A former insane asylum with a reputation for treating its patients cruelly (especially black patients of which there were a disproportionate amount), this place is an obvious choice for claims of haunting. People claim to feel hot and cold spots, see items moving and hear ghostly sounds and footsteps. Due to trespassers and a fire that burned part of the first and second floors, it is now routinely patrolled by police so trespassing is not recommended.
If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!
Related Videos
Rate this Haunted Place
What do you think? Is this place really haunted? Voice your opinion here! Click "thumbs up" if you think its haunted, or "thumbs down" if you think its all just a tall tale.
Geographic Information
- Address:
- Off 5th Street
Northport, AL
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 33.22696981595659, -87.63001631349186
- County:
- Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
- Nearest Towns:
- Northport, AL (3.1 mi.)
Coker, AL (3.6 mi.)
Tuscaloosa, AL (3.7 mi.)
Riverview, AL (5.9 mi.)
Holt, AL (8.4 mi.)
Grimes, AL (14.4 mi.)
Moundville, AL (15.8 mi.)
Gordo, AL (17.0 mi.)
Coaling, AL (17.4 mi.)
Brookwood, AL (18.0 mi.)
Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other local regulations. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time.
Share Your Experiences
Comments (39)
Share Your Comments
Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
Hello. I am from Huntsville and me and some friends are trying to figure out how and who to contact about the Old Bryce Hospital. Please email me ASAP. Thank you!!
If you find out please let me know. I am looking for more places to check out. He is a link to my facebook if you wish to talk more.
https://www.facebook.com/joshua.davis.9480
Me n my kids went tonight. Still very active
This is not old Bryce Hospital. It was actually a nursing home. I have several friends who have experienced all sorts of crazy things there. Some offered to take me there, but I refuse….All the stories were very dark. It’s private property, so I don’t suggest visiting. There’s only one way in & out of the place & a security guard has been hired to keep trespassers away.
Not any more. There is no security there at all anymore. The place is run down but a very active paranormal spot.
OK – please clarify – is the larger complex – which has the marker on this article – the actual “Old Bryce’? or is it the smaller building slightly to the upper left of this large complex? (the front of the smaller building matches the photo shown on this post)
There is a nursing home on the property, but this is one of the old Bryce hospitals. Are two mental hospitals on the property one for kids other was for adults. Also is a small house! Went during the day and have also been at night. Absolutely no power to anything out here but during the day could hear the old hospital phone ringing as if it was still sitting on the nurses station desk. Crazy active place and have had things follow me home so haven’t been back since the last time. Had an awful smell of sulfur and on the voice recorder had so many voices talking that it sounded like we were surrounded by a crowd of people.
The “nursing home” was the S.D. Allen Intermediate Care Facility. It functioned like a nursing home for the elderly mentally ill Bryce patients. It opened in the 1970s and shut down in 2003.
The older creepy 3 story abandoned building near it was “Old Bryce”, really named the Jemison Center. It was built as an asylum in the late 1930s as a satellite campus for Bryce Hospital, to help relieve overcrowding (and also provide a location to segregate patients) and shut down in the 1970s. When it shut down, patients were consolidated over to Bryce Hospital. The Jemison Center got the nickname “Old Bryce” after it shut down and was abandoned, since it was no longer a “current Bryce”.
There is also a separate ruined furnace building there that was the old heating facility. The two coal burning furnaces provided heat for the main building. It was not an incinerator or crematorium, but people try to scare each other by claiming that. The furnaces heated water boilers, and the water was piped over to the main building for heat and hot water. Over at the University of Alabama, a similar system is still used to provide heat and hot water to many of the older buildings. The boilers and furnaces are behind BB Comer Hall, but have more recently been switched over to natural gas from coal and the old smokestack was torn down in 2010. (When I was a UA student, there was always a coal pile back there and folks would sometimes pick a lump or two up near Christmas to put in someone’s stocking as a joke.)
Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa beside the University of Alabama was built in 1859, opened in 1861. It was also known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and was the first asylum in Alabama. It operated there until I think 2011ish. The University of Alabama bought the property, took down the fences, and is restoring buildings and expanding the UA campus. Not far from Bryce was Partlow, a similar fenced compound, but for the mentally handicapped instead of the insane. It closed in 2011, the tall iron fences were removed, and the Bryce patients were moved over to a new facility on the old Partlow campus.
