kitchen and Other Building |
 2nd Floor "Door to Hell" |
The next building we made a dash for was what had one been the laundry, bakery and kitchen facilities. It was massive structure consisting of two stories. It was divided in two by a center wall. We assume that the bakery/kitchen had been located on the east side of the building and the laundry on the west. We entered the laundry area first and immediately came upon the old elevator.
Beyond and to the east of the elevator on the first floor were a couple of rooms with nothing left in them but dust, rubble and the occasional odd plumbing. Needless to say, it was not long before we ascended the stairs to the second level.
 Wooden Wheels |
"Before Leaving" |
 Shop Interior |
The stairs were nice and sturdy, made of concrete and steel construction and turning back to the east as you approached the second floor and the doorway into a very large room. Again, this room had not much left in it. It was mainly empty. Here and there graffiti was scrawled across a wall, a window was broken or something hung from the ceiling. There was an open door on this floor that led to the exterior of the building. On it was spray painted "Door to Hell". It led only to a plunge of about 14 feet to the ground below.
It wasn't so much the room that was attractive or interesting as much as the views. One could see from the southern windows spectacular views of the Bowen building and the terra-cotta roofs of the building next door. This only excited us more for the sweet dessert, which was to be named Bowen.
We tracked back down the stairs and out the door. Further down I encountered another entrance covered partially by shrubs and planks. It was an easy entrance into what looked to have been the kitchen. Immediately before you, stood a boarded up entrance with a large rusty metal covering that had been pried to one side. This, we later found to be the entrance to the basement.
 Kitchen |
 Walk-in Fridge Door |
 Outside Kitchen |
Off to the west of this entrance was another larger room with smaller rooms bordering it, mainly graphitized by presumably white supremacist vandals or wannabe "skin heads". It all seemed to have to do with Satan, sex, heavy metal, gay-bashing and derogatory words used to describe people of color. Leaving no stone unturned, it appeared that they hated just about everyone.
Backtracking to the door we headed in the other direction and into a fairly large room littered with rubble and plagued by collapsing ceilings. It was apparent that there had been functioning ventilation hoods and what seemed to be gas pipes protruding from tiled walls and floors.
The place was deteriorated beyond all hope or repair. One interesting feature, however, was an old walk-in refrigeration room with a big, thick, heavy, institutional green door. I am sure that this room had never been an attractive place to begin with, but now it was nothing worth saving and hardly worth exploring other than to satiate historical curiosity.
Elevator Doors
Elevator Shaft
Pole at Bottom of
Elevator Shaft
Next, we cautiously entered the basement to find ourselves in a world of darkness and blocked off tunnels. The basement was huge, dank, cold and dark. Most of the walls were of exposed red brick. There were a few rooms for what appeared to be storage, but for the most part, it was empty.
The elevator shaft that we had discovered earlier on the west side of the building continued into the basement. Tunnels led off in all sorts of directions from all sorts of places. I think that we went down most of them, always to be disappointed by a cinderblock or brick wall sealing them off about 20 to 30 feet into the journey. We assume that this was done because of the major problems with the power plant being riddled with asbestos. (Most tunnels eventually lead to a power, water or heating source. I would assume that this is the case at Bartonville.)
After exhausting our exploration of these buildings, there was really only one thing left to see...the mother of all abandoned buildings at Bartonville...the Bowen Building. This building had once been a nurses residence, thus it is doubtful that it would ever have contained patients and if it had, it was not for an extended period of time.
The Bowen building is the largest standing structure at the old Bartonville State Hospital campus. It contains 3 floors, an attic and a basement and has stood vacant, abused and neglected for quite some time. I am not a liberty to tell of any experiences of exploring the building since I stayed on the outside while the other ladies darted in. They disappeared inside before I knew it and I, (having encountered the Bartonville Police earlier) did not feel up to the challenge. I stayed on the outside filming and photographing Bowen in all it's decrepit splendor.
After the regrouping of explorers, we decided to pay a visit to all the old cemeteries on the campus. The mosquitoes were incredibly horrid and we did not stay long before retiring to our hotel for the night. ~M
Bowen Building
Now and Then
About the Bowen Residence
by Anderson, Notter, Finegold, Inc. Architects and Preservation Planners, Boston, MA.
U-shaped building of 1899 is a focal point of the Hospital due to its larg mass and prominent setting in the center of the Hospital grounds. The 3-story coursed ashlar facades are built of grey Bedford limestone. Regularly-spaced pairs of rectangular window openings create a rhythmic pattern on the facades. Smooth stone banding and courses are apparent in areas where the original 2 story wooden porches have been removed. The center pavilion of the east facade features a large gable with a bank of round arched windows. Two small one-story wood porches enframe the center pavilion. The building has a modillioned cornice and had a steeply pitched hipped roof. The original hipped dormers and pagoda-like hoods of eight ventilators have been remover, so that the roof line is now more subdued than it was intended to be.
 Bartonville Water Tower |
Jumer's Castle Bear, Peoria, IL |
Huge
Grave Marker |
Old Postcard |
NOTE: Tunnels are all bricked up (leading nowhere) and there are only 2-3 buildings left to explore.
DANGERS
Asbestos, falling, collapsing floors, roofs and Bartonville police.
RELATED LINKS
Bartonville State Mental Hospital I- Summer 2001
Bartonville (Peoria) State Hospital Movie of this Mission
Bartonville State Hospital - IL-X
http://ilexploration2.tripod.com/bsh/bsh2.htmPeoria State Hospital 1983 Photographs by
F. W. Biddenstadt
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/special/PeoriaSH.htmlBartonville State Hospital (Historic Peoria)
http://www.historicpeoria.com/select.cfm?chose=127
Bartonville State Hospital (prairieghosts.com)
http://www.prairieghosts.com/barton.htmlBartonville State Hospital (Historic Asylums)
http://darkspire.org/asylums/Bartonville_il/Former State Hospital Site Sealed, Secured
Deteriorating structure posed asbestos threat (EPA)
http://www.epa.state.il.us/environmental-progress/v25/n3/hospital.htmlHistory of the Peoria (Bartonville) State Hospital (Illinois Alive!)
http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/Projects/IllinoisAlive/files/zm/htm1/zm000001.html
Click
on Thumbnail for Larger Image. (Must have JAVA - Scripting enabled.)
Bowen Photos
BSH Cemeteries
