2 Comments Posted by doreen

Thank you! Fab photos! I felt like I was being drawn in and the building was speaking to me.

graduated class of 74- lived in the dorms -with all the patients walking around-lots had freedom to roam the grounds-went through a "hazing" for new nursing students that included being blindfolded and taken down into the tunnels and left to find our way out in the dark-no map-brought us to the morgue -where we had to put our hands into icky things( later found out the "eyeballs " were canned grapes and the "intestines" were some kind of pasta in oil)and put pillow cases over our heads...it was scarey at first but once you knew the layout and the rules it was just school. we were given HUGE keys to the wards-they weighed about 10 oz a piece and could go on any floor in almost any building-worked weekends and summers in Bldg 23 all through nursing school - each ward used to get a huge can of floor wax to polish the floors before thanksgiving and CHristmas because that's when most visitors would come-I loved the pts -and they loved the students because we gave really great care to them- they were amazing-there was guy who worked in the kitchen who had been born there -his mom was a pt but he never knew who she was-sad -you have to remember that psychotropic drugs were just starting to be used and before that there was little they could do for the mentally ill except put them away from other people and try to protect them from their own demons.the really tormented ones would stand at the bars in the solariums and scream - i don't doubt that those voices can still be heard. i have a brick from Pilgrim that a my brother in law got for me when they started tearing the buildings down- i will always remember all the buildings and all the pts but it's not a bad thing that it is closed.