This building, oh… this crazy old building.

It’s been (so very slowly) deconstructed, and so isn’t viewable at all any more. But for years after it was abandoned, the entire compound just slowly fell apart out in the woods.

For years it was visited by a few thrillseekers, transients, a number of really young children (I know, right?) and a few older folk that remember the compound’s original stories: as the Callahan Center, a branch of Dammasch State Hospital (1883-2012).

If I remember correctly, Dammasch hospital was built to be be available as an emergency nuclear decontamination facility/hospital if there ever was a localized nuclear attack. There were these tunnels that stretched from Dammasch hospital’s basement to the Living Enrichment Center. Supposedly, these tunnels even led to an underground “food cache”.

I’ve seen the entrance to this tunnel system, but it had been filled in/collapsed. Hey I’m a photographer, not a miner.

I think the original plan for the LEC’s remains was to just let nature do most of the deconstruction, as it sat adrift in the woods for almost a decade… but let’s face it, that Brutalist design doesn’t really come down on it’s own.

On quiet days it really had some beautiful, if not totally abandoned and somewhat creepy, moments. RIP, LEC.