Back then, the tall Romanesque spires of the bat-shaped building housed close to 600 patients. Pinterest. 2 eniugcm 9 yr. ago Yea, I knew they were all condos now. [2], The entire campus was closed on June 24, 1992 and all patients were either transferred to the community or to other facilities.[3]. No props required for filming apparently. The lack of funding continued. Even if they weren't, it's still heavily populated at this point. Danvers State Mental Hospital was built by prominent architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee from Boston, in an extremely rural, out-of-the-way location called Hathorne Hill. By the 1930s, the hospital started to suffer from severe overcrowding and a lack of funding. Under the plan, the remaining patients at Danvers State Hospital were to be moved to Tewksbury Hospital, which had about 200 empty beds. But as the team members start working in the abandoned facility, they find themselves unearthing the locations dark past. In 1992, the facility shut down for good. Although the ones who started the hospital were well-intentioned, the hospital later reportedly became a very hostile ground for the mentally ill where several inhumaneshock therapies,lobotomies, and drugs were being used on patients just to keep its population under control. The design, based on the Kirkbride plan, totaled 313,000 square feet in size and 1,100 feet in length and was nicknamed the castle on the hill by locals. Located in Danvers and first opened in 1878, the Danvers Lunatic Asylum (as it was also called) was an isolated and almost totally self-sufficient hospital. Demolition was done by Testa Corp. of Wakefield, Massachusetts. This was a REALLY awesome explore though! American Historical Society, Inc, 1919Citro, Joseph A. Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to Americas Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Rebecca is a freelance journalist and history lover who got her start in journalism working for small-town newspapers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire after she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.A. A total of 278 people died at the hospital that year. My husband recalls his grandmother being in a place called Hickstory ( spelling may be off) they lived in Andover/Lawrence area. i believe my grandmother was sent there from saugas hospital. The hospital closed down in 1976 and the administrative building in the center of the complex burned in 2006 and was torn down. After further investigation, the family pursued a lawsuit against the state for mistreatment towards their daughter. He Won The Noble Peace Prize, But The Nazis Wouldn't Let Him Accept It, Theo Van Gogh's Film On Islam Was So Controversial, He Was Killed Over It, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Lovecraft's novel, Arkham Sanitarium , and Batman's Arkham . Entire wards were closed down one by one and patients were shipped off to other facilities when the Department of Mental Health began the process of deinstitutionalizing its state hospitals. Visitors to Danvers State Hospital in the early 1940s reported lobotomy patients wandering aimlessly through the halls of the hospital. William DeLong is a freelance wordsmith. Patients unable to bathe themselves would be left in their own fecal matter for days on end. Lovecraft used Danvers as the inspiration for his Arkham Sanitarium. If you wanted to find ghosts, this would be the place. The facilities slated for closure were: Danvers State Hospital, Northampton State Hospital, Metropolitan State Hospital, Paul A. Dever State School, John T. Berry School, Foxborough campus of Wrentham State School, Cushing Hospital, Lakeville Hospital and Rutland Heights Hospital. 2016, telegram.com/news/20160624/westboro-state-hospital-has-long-history-but-many-are-looking-toward-futureHammel, Lee. Watson s was @ the foot of the hill where Danvers State Hospital sat. In 2009, construction began on a new hospital on the site, Worcester Recovery Center & Hospital, which was completed in 2012. Touch device users, explore by touch . and even the labyrinth of underground tunnels connecting the several buildings. that various inhumane shock therapies, lobotomies, drugs, and straitjackets were being used to keep the crowded hospital under control. in journalism. However, back in the day, when Session 9 first premiered, several locals from Danvers visited the location and posted pictures of it on social media. It was built on the grounds of the State Reform School for Boys and the existing buildings were re-purposed for the hospital, which opened in 1886. 