Creepy new photos offer a glimpse inside the abandoned Lunatic Asylum in South Carolina, which was one of the first psychiatric wards in America

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Haunting photos give an inside peek at the crumbing 190-year-old remains of one of the first lunatic asylums established in the United States. 

The chilling tales of experiments and patients of the past seem to echo in the creaky halls of the South Carolina State Hospital with its wallpaper ripped, floor boards broken, and random bits of furniture strewn about. 

The hospital was founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum - one of the first public mental heath institutions in the country. In 1896 the hospital changed its name to the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane.

With an extensive and creepy history, the remnants of the once bustling hospital offers a spooky look at what once was. 

Urban explorer Abandoned Southeast ventured in to the historic South Carolina State Hospital, an abandoned national landmark that was founded in 1821

The corridors inside the ancient 190-year-old building reveal doors that are still open and the cracked paint on the walls

Patient beds were abandoned in severely decaying rooms that once housed over 1,000 mental patients over the years

A dusty piano with displaced and scattered keys, creepy rocking chair, and a sprawling white corridor with doors still flung open are just some of the items left behind in the ancient building. 

Urban explorer Abandoned Southeast ventured in to the old building to snap photos of its decaying state. 

'After reading about the asylum online, I decided I wanted to visit and see it in person,' he said.  

'This is an abandoned state hospital that predates the Civil War, I love the historic aspect as well as the architecture in these old asylums,' he added. 

But his exploration was no easy feat as he had to watch every step to avoid broken floorboards and rotten wood. 

The hospital was founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum and was one of the first public mental heath institutions in the country

Random bits of dusty furniture still remain in the creepy building including this dismantled wooden piano 

A single rocking chair missing half its side is a haunting image from inside the mental hospital dubbed the 'Lunatic Asylum'

Windows are broken, grass and vegetation overgrown, and some walls covered in graffiti in the abandoned building 

A view of the staircases reveal how many floors the massive hospital had before it was emptied out in the 1990s

'There were no real issues whilst shooting other than watching where you step. The wooden floors were extremely rotten in some areas,' he said. 

The hospital has a long history and was once one of the most esteemed for mental health care in the nation. 

During the American Civil War the hospital in Columbia, South Carolina housed traumatized veterans from 1861 to 1865. 

Broken windows reveal a view at the Columbia, South Carolina scenery from the crumbling hospital 

Vandals have managed to break into t he building that's severely decaying with loose floorboards and rotten wood

This bench overgrown with weeds is where patients would have sat outside to enjoy the fresh air during their stay 

'This is an abandoned state hospital that predates the Civil War, I love the historic aspect as well as the architecture in these old asylums,' urban explorer Abandoned Southeast said

An aerial view shows a glimpse of how massive the South Carolina State Hospital campus was until it was left to rot in the 90s

Now a fence surrounds the national landmark warning trespassers to stay away from the creepy building 

By 1870 there were so many patients that the hospital was more of a dormitory for the mentally ill rather than a place to treat them and by 1900 had more than 1,000 patients in its doors. 

As medicine, science, and facilities for mental illness patients expanded, the hospital beds were quickly emptied out.  

The discovery of phenothiazine in the 1950s allowed many patients to roam freely and the launch of social welfare programmes in the sixties saw patients relocated to community based mental health centres. 

By the 1990s, the wards were slowly being closed as patients were discharged to homes or placed in local care facilities.