The Monticello Manor
Before you, at the end of a pitted
drive, stands a large abandoned building. It's arms stretch around
you, its purpose is not immediately evident. Though it must have once
been of some importance to warrant its place upon this bluff
overlooking the town below. Red brick walls stand dark against the
foliage which surrounds them. Their color of rusted iron, or dried
blood. Somewhere down below you can hear the sound of traffic,
passing cars and people walking alongside the through-way, but you
cannot see anything beyond the wall of trees which have overtaken the
property. Though just hundreds of feet from businesses and sidewalks,
you stand a world away. Above it all. Removed. On a mountainside with
the decomposing remnant of the Monticello Manor.
As it is with many abandoned places;
you are looking at the end of a story. And as you piece together the
events that led to this point in time, you unravel a tale told in
reverse - Traveling from end to beginning. The particular ending
before you isn't a happy one, unfortunately they tend not to be. This
is a bitter end, one which was brought about by negligence, not just
of a building, but of the people entrusted to it.
The Monticello Manor, of Monticello,
NY, ended its days as an outdated assisted-living facility, a
dangerous one at that, forced into closure by numerous outstanding
health violations. Years of oversight culminated in 2008 when a
rampant bedbug infestation coupled with rapidly-spreading mold forced
the state of NY to issue an emergency evacuation of the property,
giving the elderly residents an incredibly short 48 hour window to
relocate. Due to the rapid vacating of the facility a majority of
personal belongings remained behind, left to molder away with the
building after it was shuttered.
Long before this place was made
infamous by its gross negligence, before it became used as an example
of our questionable eldercare system, the manor was something else
entirely – The Monticello Hospital. Opened in 1924, it was a small
but proud establishment, one worthy of its vantage point over the
neighborhood below. Back then these hills were manicured, almost
completely bare of the forest which now claims it. Long ago you could
stand at the entrance of the building and see for miles, and from
many places in town below you could see the hospital. Vigilant upon
its precipice.
Through the years the hospital
continuously upgraded and modernized, eventually growing two large
wings which far exceeded the size of the original hospital building.
By the close of the 1970s however, municipalities saw fit to
consolidate the Monticello Hospital with a neighboring clinic,
merging them into one unified institution. Within just a few years an
assisted living facility moved into the vacant hospital campus,
re-branding the grounds as the 'Monticello Manor'. From there a slow
downward spiral began to form, consisting of health violations,
buildings violations, and a continuous flood of bad press reporting
it all.
The fluidity of time is a running theme
throughout our work - Some places simply hold onto the years
differently than others. It's a bit difficult to express in written
word, but if you were ever to find yourself in a place like the
Monticello Manor, you would certainly understand. If ever there was
a place which felt devoid of time altogether, this was it. Walking
through the shattered glass threshold was like walking into a limbo.
Folded linens, magazines placed upon end tables, even walkers and
canes remained as they were when these wards were still in use.
Undisturbed, frozen with eerie lifelessness. The sole element within
the manor which eluded to the passing of time was the ever-present
mold and decay which it brought. At one time it was contained within
the walls, but after the hospitals closure it was let free to roam
the halls as it wished. Now it was everywhere, writhing its way
across ceilings, walls, floors, and everything in-between. We had to
be extremely careful traversing the building due to a layer of thick,
invisible slime which had come to coat large spans of walls and
hallway floors. Though the blackening passages and bedchambers of the
shuttered hospital may have seemed lifeless at first glace, it became
apparent there were quite the opposite. The very atmosphere around us
was alive.
The humidity in
the air rusted away most metal surfaces, like the grills on this
cassette stereo.
Mold, slowly
freeing itself from the sheet-rock.
A suitcase of
personal belongings and folded clothing, discarded in a corner.
The stepped
entrance as it appeared in the early days of the hospital.
The staircase
remains to this day, though greatly obscured by a thick wood-line.
A ransacked
bedroom.
The hospital
featured a small chapel. A room which remained mostly unaffected by
the rot, save for one peeling wall.
The dining hall,
covered in artwork.
Just off from the
dining hall was found the kitchen, a surprisingly large space given
the modest size of the facility.
We returned to the manor nearly a
decade after our last visit, finding ourselves in the area on other
business. Though we stopped by out of personal curiosity, to see how
the grounds had fared through the years, we thought it appropriate to
capture a few images with our phones to showcase how bad the
conditions had become. Not only had the rot destroyed entire
ceilings, but the building had been gutted and cleared of not just
personal belonging but most furniture and many fixtures. What was
once a slowly decomposing time capsule is now little more than a
hollowed out collection of walls.
Off and away from the manor proper also
stand a collection of annex buildings which sprawl out into the
woods. Far older in construction than the wings of the assisted
living facility, these structures are clearly leftovers from the days
that this property served as a hospital. Though mostly empty, they
serve as intriguing relics from the past life of these grounds.
Months later we paid one last visit during a light snowfall. These will probably be the last photos we ever take of the old hospital and grounds, as the property has been receiving interest from numerous developers within the past couple years. Sooner than later these walls will fall.
