Bidding war erupts over creepy asylum abandoned for 46 years
By
Social Links for
Jordi Lippe-McGraw
Published
Aug. 16, 2019, 2:29 p.m. ET
Crazy but true: There’s a bidding war to buy an abandoned asylum in upstate New York that is decrepit and potentially haunted.
Saratoga County Homestead, a former tuberculosis hospital full of asbestos that hasn’t been touched since 1973, is up for auction on with Auctions International.
The highest bid for the dilapidated property in Providence, NY — about 45 miles northeast of Albany — was $40,100 at press time.
That’s a pretty steep jump from the opening bid, on July 24, of just $25, but increased bids are coming in daily. The auction ends at noon on Aug. 28.
And though photos from inside the asylum show stripped, graffiti-filled walls, broken fixtures, a caved-in roof and plant overgrowth, the isolated property is valued at $224,194.
The winning bidder will get a 31,000-square-foot building — with rumored resident ghosts — that boasts large columns at the entrance, plus the former caretaker’s home, both on sprawling grounds over 28 acres. A video by Auctions International shows an aerial view of the rundown main building.
This creepy place — which its Instagram geotag reveals is a favorite spot for intrepid explorers and paranormal hunters — has potential buyers chomping at the bit.
Users with the handles Mr. Dirt and 24stoneman have been consistently one-upping each other with their offers — in increments that range from $100 to $1,000 — since Aug. 1. On Aug. 15, a back-and-forth between users Albertlaw34 and Cbrew1 bumped the highest bid up $7,500 to its current total.
The current structure dates back to 1936, according to the Times Union, built to treat consumption as “a 100-bed brick sanatorium adorned with decorative moldings, marble columns in an expansive foyer, and large windows to circulate the mountain air that was thought essential to restoring patients’ health and well-being.”
Interested parties are betting that any hazardous materials have been mostly removed. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleaned up the property in 2015, spending $1.69 million to remove asbestos and dangerous chemicals.
“There have always been great aspirations for this site,” Kevin Tollisen, chairman of Saratoga County’s board of supervisors, said in a statement. “The hurdles of the past have just made it difficult to put them into play. Thanks to the cooperation between the county and the EPA, we can now look to the future.”
That future remains a little hazy as the town of Providence, not the county, determines what’s allowed to happen with the defaced property once it is bought. It could be turned into condos or apartments.
For now, area officials are just excited to see such robust interest in the crumbling site. County Attorney Stephen Dorsey said if the bidding war continues, the window for bids could be extended past Aug. 28.
“It depends on where we are at,” Dorsey told the Times Union. “We might consider [extending the auction]. We have the option if we feel it is appropriate.”