A few days ago our local newspaper published an article about an old abandoned Victorian asylum known as Century Manor. The old asylum that sits a top of the Hamilton Ont. escarpment has been purchased (and the surrounding land) for development. There is talks of building a retirement home, apartment buildings and affordable housing. No official plan has been published so the future of the building remains unknown.
Knowing that time to explore the area will be short lived, I decided to explore and document as much of it as I could. The starting point would be a trail on the escarpment with rubble from the main asylum building that got demolished in the 1980s. Big chunks of the building were pushed over the escarpment and have sat in the overgrowth for decades.
When I got to the start of the trail, I didn't think I would be able to explore much. The entrance was littered with shopping carts, recycling bins and garbage. I knew there would be drug addict encampments.
The first few hundred feet was nothing but garbage with tents etc. just off of the trail. But further in there weren't any, so I continued on to the first spot I wanted to check out.
An old stone retaining wall. Back when the asylum was built and in use, these retaining walls ran in multiple places and also served as exit points for storm drains. This one is still half visible.
Next was a small tunnel near the top of the escarpment. The asylum complex had many tunnels that ran through it. Utility tunnels, storm drains, and some were for employees to move between the buildings and coming to and leaving the grounds. What this tunnel was used for is unknown and is caved in, about 20 feet inside of it.
A couple hundred of feet away from that tunnel is another retaining wall with storm drain. This one clearly had updates at some point.
After checking out old brick and rubble in the area, I made my way to an open field along the edge of the escarpment.
The field is where the main building of the asylum once sat.
All that remains of the asylum today is a small part of the main building (just a few rooms), a couple of small buildings and the building known as Century Manor.
This incredible Victorian building has not been accessible for more than 5 years (the last time I explored it was 6 years ago). Thanks to people vandalizing it and even going as far as trying to burn the plywood covering the windows. The provincial government secured it after that, with on site security and more.
I walked to the building thinking I would do some exterior photos with no idea of the strange adventure that I would get into! But that is a story for my next post!