West Hall safety chute

West Hall, built in 1915, was the second building built at Western Michigan Unversity. It was originally built as the Science Building, then used as a Health and Personnel Building before housing the Speech Pathology department until 2005. I'm not sure who (if any) the current occupants are.

I was a student in the 1990s when the Speech Pathology department was still there. However the building already appeared abandoned at the time. It looked to be in bad shape and was not fully occupied -- which was the case with most of East Campus.

My friends and I liked to explore this neglected part of campus on occasion. Unlike East Hall, which was often unlocked at night, West Hall was best entered by this rusty metal chute which I would later learn to be a former safety chute. Please leave me a comment if you know of any other existing chutes like this.

This is essentially a spiral slide inside of a tube. The inside was pitch black, except for occasional pin holes in the metal that looked like lightning bugs. Neither of my trips inside the chute were premeditated so there were no flashlights involved. we just decided to climb up by bracing ourselves against the walls and slowly climbing up. If you were lucky, the door on the second floor would be open, if not you had to try the third.

These photos were shot on a return trip to Kalamazoo in 2002.





Basement photos. Even while in use the building looked like an abandoned storage area.