Comments

The face looks like Michael Myers

i lived in belchertown when i was growing up and i went to after-kindergarten club in a building on the grounds of BSS. as someone else noted it's perfectly legal and not discouraged to walk around the grounds: few of the buildings are even fenced in, though they're all boarded up. when i was a kid i remember we used to go for walks around the grounds. i think it had been closed for no more than five years then. i remember going up to one of the buildings and looking in the window and it was as if everything was frozen: all the posters were still hanging up, drawings, people's names, and there was a wheelchair just sitting in the middle of the floor, as if someone had gotten up and left. i'll never forget that!
i went back today with my friend and we walked around totally undisturbed for about a half hour. people walk their dogs and stroll around there all the time. almost all the buildings are still standing and the ones closest to the road - the theater one, the one with the clock tower, and a few others - are in great condition; the ones nearer the back are really vandalized but still really pretty, especially in the springtime.
i don't believe the town of belchertown has the money or motivation at this juncture to tear down BSS. but we'll see.

I also LOVE these beasts!!

I just read a book about Pilgrim. The quote is a summery of how desperate and lost the patients of Pilgrim State Hospital were. The patients suffered chocking back their truth as any statement other than they were doing fine - brought severe consequences. Laughter left this place because it was over all a living hell. Your only hope was to be good, don't talk about your problems, tell the doctors your medicine or electric shock therapy was working and pray that they would let you out of there. Death was no stranger to the patients and often they got well as a way to escape death. Doctors believed by punishing patients it releaved their feelings of guilt. Patients were given 150 volts of electricity without anastesia, as well as being kept bound in a camisole, in a cold tub for hours, a sedative pack which were lined with wet sheets and blankets and the use of "scotch Douche" which is spraying patients with alternating forceful warm and cold sprays. Many people also died from syphillus, TB and other common illnesses. This is not a stoic statement....it is just SAD.

Was this apart of where the tombs where?
Was someone sitting here while talking to there dearly departed loved one?
Did some one spend so much time her ethey brought a chair and was surounded by the smell decaying flesh and mold to be close to the person they miss and love?

This is an old steamer for cooking food. It looks like one that was made by Market Forge Ind in Everett Massachusetts

Cool, thanks for the info.

Blue Lamp , I couldn't have said it better. ;/

soo sad ):

This is so creepy it sends chills down my spine. Ive always wanted to visit Pennhurst though to take photography, its like my dream.

Regarding the tracks:

Some systems put the table on rails so they can create a swing lab.

The advantage of a swing lab is that the staff reposition the patient away from the bulky imaging system and continue the procedure.

This is a fluoroscopic x-ray system very much like the types of systems that are still in use today.

The cylindrical component is an image intensifier which will convert low levels of x-ray to light and amplify the output so that it can be seen either on a screen or on a monitor.

The black disc is an anti-scatter grid used to improve the quality of the image.

This is a late model special procedures radiographic system.

The system would have little value today as what it was intended for as interventional procedures are now done using fluoroscopic equipment and the bulk of the system would not allow use in trauma where you would still sometimes see similar equipment.

The thing that looks like an LCD is probably the anti scatter grid which is part of the bucky assembly and where the film is placed before the exposure.

@Boiler 1220-I'm glad the atmosphere at Danvers State was better. I knew you were there, because I read one of your former posts at the Danvers State photo area on this site. You can read all former posts of everyone when you click on the person's name at the bottom, such as if you click on "MARIE, CMT" you can see all my former posts on this website.

I've always been fascinated with the architecture of the old Kirkbride "castle" at Danvers State Hospital. It's too bad most of it is gone-only the adminstration part is left, the rest are new apartments. At least the old cemetary is still intact. I'll never forget the first time I saw the "castle" many years ago-it was breathtaking. The countryside grounds were beautiful, and I loved the old wooden roof-covered staircase that went up the hill-I've taken walks there many times. The reason why I know of its existence was that I was a student doing a Music Therapy internship at Hogan Regional Center at the bottom of Hathorne Hill. I would have loved to work at the old "castle" as a Music Therapist, but it was already closed. It's a shame that the State did not try to rehab this hauntingly beautiful building.