12, issue 1, 23 Sept. 1996, scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1461&context=nejppStart Probe of Bay States Insane Asylums. The Telegraph, 1 Feb. 1938, news.google.com/newspapers?id=9whAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qaQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2608%2C4303579Richard, Ray. Despite Slow Economy, Danvers State Project Forges Ahead. Boston.com, Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC,10 June. People can tour the decrepit building and grounds. Richard Trask of the Danvers Archival Center wrote, concerning the state's failure to preserve the Kirkbride complex, noting: The failure to protect and adaptively reuse this grand exterior is a monumental blot in the annals of Massachusetts preservation. Perhaps that dark history cursed the building that currently sits on Hathorne Hill. Two friends and I just randomly decided to check out a patch of woods in Danvers where I heard the infamous \"Danvers State Mental Hospital tunnels\" were located, we didn't expect to ACTUALLY find an open tunnel at all! With its peaked towers, labyrinthine corridors, and network of underground tunnels, the abandoned hospital was as creepy as a movie set. My grandmother Charlotte McIntyre worked and lived at the Colony which was one of the nursing homes that was separate. The Metropolitan State Hospital was built in 1927 and opened in 1930. Pennhurst State School and Hospital finally shut down in 1987. A few of the original buildings still remain standing and are unused, such as the former hospital auditorium. It was designed by a Boston architect named Nathaniel Bradlee, who was responsible for the famous Jordan Marsh store in Boston as well as Boston's Downtown Crossing. My grandfather apparently went to it maybe during the 40s? So this video was VERY spur-of-the-moment. Danvers State Hospital was one of many hospitals built in Massachusetts during the industrial revolution. The only thing that remains of the asylums past is the graveyard on the grounds. At a cost of $1.5 million at the time, the hospital originally consisted of two main center buildings, housing the administration, with four radiating wings on each side of the Administration Block. Explore. The Danvers State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, and The Danvers State Insane Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts. Rand, Avery & Co. Former Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, Mass, in 2013. 84002436 Added to NRHP January 26, 1984 The damage from the fire was estimated to be $60,000. Most of all, i did like the main enter of the place, it look like a manion from a movie or something, that was the only beautiful part of it. It was built in 1874, and opened in 1878, under the supervision of prominent Boston architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts. This asylum is famous for inspiring H.P. . Then there was a time, when they had an open house christmas party for the staff and patients and but that didnt set right with me or my younger sister on going to this, but was picking up my mom at that time. It consisted of a main center building, which housed the administration offices, with four wings radiating off both sides of the structure that allowed each ward adequate ventilation and views of the surrounding land. The main hospital building was shuttered in 1989 and the remaining patients were transferred to the Bonner Medical Building until the entire facility was closed down in 1992. The following year, a state study determined that the building although impressive, is neither appropriate for or capable of cost-effective rehabilitation for modern hospital standards,. We just went to see if it were true, and there it was! Her parents noticed that she had bruises on her arms. The property also had an administration building, medical-surgical facility, staff housing, morgue and a power plant. However, the buildings dark past make it one of the creepiest monuments to insane asylums in the world. I remember driving up Route 1 in the summer when I was a kid, with my dad., in the 1960s, to go to WatsonS Farm to get fresh corn. Plans for the other sections of the property include a golf course or open green space. Kirkbride goes on to say that such hospitals require at least 100 acres of land necessary for farming and gardening as well as for privacy, exercise, labor and occupation for the patients which are now recognized as among the most valuable means of treatment (Kirkbride 7). that was a grim place, but it had porches just like the foxborough hospital. But whatever you call them, most people associate these places with creepiness and fear. Middleton Pond supplied the hospital its water. