The reason I'm posting them is because of this reason. In 1999, shortly after I got out of prison, I moved to the neighborhood where this hospital stood.
I had bought a block of buildings right next to Laffayette Square and rehabbed them. I find it strange because it's one of the few neighborrhood revitalization projects in St. Louis which actually wasn't bogged down with corruption by a city administration.
This story isn't about that. It's about this hospital. The old city hospital in St. Louis.
When I first moved there, I didn't know what it was. I saw it and...to me...it looked like a large high school at first glance.
Then, I bought the properties down there and decided to go exploring one day.
Well, I drove over and parked. I walked...and yes, back then, you could walk right into it back then...
So, I walked over and into it.
Behind it was the old Psychiatric hospital. It was really ramshackle, but I went through the first floor and let me say something here and now...if you don't believe in ghosts, you will when you get through with this place!
For example, on the fourth floor of the main hospital, I saw the most amazing light show on the planet. It was nothing but red and white orbs.
For a moment, I thought I was on LSD there were so many, but what's incredible is amongst all the orbs, were presences and feelings I'd never felt fore before. I could feel them all around me and each was telling me their life stories.
As soon as I got through with that experience, I saw a priest. Now, let me backtrack for a second. The priest wasn't alive. He was dead, but what happened was he told me all the wayward spirits were attempting to get HIM to get them to take them to the light and he, having committed suicide there, couldn't do it.
What's uncanny and strange is he seemed shocked I could see him and yet, he seemed shocked because he kept trying to convince me I was St. Thomas! Now, I'll tell you I believe in reincarnation and all that stuff, but for me to be told by a dead suicidal priest I was St. Thomas was another thing.
What's abstolutely crazy is this...we carried on this long conversation with him floating in the landing of this stairwell with me sitting on the steps. The entire time, my mouth didn't move...we spoke by thought. And yet, the entire time I was there carrying on this conversation, NOT ONCE did I think about why the guy floated in that one spot until I got out and THEN, it hit me that fucker had hung himself there and that's why he was floating!
Well, here's what happened. It freaked my shit out! I ran back to my car and got in and the first thing I did was called my Mom and my best friend Mike.
Of course, my Mom believed me and so did Mike. In fact, Mike wanted to come down and see for himself!
Well, to make a long story short, I brought Mike down and the entire time, he was cool about coming until we got there and that's when I found out he wasn't believing I'd actually seen any ghosts and wasn't believing except to go along with me.
THEN, when he got there, I told him. "You watch. Within fifteen minutes, you're going to see ghosts, orbs, and spirits all over this motherfucker."
Well, we walked through it and the first spirit he saw, he liked to have tore out of there. He was running back up the hall and screaming. I stopped him and said, "You dumb fuck! Don't you think if you saw one up that way, they're back this way too???"
Well, that was probably the wrong thing to say because he really about passed out then! But, we went back to the car and sat there. I told him, "Watch. You'll see them all over the place now that you can see them and sure enough, they were all over the place and he was pointing and seeing them everywhere.
We stayed in the car until it got to be too dark and went home, but after that, he took several people there to see them.
Well, to make a long story short, here's what happened. The city sold the land to developers. The developers developed it into condos
Now that I've dazzled you with my abilities to post photos and you've seen how they've managed to tear down all the buildings except for the main hospital structure, I need to ask you one simple question...
If this place was so full of ghosts and they tend to want to stay where they are, where did they go???
AND, at ninety one thousand dollard for a four hundred square foot loft efficiency unit, would you live there with a new baby knowing it could become possessed by a wayward soul???
My thought is this. Right across the street from this was a huge bunch of high rise project buildings they tore down. They gutted them and imploded them, so they are definitely no more. Now, why didn't they do that with the hospital unless there was something in this for some pocket change somewhere???
I'm not suggesting it's full of rife and corruption, but listen to these figures. For the developer to come in do this, they spent three trillion dollars with a trill in front of it...not a bill. That's a helluva lot of money for not that many houses, townhouses, and condos. I'd say someone saw some serious pocket change out of it.
Now, let me give you an example of the way it was for me. I bought an entire block of houses for one hundred and eighty five thousand dollars. Then, I gutted them and rehabbed them and sold them for either one hundred and eighty thousand or two hundred and fifty thousand each.
Let's see, here are those pictures...since I'm posting pretty pictures.
Now, in case you don't recognize the addresses here, let me give you a hint. The address for the book in which the movie was based on for "Meet Me In St. Louis" was these addresses.
No, the house doesn't exist anymore because some dumb fuck built a fire in the middle of the living room of it to stay warm while it was a bombed out tenement and the ensuing fire ravaged it. All I could do was tear it down and expand the yard so it was a part of the house next to it in order to increase it's value.
Just the same, the hospital up above it right up the street from this not seven or eight blocks. And all in all, I made a lot of money turning these things around and putting them out into people's hands who have kept them nice.
