Bellevue Hospital

This is my last week at my current job — as a designer in the College department of publisher W. W. Norton— and I'm trying to make the most of my lunch walks around Midtown before I get to begin exploring the UES next week. On Friday I ticked an item off of my New York bucket list (how gross is the term "bucket list"?) when I finally walked over to see the Bellevue Hospital buildings in person.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that until recently I wasn't even fully aware that Bellevue still existed. I had always known about its notorious psychiatric ward, but in addition to being the oldest public hospital in the United States, Bellevue is still a fully-operational and modern healthcare facility. Thankfully my first encounter with Bellevue was as a spectator, not patient, and despite some modern additions, enough of the old buildings survive to satisfy my love of the creepy and old.

The best part of the Bellevue complex, of course, is the old psychiatric hospital building on E. 30th and 1st Avenue. Built in 1931, it became a homeless shelter in 1998 and there have since been plans to turn it into luxury rentals or a conference center, none of which have materialized, so it remains as a shelter. 

The brick building is in dire need of a spruce, but the grime and climbing vines just add to the overall level of creepiness. I don't necessarily believe in ghosts, per se, but you definitely don't get a happy, warm feeling from walking by the abandoned courtyards, ornate iron gates or boarded-up windows. 

I felt like a total idiot snapping photos as hospital workers and current-day tenants walked by, but I can't possibly be the only person to be captivated by the lurid history and architecture of Bellevue. I would love to explore the interior, which I'm sure is just as creepy (or even creepier) as I am imagining, but as a non-homeless female I won't be setting foot inside those notorious walls any time soon (and I'd be just as out-of-luck if it's ever turned into luxury rentals). 

I'm so glad I finally have a visual (and that unsettling feeling) to pair with all of the legends of Bellevue that I've always heard about, and it continues to amaze me that I get to go on adventures like this on a normal, everyday lunch hour.