Central State Hospital opened in 1836 as the “State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum” in Milledgeville, located two hours southeast of Atlanta. Central State developed a notorious reputation, and has sat mostly abandoned for decades. Tours are available through the Milledgeville Visitor Center and held two days per month.

Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896, and at the time of its closing in 2008, it was the oldest operating prison in Tennessee. Brushy reopened as a tourist destination in 2018 and while it has its fair share of macabre tales, visitors will find an entirely different kind of spirit here: The Brushy Mountain Distillery produces 10 unique flavors of moonshine and offers tastings to the public.

From 1858 to 2002, the huge complex in Joliet, Illinois—with its 24 buildings and surrounding 25-foot-tall limestone wall—housed thousands of prisoners. Today, guided tours provide a glimpse into the prison’s complicated history. There's something here for everyone, including history buffs, film enthusiasts, and fans of the paranormal.

Half a century ago, Cook County Hospital was treating more than 100,000 patients each year. Its emergency room was one of the busiest in the world and its operating rooms were among the first to try risky, innovative surgical techniques. Today, visitors to Chicago can check into the sprawling old Cook County Hospital thanks to a massive rehabilitation and redevelopment that has transformed the 1914 Beaux-Arts building.

The Ohio State Reformatory, located in Mansfield, Ohio, opened in 1896 and housed more than 155,000 inmates during its nearly hundred years in operation. In 1993, just three years after it closed, the prison welcomed inmates once again—fictional residents that populate the big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The prison reopened as a museum in 1995.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, was designed by architect Richard Andrews following the Kirkbride plan and constructed between 1858 and 1881. The largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America, opened to patients in 1864. Reaching a peak of 2,400 patients in the 1950s, the facility closed in 1994, and is now open for history and ghost tours.

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, once home to the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, comprises 13 buildings: Three have been repurposed into a luxury hotel and the remaining 10 are still in a state of suspended ruin, abandoned since 1974. Public tours take visitors through two of the vacant buildings and into a renovated corridor of Hotel Henry.

Eastern State Penitentiary is a former prison, operational from 1829 until 1971. The prison was one of the first examples of what would become known as the "Pennsylvania System" of incarceration, a system that encouraged separate confinement of prisoners. Now open as a museum, visitors can take self-guided or guided tours.

The Burlington County Prison, located in Mount Holly, New Jersey, was designed not only to minimize escapes, but also to serve as a space to reform inmates “through religious instruction, education, and vocational training.” Operating from 1811 until 1965, the Burlington County Prison was the oldest continuously-used prison in the U.S. at the time it closed and it reopened as a museum in 1966.

The Northern Michigan Asylum, later called the Traverse City State Hospital, opened in 1885, six decades before psychiatric drugs were first used. It provided mental healthcare for 104 years before it closed in 1989. Over the last two decades, the former hospital has been restored and transformed into luxury apartments, restaurants, and shops.