3,698 Comments Posted by Motts

Tiberivs, I'm not sure... it seems like it was a pretty standard practice to have a patient cemetery for the state hospital until the bodies were put to use as cadavers for medical students or buried in ordinary cemeteries.

It could be a law situation though... albeit far away from this hospital, this excerpt from Salem Online History shows that it was state law:

In this year [1913] also a crematory was put into use on the hospital grounds and all burials in the Asylum Cemetery were disinterred and cremated. Following the enactment of S. B. 109, deaths at "any eleemosynary, penal, or corrective institution of the State of Oregon located at or near to the city of Salem," if unclaimed by a friend or relatives, would be subject to cremation. Their ashes now rest in the Memorial Circle on the western limits of the hospital grounds, "In Memory of Those Who Have Passed Away at the Oregon State Hospital."

Also chck out the very interesting Oregon State Hospital Patient Memorial, as forgotten canisters were re-discovered after sitting in an abandoned building for many years.

I remember this one http://www.opacity.us/image3983_pink.htm

Rooms in unused buildings are often taken advantage of for storage space, where a hasp might come in handy.

I suppose when a building closes, they do a sweep through to make sure nothing important was left behind... easier to do when the doors are open.

I've only seen doors in major passageways (main corridors, fire escapes, and stairwells) lock automatically.

I don't know exactly how many, but there were definitely a few hundred.

No, I wouldn't want it to fall apart... I have sat in similar chairs (waiting for various reasons), they're quite comfortable even without any padding.

Old psychiatric hospitals used to keep the patient's anonymity after burial, so to identify them a number was used instead of a name on the headstone.

It was a hospital for tuberculosis stricken children, later converted to geriatric care.

They were already there.

Sometimes they are used to store organs, limbs, and tissue samples when all the trays are not needed. They also have gurneys with a "jack" that is used to raise the body to the proper height for loading and unloading.

No, it was a large building built in the Kirkbride era, but was not laid out in such a fashion.

For the blood and fluids to drain.

Thanks for the info Bob, I'm not sure if any projection gear was left in the booth, as I didn't get a chance to get up the ladder. I vaguely remember a film reel laying around but that's about it.

I believe it leads to the projection room above the mezzanine.

Yes they are wash basins, they stand about 3-4 ft. off the floor.

I don think any buildings have been demolished since the 80s...