A Last Look at One of Amarillo's Most Famous Abandoned Buildings

In due time, St. Anthony's Hospital will no longer be the looming structure of legend that it has been for so long. Part of the 565,000 square foot abandoned hospital will eventually be turned into affordable living spaces for senior citizens.

The 119-year-old hospital is an iconic party of our city and it's great that the building (or at least parts of it) will be used again by people in need of a home. Construction was set to start this year.

The Stuff of Legend - Haunted Ghost Stories

There's plenty of reading material about the actual history of the hospital itself--but above all, you have the "legend" of St. Anthony's hospital. Most of them are the type of thing that usually pops up around abandoned buildings. Particularly when it is a hospital that has been around since the early 1900s.

There are videos on YouTube that claim to be proof of how haunted the hospital is. There have been those who have decided to sneak into the building to face whatever roams the halls. There are stories about the old St. Anthony's that you've heard passed around for years without any clue where they started up from.

A little bit more down-to-Earth (but not all the way down to Earth....) tales of St. Anthony's hospital are the stories of exorcisms that took place in the hospital during its earlier years. One could suppose that these stories do well to point out how at one point in medical history we didn't understand mental illness and used religion as treatment. But even so, the incidents where mental illnesses met with Catholic rites of exorcism are enough to fuel the legends and ghost stories surrounding the building.

A Beautiful Building In Disrepair

Most unfortunate is the amount of damage the building has taken over the years in the form of vandalism, and from just simply being left alone. It's truly a magnificent building, and it's a shame it hasn't been used in so long. But St. Anthony's hospital will eventually see a new life, I hope.

If you've never taken the opportunity to drive by and take a good look at it, you should some time. While you still can.

The Abandoned St. Anthony's Hospital on Amarillo Boulevard

The 119-year-old abandoned hospital is a fascinating place for any who are lucky enough to be granted the chance to explore.

The sprawling building saw thousands of Amarillo's citizens inside its halls daily, all the the way until it was shuttered in 2001. But there are still incredible artifacts of the all-too-recent past tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the old St. Anthony.

The explorer who took these photographs gave the following information:

"Many rooms were left untouched, we found patient files, old prescriptions, a blood transfusion machine from the 60s, and microscopic slides of breast cancer from the 70s and 80s. I put one picture in here of some heart scans so you can see the dates and diagnosis of the patient, but marked out the patient’s names of course. During a time when mental illness was not understood, 76 exorcisms were documented to have been performed between 1909 and 1931."

Take a look inside the halls of the legendary abandoned St. Anthony's hospital

The Incredible Street Art You'll Find Hidden Around Amarillo

Amarillo is full of astonishingly beautiful artwork in the most unlikely places. Check out our collection of the hidden gems you'll find around town. Some, you'll recognize from Downtown and others you might have to go hunting for.

Check Out The Original Names For These Amarillo Streets

It's hard to imagine these well-known Amarillo streets as any other name. Try to imagine giving directions to someone while using their original names. Gets tricky, doesn't it?

The new names (that we currently know them by) came mostly from associates of Henry Luckett, who drew the first map of the area. When this took place exactly, records do not show, but the street name revamp is covered extensively in 'Old Town Amarillo' by Judge John Crudgington, published in the Plains Historical Review in 1957.