manteno state hospital

[Illinois, 2001]

As healthcare nomenclature edged closer towards 'political correctness', names like 'Insane Asylum' became 'State Hospital'. A portion of this sprawling complex of buildings operates today as a veteran's home, while the rest of it quietly crumbles. Damp green and grey interiors seem to release an air of sadness captured during the buildings' occupation. As well as being subject to practices considered inhuman today, patients here suffered tragedy in 1939 when an outbreak of typhoid fever killed sixty. The culprit: a sewer line that ran too close to the water supply.