The building next to the old Bryce is the Jemison Center.
Me and brothers sisters and mom and dad went there around 7:30 and my mom was talking and the where just like answering her question and like I was scared and I heard alot of stuff soooo therefore I’m not going back and like they be playing a lot of music and its very creepy and soooo y’all won’t see me there anymore
Me and a friend of mine named Andrew went their not too long ago. About 2 minutes of walking the outside walls we stopped because of this eerie feeling. After a minute heard scuttling comming from the inside.
We heard scuffling I meant. My t9 done that
I’ve been there numerous times last year and didn’t see one cop, not saying that do or dnt patrol though there just saying we didn’t see them. on the experiences side we head a phone ring, I was coming down the stairs by te front door and my phone recorder and video camera died and I saw the tail of the the doctors coat go out the main door to the right and I ran after it and as soon I got out of the building everything came back on fully charged and in the other building by the operating room I had a camera set up on a tripod recording my motion light and my recorder and captured a evp on my recorder when the sensor went off. the evp was tip toe through the tulips by tiny Tim. look us up on facebook to see pics of it and other investigations. and be sure to like k&k paranormal society on facebook. thank you and have a blessed day
I go to school down here and for Halloween been wanting to go ghost hunting and I want to go if someone goes.
I have investigated this place back several years ago,had all kinds of activity going on.
My husband & I have been to a Bryce. I myself , once . He has gone numerous times though. It is very creepy – but it doesn’t make me feel in the least bit threatend or uncomfortable. We’re always down to have a little adventure! if anyone would like to take a chance and visit one day , we’d love to tag along!
I just went here tonight and there’s a whole other building that I thought was even creepier. The main building didn’t bother me too much. I felt a cold spot but it may or may not have been a breeze from outside. Most of the windows are broken. When I went to the other building, everything was fine until I got to a room with paint splattered all over the wall to look like blood. When my friend and I left the room we thought we heard something and decided to leave. As we were walking out, a door creaked so we left immediately. He said it was the wind, but there was no breeze in that part of the hospital. It also smelled like old people when we first walked in. Not old like dead, but similar to how it might smell if you walked into your grandmothers house a few days after she had cleaned. Its hard to describe.
Old Bryce is no longer owned by the city. Jemison is. No cops patrol here anymore. However, me and a friend are looking for another person to explore jemison and Old Bryce. I’ve requested permission to visit old Bryce in town, on uoa campus, the beginning of February. Please contact me if interested in tagging along.
Me and three others are going tonight
iight ill go lol
who did you request permission from?
My sister and I went there last year, and the place that creeped me out the most was the crematorium. I felt very uneasy there more than ANYWHERE else on the grounds. I wish I could say I experienced something, because that’s why I went, but I didn’t. It was still a really cool little trip though. I would like to add that we were there all day and never saw police, or any security guards. I am not saying they are never there but they sure weren’t that day!
so you never got permission?
That’s not a crematorium. That separate building with furnaces provided the heating for the whole place.
One time, last year I went there with my church and when we got there were a lot of lights on and the front doors were wide open and as we were getting out of our van a cop pulled up and we were forced to leave. I read that the electricity didn’t run in the building anymore. As we were pulling out the cop walked inside holding out his gun like he saw something in there. I would love to go agian but I don’t live in Alabama.
When I was in school at Alabama, I went there several times (2001-2003) before it had been completely vandalized. There were several areas that really creeped me out, but the worst feelings i had were in this one small pink room with a window at the very top of it. I’ll never forget how i felt in that room…..
you can get permission through proper channels to visit the grounds . As far as the other Bryce it’s now owned by UA and you won’t be able to go into those buildings since A) there’s construction going on with the main building renovations and B) there’s this whole liability thing . Pretty sure there has to be something at this location as well. But the original location near the airport in northport is said to be a hot spot .
Who do you talk to to get permission
THERE IS NO ONE TO GET PERMISSION FROM REGARDING JEMISON STATE. THE PROPERTY IS STILL OWNED BY THE STATE MENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT. THE UNIVERSITY OWNS BRYCE LAWN AND HAVE RAZED MOST OF THE BUILDINGS IN ITS RE-DEVELOPMENT PLANS. THE ONLY HAUNTINGS ASSOCIATED WITH EITHER BRYCE WOULD BE THE OLD BRYCE CEMETARY ON WARNER PARKWAY – YOU’LL PROBABLY HIT TRYING TO CROSS THE ROAD.
