Hudson River State Hospital

The Hudson River State Hospital, built in 1873 as a High Victorian Gothic psychiatric complex designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, housed thousands of patients for over a century before closing in 2003. The massive building fell into ruin after abandonment, and a 2007 lightning strike set fire to several wings. Staff who worked the night shift during the hospital's final decades reported hearing tortured cries echoing through empty wards, wheelchairs rolling down hallways on their own, and the rattling of door handles in locked rooms. Patients in hospital gowns have been photographed in windows of floors that were sealed off years before the building closed.