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. im wondering if you have photographs of any of the closed state mental hospital. sold the property for $108.5 M to the DSF Group. An explosion took the lives of an additional 13 miners here, which brought the death toll up to its now 250 lives lost. Nurses would pull and drag patients by their hair. Danvers State Hospital Kirkbride Complex circa 1893 The Taunton State Hospital was an abandoned mental hospital in Taunton, Mass that has since been partially demolished. "Four-alarm fire ravages former state mental hospital," Boston Globe, 7 April 2007. In 1909, it was renamed the Tewksbury State Infirmary. The Danvers State Hospital had been a mysterious place for many years, even after its demolition in 2006. Exploring one of the Danvers MA tunnels. In 1926, an additional 500 beds were added to the hospital and another 648 beds were added the following year, despite reports of overcrowding at the hospital. At its peak, the facility had 40 buildings and maxed out at 450 patients. . In the 1890s, Dr. Charles Page, the superintendent, declared mechanical restraint unnecessary and harmful in cases of mental illness. ALSO, I realize we are totally wrong about what this tunnel was used for. In 1954, Dr. Clarence Bonner retired as superintendent. The administration building, which is located in Waltham, remains abandoned. on Abandoned Mental Hospitals in Massachusetts, Abandoned Mental Hospitals in Massachusetts, View all posts by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl. Patients who received dental care there, were having their teeth pulled out without novocaine. Most of the buildings on campus were connected by a confusing labyrinth of underground tunnels. The Danvers State Hospitals tainted history has found its way into several pop-culture mediums such as movies, video games, comic books, and Lovecraftian novels. The Danvers State Hospital (also known as The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, The Danvers State Insane Asylum, and the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers) is located in Danvers, Massachusetts. In 2014, Avalon Bay sold the building for $108.5 million dollars to the DSF Group which then changed its name to Halstead Danvers and more recently changed its name again to Bradlee Danvers. The report also states the daily population of the hospital in 1939 was 2,360, an increase from the previous year, and the number of patients who died in the hospital that year totaled 278. One of a new kind of "compassionate care" facilities that viewed mental instability as a . The building sits on Hathorne Hill, where the judge leading the Salem Witch Trials, John Hathorne, once lived a few hundred years ago. I realize it's choppy, and doesn't have the best lighting and it's not as organized as my other videos. Sorry. I have many record stories from my grandfather and from her letters. I dont know anyone could not just live there but work there as well. Yesterdays Grim Asylums, Tomorrows Grand Apartments. Wall Street Journal, 27 July. By the late 1930s and 1940s, over 2,000 patients were being housed, and overcrowding was severe. Watch. Westborough State Hospital was an abandoned state hospital that has since been demolished. Patients were sleeping on the floors due to the lack of furniture. In 2005, the hospital was purchased by Avalon Bay Development for $12 million with the plan to turn it into an apartment building. Patients walked through hallways naked. The facility was in Laurel, Maryland and operated by the District of Columbia. Danvers State Hospital was originally called the State Lunatic Asylum at Danvers (a cheerful name, for sure). Plus, as I mentioned in a previous comment, a lot of the records were left behind when the building was closed and some of them were stolen. My Uncle Ted died in the hospital as well. Hi Ingrid, That would be Dr. Francis X. Sullivan, my grandfather. The hospital is now a condo complex, but these tunnels are about a mile away. 5 members in the Danversstatehospital community. Where should I start? We were just so shocked we were inside the tunnel that I didn't really think much about the video while I was recording. Part of Grafton State Hospital site to go up for sale, The Grafton News, 7 Feb. 2019, telegram.com/news/20190207/part-of-former-grafton-state-hospital-site-to-go-up-for-sale1935 Chap. Similarly, Hank (Josh Lucas) uncovers a treasure trove of . The movies complex storyline unfolds itself in the claustrophobic surroundings of an old insane asylum where a team of asbestos cleaners is hired to disinfect its contaminated premise. The remaining two wards and the center building were gutted, leaving only the buildings facade. The graveyard on the grounds was the only place that kept up with the demand of the increase in patients. It looked like a building out of a horror movie. We grew up in Lynnfield, knew that it was the asylum, never put together that Hathorne (State School) was related to a witch trial judge. The Danvers State Hospital remained abandoned for 13 years as it continued to fall into disrepair. The Tewksbury State Hospital was a state hospital that has since been re-purposed into a medical hospital. These five mental institutions live up to the name of creepiness and horror. At the present it has turned into a haunted house attraction. Danvers State Hospital, has a very dark past of its own. Did they lose money or show positive cash flow?
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