Videographer Matthew Chirico has been using Untapped Cities’ archives as inspiration for his location shoots, starting with a drone video of an abandoned bathhouse in the Rockaways and now of the partially abandoned Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island.
The 20-acre campus is located in Stapleton on the North Shore of Staten Island. As of a couple years ago, eight of the twelve buildings were abandoned. The largest building is the old Nurses’ Residence at the southeast corner. The grounds of Bayley Seton Hospital houses Staten Island’s first hospital, an historic colonnaded structure built in the 1830s to serve ailing retired naval and merchant sailors, appropriately named “the Seamen’s Retreat.”
A seven acre portion of the facility passed hands multiple times, finally to the Salvation Army who has failed to fundraise the amount needed to redevelop the site into senior housing. Twelve foot chain link fences have been placed along the perimeter of the Salvation Army property, but the site is otherwise untouched. A 2018 article from Staten Island Live reports that some gates were not secured, though the author clearly elaborates the safety risks of exploring there. You can see interior photos at the hospital over at AbandonedNYC. The FOX show Gotham uses Bayley Seton Hospital as the setting for Arkham Asylum.
The drone video shows a perspective rarely seen through abandoned photography: the Christian cross at the top of the building, the aging patina of the copper roofs, vines growing up six stories, and other architectural details atop the tallest buildings.
Next, check out 10 of NYC’s abandoned hospitals and asylums.