NEXT. — OLD JEMISON STATE WAS BUILT FOR BLACK PATIENTS AFTER A LAWSUIT WAS FILED. PRIOR TO THAT THEY USED TO HOUSE THESE PATIENTS IN THE LOFTS OF THE BARN AT BRYCE. JEMISON WAS A SELF-CONTAINED “STATE FARM” WHERE THE PATIENTS WORKED THE PROPERTY UNTIL THE NEXT LAWSUIT FORCED THE PRACTICE TO END. AT THAT TIME THE S.D. ALLEN FACILITY (NEXT DOOR) WAS OPENED FOR THE REMAINING PATIENTS. IT CLOSED ABOUT ’03 OR ’04.
I HAVE BEEN THERE SEVERAL TIMES, THE BASEMEN IS FLOODED, THE ROOF HAS CAVED IN FROM HE FIRE AND YES, IT IS EERIE, BUT I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY GHOSTS HAUNTINGS. THE AREA ITSELF IS JUST STRANGE, WITH THE OLD BLACKSMITH SHOP AND COTTON FIELDS. NO GOOD VANDALS HAVE TRASHED THE PLACE, SO THERE’S NOT MUCH TO SEE. THE RESIDENTS IN THE AREA WILL CALL THE POLICE IF THEY SEE YOUR CAR GOING INTO THE BRIDGE ONTO THE PROPERTY.
YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING SCARY JUST RIDE THE ELEVATOR AT GORGAS LIBRARY BY YOURSELF AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE 5TH FLOOR AND OPEN THE DOOR TO A HUGE CARVING OF AN INDIAN CHIEF IN THE DIM LIGHT. YOU’LL SWEAR THAT STATUE MOVES.
did u find out?
who do i contact to get permission?
My friend and I went here in l the late afternoon so it was still daylight. We were on the third floor and heard footsteps and a conversation of a man and women on the flourish floor above us, we stopped and listened and thought naturally it was a couple of crackheads, we quietly went upstairs and searched the entire floor and no one was up there
Yes, this is Bryce Hospital. The nursing home is in front on the left and very much intact. I have had several experiences, i was a co-founder of a local paranormal group, in Tuscaloosa. I was scratched on my face while standing back to back with another founder. Their was a wind come through at the same time, this scared me so bad, i sold all my equipment and quit on the spot.
The particular building shown is not Old Bryce but the Jemison building. There is another building that sits to the left and at night you would not even know its out there! Both buildings are extremely haunted and having investigated for over 8 years, with these 2 buildings being, still to this very day, the MOST haunted places I’ve ever done. The other building is known as S.D. Allen and it used to be a nursing home. It is extremely haunted! For the person who keeps asking about permission, as far as I know, there is no way. You take your chances and just go on out there. Police don’t roll through as often but finding somewhere to park your vehicle and getting in can be a pain.
me and my friends in the cremation room we had a app called EMF METER AND IT WENT OFF SHOWIN NOTHIN BUT RED AND IT SAID STOP WHEN WERE ASKIN QUESTIONS I THINK BY FAR THAT WAS THE SCARIEST PLACE I EVER BEEN TOO
It is physically impossible for there to ever be a working EMF meter app, it’s impossible, so the EMF part is fake so get a real EMF meter then go and check it out again
Last time I went we sat in one of the showers and I got really cold and it was ne and like 7 friends and we where sitting talking it was like 87 degrees out and right where I was sitting got at least 60 degrees and we left and we moved to the morge and things got thrown at us and we left to go to the car my right side started to hurt and we looked and I had 4 scratches on my side and we left and never went back
i think that this stuff is fake but when i was there was a chill in me back
My daughter and I went in broad daylight today. There were no “no trespassing” signs. There was a low, locked gate that prevents people from driving up to the asylum. Below knee height. It is VERY creepy. The main building is crumbling, the nursing home was highly vandalized. There was an area inside where I felt like I couldn’t breathe. We also heard a loud knocking, though we were the only ones there. My grown daughter had been there before. She’d had scratches on her leg that looked like fingernail marks. Be sure to see the separate furnace building behind the main building. It was cool. I personally wouldn’t go at night. Waaaay too much debris everywhere. You can now use Apple Maps to get to Jemison Center in Northport to find it. 10/10, very cool place.