The Byberry Hospital for the Mentally Insane or as it is locally known as "Byberry" was originally built in the 1900's to house both mental and correctional patients. It is located in what is now northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S.A. along Route 1, a major thoroughfare in south-eastern PA.

Byberry has a history filled with turmoil. The conditions there were deplorable. The hospital was built to house 3500 patients, but in the 1930's the number swelled to 6100. Many attempts were made to reform the hospital and there were numerous inspections and investigations.

Patients had to sleep on the floor because there were not enough beds. Many patients were half naked with no clothes during the summer AND winter months. Patients were beaten, raped and neglected. There was also a child's camp, which housed the younger patients. Conditions there weren't much better. The play equipment they used was in disrepair at best and a sliding board that was bent in the middle and can still be seen today.

Conditions improved in 1938 when a reporter from the now defunct Philadelphia Record newspaper posing as a worker entered the institution with a camera under his coat and took pictures. The resulting backlash forced the state to take control of the hospital and also change the name to The Philadelphia State Hospital. Institutions all across the country were downsized or closed for what the government called the "de-institutionalisation of America". Around that time there was a project to remodel the hospital and $24M was spent. Also, in the1940's there were 7 more "modern" buildings added to relieve the burgeoning patient capacity. These improvements were only superficial and the hospital continued to operate under substandard conditions until it's closing in 1990.

When the hospital closed in 1990 many people went there to strip the copper and steel from inside the buildings and sell them as scrap. I've been going off and on since 1994. Then the hospital was completely lawless. Every door was kicked in and window broken. Occasionally the police would patrol but for the most part it was a total free for all.

As you walk into any given building (currently there are 23), you enter a world of total chaos. There is graffiti on every wall and most buildings are maze-like. Your senses are ambushed by the smell of stagnant damp air and pitch black conditions. There is broken glass and debris everywhere. All the buildings are connected with what most explorers call "catacombs". All they really are is tunnels, which house the steam pipes and are accessed via the basements of every building.