That Creepy Old Building Off the 180 on the Corner of Fulton and...Hell?

 by The Editor

You've driven by it thousands of times. Some of you maybe were even born there. Today, The Good, The Bad, and The Fresno brings you the mystery of the Sample Sanitarium and we'll finally reveal why they never finished renovating it.


The Sample Sanitarium was founded by a Fresno doctor named Thomas Nelson Sample in 1912. He was a great guy. Take this story I found in his obituary.

"Every year on circus day the Indians from [the mountain areas] would come to Fresno in droves. Of course," Of course! "by the time the circus would be open, they would be broke and they'd wind up in Dr. Sample's office. He would give them the money for their admission to the main show and all the side shows, joking them all the time about leaving their money buried in the hillside."

What a great joke!

So anyways, after this racist doctor sold the place in 1946, it became known as the Sequoia Hospital. And then at some point it was known as the Riviera Building.

Photograph stolen from Andrew Ranta

And that's all I could find out about it.

Except that we all know many years ago they started renovating it. They gutted it, put new windows in, and even placed some nice big pots outside the front door.

But then they stopped.

First, a little bit of time passed.

And then a little more.

And then a lot.

And now we're left with the greatest mystery of our time.

Why won't they finish renovating the Sample Sanitarium?

Is it ghosts?

Yes, it's definitely ghosts.

There you go, Fresno. Mystery solved. 

Until next time, I'm The Editor. Goodnight.