17 Comments Posted by Doug

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and on it goes.
Anyway: Love having found this site, great kudos to our host and master artist, explorer Mott. Thank You!!
Ephemera: Cornell's Hydraulic Lab
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So that is my hometown. I went in there a few years ago to explore, after years away, before collapse. Took a lot of photos to document, but shamed to say they are themselves lost, abandoned on an old cellphone I would guess. It was certainly "unsafe", but totally do-able from the creekbed. (Above commenter, that is Triphammer Falls Ithaca, not Rochester).
To the commenter referencing Frankenstein, that was completely the vibe. The stonework and old woodwork, the verticality, you felt as if you were in the ruins of Dr. Frankenstein's dungeon laboratory.
It was obvious (to my mind anyway) that a (very) ambitious project of renovation could have produced one of the coolest places on earth. I envisioned a multi-tiered cafe/restaurant space. Could've been structurally accomplished with enough money, perserverence, and cooperation from the university. Oh well. A shame.
To other commenter: there are two steep gorges that run through the campus, with multiple bridges spanning them. Students did indeed jump to their deaths onto the shallow creekbeds below, from a few different bridges. The town and university have debated over the years on erecting suicide barriers on the bridges, I believe that has been done on this bridge. The resultant ruining of spectacular views has been the main point of contention. Students at Cornell were in general under a lot of academic pressure. Personally I think our perennially gray skies and long winters played a role as well.
There have also been many tragic swimming and cliff- jumping accidents and deaths over the years, frequently city-kid students not used to the terrain and hydro-dynamics, but also local kids too.
For the paranormally inclined: my father knew a Native American shaman, who with his son would "cleanse" the gorges, walking bottom to top clearing spirits. My own good friend, a very prolific gorge explorer, once claimed to have met a "devil-god" living down there in one of those gorges (on LSD at the time, but hey..). On top of the modern-time deaths we know about, there were also massacres of Natives in early white settlement times, including an entire village of men women and children that was situated at the base of a different gorge (now a state park). So spirits quite possible. The gorges are indeed treacherous, especially in winter ice conditions, with steep crumbly shale on all sides. Beautiful trails exist, sections crumble, the trails are "Closed punishable by law," swimming is outlawed,
Ephemera: Cornell's Hydraulic Lab
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I love the contrast between the peeling paint, and the clean lamp shade!
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The blue light is thought to keep a mental patient calm. we use them in the back of ambulances. If you ever see the back of an ambulance glowing blue, there is a mental patient inside. Usually transporting a suicidal patient.
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This is part of a burbine blade. Steam hit it and then powers the shaft that turns the generator to make electricity.
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These are the boilers. Coal plants have boilers that make the heat that makes the steam through the boiler tubes running through the boiler box to power the steam turbines to turn the generator to make electricity.
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I worked at a Nuclear Power Station for 12 years. All power plants are wired up both to the grid to feed power and also wired up separately to receive power when not on line (operating). Now you know folks.
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I snuck into this place 5 years ago, and have some rather terrifying stories, along with a police interuption...
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This dead bosy someone mentioned, I've heard about it too,
this link to be precise;

http://www.abandoned-p...s.com/cheratte02.htm

and scroll to bottom
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This is a cool picture(:
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What is amazing is that no one has been there with a Paint Spray Can, or was it to for out for the vandals
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My friends and I went in through a basement window back in 1997. The first four floors were hallways and rotted hospital beds, IV stands, etc... There was one staircase at one end of each hall, so we had to cross each hall to go up one flight at a time. After the fourth floor there was a staircase that went all the way up to the 17th floor. There was a door open to each floor and it was pitch black and scary as hell, but we just ran straight up. At the 17th floor it was all attic for the next four floors, with alternating single staircases, so we had to cross these floors too. It was 3 foot wise planks and on either side were pipes lined with thousands of pigeons. There were literally foot high piles of pigeon crap. We finally got to the ledge you see at the center of the building, just below the roof. We went out on this ledge, and the floor was thick glass. It was pretty cool. Anyway, we smoked a blunt up there, and ran our asses back downstairs and outta there ASA F'n P.
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Its so they could just wheel the person on
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Michele...wise ass punks? Goths? DAMN YOU. Open your goddamn eyes. This place needs to be opened as a historical site. Those bastards at Avalon Bay Communities are trying to buy it out, to build condos and aptmts in the EXISTING BUILDINGS. Talk about haunted. They even offered to give discounted places to the mentally challenged in the community. So, here are your three choices:
1) Stays as is. Those thrill seekers go bustin through your yard, in an attempt to visit the most haunted place in America.
2) Avalon Bay Comm. buys it all, creates living spaces haunted not only by the lunatics that were trapped there but also the salem witches, that they won't even get any residents due to the spook factor!
3) Davers Preservation Fund Inc. gets what is needed to restore the grounds and open the hospital to the public. So much history has yet to be unveiled there and so many things are yet to be discovered. I, for one, would love to go visit. AND if this goes through, you won't have to worry about your precious lawn getting, god forbid, walked on by "goths."

As far as an update, Danvers Preservation Inc. has achieved a temporary hold on the sale of the premises as of 10/20/05. Check it out for yourself. http://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com
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It's a Wolf Range Model CH-6-29 with a stainless steel stub back, fairly new. Missing 1 red burner knob Part # 19255. I used to work for wolf, could ya tell ?