Comments

Pixar! Surprised no one else thought of it when looking at this..

I may believe that a tornado just past there ..XD HAHA

That is the way it was back then, make it bigger than it needed to be, more mass= more stability, plus the fact that casting large pieces was cheaper than today......

it similar to a jail.. I do not like it !
I prefer the hopital mental today's Generation.. It seem more like hospital than the hopistal in the past .. OMG !!

You find some of the coolest stuff in the basements, Motts. I wouldn't have the stones to go down there so I'm grateful for your fascinating photography.

You should have took a picture of the skyline! Great shot though!

you bet -a fence is a dare to some of us- like putting out a Chihuahua to guard the White House ???? how hysterical -one dreaded mess to attract attenton to another one- don't see the old Girl coming down on SCHEDULED date either and how will the people in the Commons love that monstrosity in their view - I'll be stayng near the CT. border don't think any contamination would reach there ????? alI can say is
" whistle while they work" - good work reporting Ratchet Man - will be there in 48 days - Stax V8 now your turn to comment ----

I just left a place being criminalized.



Karen J. dawe

Being criminalized.



Karen J. dawe

Bonnie:

Behavioral modification is not for the weak and weary, more of the same.



Karen J. Dawe

HI:

Facility witch hunts exist too.


Karen J. Dawe

i was just there yesterday. awesome place! the clock is still at 9:50.

Personally, I love how the Welding machine is in spotlight while the light right above is off. Simply gorgeous. Great eye Motts.

Oh how awesome! I'd love to have a machine like that

For those who mention that treatments there weren't inhumane, because they were all that were available to help patients at the time, and that as advancements were available they were discontinued... I would agree that many people working there had good intentions and were well meaning, but I recently saw a very interesting documentary on the hospital directed by a former patient, and I can assure you that many of the things that went on there were HORRIFYING. Patients who were deemed bothersome were at times killed by the nurses and orderlies (this information was provided by a former doctor at the facility who was deeply disturbed by that practice). As funding for the hospital decreased and the place got more crowded, the conditions for patients got worse and worse... little consideration was given to their treatment and recovery and more about just keeping them from being a burden to the functioning of the hospital. Since the hospital was pretty much the whole town for much of the 20th century, alot of people ended up working there because there weren't many other options, not because they wanted to help people. This led to a great deal of apathy in the treatment of patients. It also meant that many people hired had no business dealing with people who were disturbed, and some took pleasure in humiliating or torturing the patients.

In the earlier half of the century, many people ended up in that hospital who had NO business being there such as the poor, orphans, or the elderly. There was a man in the documentary who was put in the hospital at age 4 when he ran away from foster care and was deemed "to difficult" to deal with. The man endured abuse, was put in ward with mentally disturbed adult males and was even sexually abused by a worker at the hospital. He was put to work on the grounds, never sent to school and never even taught to read. He was so disturbed by his time at the hospital that when they brought him on to the grounds, he couldn't even approach the building that used to be his home for years and he literally started to shake and cry. He was a perfectly mentally sound child and is now haunted by his time there even almost 60 years later. Stories like this seemed to be all too common in the documentary.

Obviously in institutions of that size there are going to be problems, it is impossible to house that many patients and employ that many people and have things run perfectly smooth or without incidents. This problem only increases when talking about government run facilities. The saddest thing is that when this place closed, thousands of patients were left homeless or shuffled through an already crowded system that doesn't care enough. Many ended up on the streets or in prison because there was nowhere else for them to go and they aren't equipped to live "normal" lives without someone to attend to them. One worker told a story about a discharged patient that was driven into the city and just dropped in front of the welfare office. The man didn't even know his own name let alone where he was, and was just left there.

There is also a mass grave somewhere on the property... a mass resting place for already tortured souls who had nobody to bury them properly... that alone guarantees some creepy vibes.

Is this the "humane" treatment that some of the people posting here are talking about?