Trespassing at Hamilton's decaying 'Asylum for the Insane' is out of control

Andrew Cross searched for tunnels, ducked under drooping plaster and chuckled at the ritual-like" graffiti scrawled on mouldy walls during his first clandestine visit to Century Manor.

But it was the ease of access - not the satanic redecorating - that really stuck out for the rookie urban explorer, who posted a video online last month of his urbex" adventure inside the decaying former asylum wing that dates back to 1884.

I was very surprised," said Cross, an out-of-towner who drove to the Mountain Brow expecting to be locked out of a provincially owned heritage building. The plywood was right off (a first-floor) window. You could just jump right in."

Century Manor, the last remaining part of the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane, closed to the public in 1995 - but it is becoming one of the busiest trespass tourism destinations in southern Ontario.

Cross' video is just one of several trespassing tours into the Victorian Gothic manor posted online by urbexers," members of a growing subculture devoted to exploring abandoned, sometimes dangerous and usually off-limits spaces.

West Mountain residents or visitors to nearby St. Joseph's Healthcare campus report trespassing or vandalism at the manor to the ward councillor at least once a week.

It's kind of a must-see destination because it's so creepy looking on the outside," said veteran urban explorer Dave, who doesn't share his last name for legal reasons but posts his photos on popular urbex website Freaktography. I've seen kids literally chipping away for hours at a board on a window to get inside."

That's a frustrating irony for heritage advocates who have long fought to save and restore the historic building - for legal visitors - but fear the mansion will be demolished over liability concerns, or accidentally in a fire.

They're calling on the province to protect the crumbling manor before it's too late.

Infrastructure Ontario already keeps windows boarded up and doors bolted shut, spokesperson Alanna Myles said by email. Repairs are made to the Century Manor building as required to maintain and protect the facility," she said. (The Spectator watched a repair crew replace smashed plywood on one window Tuesday.)

That's no longer enough, argued heritage advocate Leanne Pluthero.

A horror movie exterior - the gothic asylum wing shows up in the 2007 werewolf flick Skinwalkers" - combined with the ghoulish graffiti inside has always made Century Manor a draw near Halloween, she said.

But there were seven carloads of people there (on the weekend). Someone tried to burn through the plywood on a window ... It's kind of out of control now," said Pluthero, who has launched a Save Century Manor petition. Neighbours call police, she said, but trespassing in an abandoned building is not priority one" for enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has become a literal tourist attraction. I talked to someone who was trying to break in the other day who came in from Windsor."

Ward Coun. John-Paul Danko said he began hearing more trespassing complaints at Century Manor after the Progressive Conservative government reneged on a deal to sell the brow property to Mohawk College - which had planned to restore the building - and later rezoned the land to allow residential development.

That spurred fears among heritage fans - and urban explorers - that demolition loomed. Myles said the province is still studying future potential uses" for the land and building. (Mohawk College said this week it is still interested in expanding onto the property.)

Danko said he'd still like to see the original deal to save the manor go through. But for now, he wants the province to increase security at the mansion, including adding cameras. Council approved his motion Wednesday to reach out to the provincial facility manager about those safety concerns.

We want to avoid that worst-case scenario of a fire or other damage that would make demolition inevitable," he said. Public safety is also a worry in a decaying building full of mould, asbestos and visibly peeling lead paint.

Dave from Freaktography agreed the building could be dangerous to the unwary visitor. He wore a protective N95 mask into the mansion on his last foray in December 2019 because of concerns about mould.

But on the upside, he suspects the pentagrams and the word murder" scrawled backwards in red on the walls are more likely to be an effort to scare kids at Halloween than evidence of a Mountain-based satanic cult.

His advice to other urban explorers?

Don't bother. It's completely empty and boring inside now," he said, noting thieves have stripped the interior of historical artifacts, equipment and even wiring. It's beautiful on the outside. But it's not worth the effort that people put in to actually get inside."

Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com