Brook Run Hospital

The Brook Run Hospital located at the back of the park, was at one time a state of the art medical facility which served its residents.   The hospital area has been "fenced" off since it closed in 1997 but in reality it has been open to appalling vandalism & decay.  The fences which surround the back area are almost non existent.  Immediately to the South of the Brook Run Hospital is Portsbridge Hospice located on Barclay Rd & Peachford Hospital on Peachford Rd.  From these locations, cars can drive within 20 feet of the facility and have easy access to the Brook Run Hospital by crossing fences that were pushed over years ago.  The main gates & fences to the back area have so many holes that there truly is no reason for them to exist, in fact the person they keep out is the security guard who drives the open area every couple of hours.

Inside this huge three story facility everything is torn to shreds & graffiti is on every wall.  There are bullet holes in the walls & windows, wires hanging from ceilings, burned out furniture, broken fixtures & toilets, broken glass everywhere you step & yet these buildings are being visited on a regular basis by neighborhood teenagers, those curious as to Brook Run's supposedly haunted past, as well gangs up to no good and vagrants looking for a sheltered place to sleep. 

The buildings are known to contain asbestos yet on the day I visited, teenagers were hanging out here and a film crew of five college students were trying to capture the images of ghosts in this supposedly haunted house.  We also observed several pre-teen boys practicing their skateboard jumps on Brook Run's current skate park constructed underneath the overhang of a building.  Luckily it appears that kids exploring the "closed" section of the property & playing on their skateboards have not come across anyone who was looking for trouble whereby they might have gotten hurt.

The condition of Brook Run's hospital isn't a secret, it is a well know item on the internet as the links below show.

Top 10 Haunted Houses and Places in Atlanta

http://www.ghosthounds.com/ftopic-1874-.html

http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=3&threadid=26195

http://theshadowlands.net/places/georgia.htm

Photos of the inside of the Brook Run on the internet are not new either.  Check out below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunwoodynorth/sets/72157594570521840/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hipperspective/sets/72157594350353779/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mre770/sets/72157594479843609/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brookenovak/tags/brookrun/

There was even a movie shot by a Georgia Tech student in the abandoned buildings.

 Click the movie above.

Positive Steps

On January 23, 2007, representatives of the DNCA meet with the the DeKalb Parks, Citizen Advisory Board to discuss various matters regarding Brook Run, including the clear cutting of trees for the skate park, the lack of benches in the playground as well as the lack of security in the open area of the park.    Brook_Run_Park_CAB_01232007.pdf   The County has made some improvements since this request but they have a long way to go in adequately securing the facility, improving the fence lines & installing the proper number of benches in the playground.

On that same day (January 23, 2007), the DeKalb Board of Commissioners finally voted to have the hospital and several other buildings demolished within the next 180 days. 

Brook Run Hospital demo award.pdf

We hope that the County and the Dore Company who was awarded the contract to demolish the buildings, immediately secure the site & start demolition.  The Dunwoody North Civic Association has also inquired as to the specific details of the demolition & more importantly the proposed site restoration.   We look forward to the current site transformed into usable green space.

Request to DeKalb County for Documentation on Demolition & Park Benches

On March 12th, DeKalb County fulfilled our request for information regarding the Demolition of the Hospital & other structures at Brook Run.  They have provided us three documents totaling over 400 pages as identified below.
 
Environmental Study – Phase 1 and limited sampling & testing, Brook Run Facility.
 
http://www.dunwoodynorth.org/brookrun/hospital/Brook_Run_Environmental_P hase_1.pdf
 
Invitation to Bid, No. 06-1000027; Demolition of Designated Structures at Brook Run
 
http://www.dunwoodynorth.org/brookrun/hospital/Brook_Run_Demo_06-100027- ITB.pdf
 
Brook Run Pre-Demolition Assessment – September 2006  (Large File, 28 MB)
 
http://www.dunwoodynorth.org/brookrun/hospital/Brook_Run_Final_Environme ntal_Assessment.pdf