Comments

Yes it is sad I knew a few people who spent years in those places.

Was someone looking through the window on the left or are my eyes playing tricks on me.

Very Engaging Photo!

Such a powerful story in the walls where it took place, amazing

....oh GEEZ!!! here we go again. Once again, comments CAN be hidden, and, as mentioned, most ARE about the pictures. Including mine. I'd like to tell ya that I'll make an attempt at being very "dry, serious, and "to the point" , not allowing anything that might actually make someone crack a smile (wouldn't want THAT to happen), but in reality, probably not gonna happen.....sorry (said while crossing fingers behind back...;-)). (Hmm. always did like the term "unclench" ;-))

Motts, hey what's up with the forum? I hope it comes back soon.

No ice baths - sorry - don't know where people come up with that stuff but it's not physiologically possible to put someone in a tub of ice and have them survive for more than a very short time. This is especially the case for people with chronic mental health issues who usually also had accompanying health issues and who would not have been able to survive exposure to freezing water for more than a few minutes. Remember to read up on your physiology 101 before believing that people were put in ice baths. Sounds dramatic, very sensational, makes some peoples' pulses race to think about the "abject cruelty of man against man", but sorry - didn't happen. But I am sure some of you will be happy to know that other cruelties did in fact exist and were actually documented. I prefer that people rail against things that actually happened rather than strange urban legends like this one.

These were most likely hydrotherapy tubs and yes, when hospitals had populations of 6000 to 8000 folks and before psychotropic medication drugs were invented, that was one of the few therapeutic interventions that did a little bit of good.

Look up continuous hydrotherapy under Google books, for the book "Hydrotherapy" by Guy Hinsdale from 1910, and see pages 289 and 290. This used to be state of the art therapy and yes, many people were in baths at the same time in the same room. Different era, different techniques, different theories of what was happening and how people should be treated, no drugs available, no funding, overcrowded hospitals.

nvousofmotts,

Thanks for the pook bucket - I really needed it for that shot. Much appreciated.

Also, you were much kinder to Quinnifer than I would have been, but that's OK. Maybe you'll help me learn to be more patient with people who barge onto a new site and feel the need to make unkind public comments about other posters.

Absolutely marvelous shot, Motts, I always like your hallway shots.

Great angle - I also am usually against painting on the walls, but this is an absolutely chilling and fantastic project.

Absolutely gorgeous shot - great colors, textures, lighting, etc.!

the area where the station is is why its like this the terminals in the lower east side which is streetlight territory

i have been in the forest st hosp in 2000 me and my buddy alan were walking up the front steps aqnd met some kids wearing older clothes and thiought it was a costume or something the said that they would show us the place if we were up for it walked the place oh man .. rocking chairs empty, rocking.. doors trying to close but the frame doesnt quite fit anymore talking crying and thats just on the first floor basement found a room with a very small door and went inside coundnt see anything i got cut on the pins in the walls from chains there were strips with spikes about 2 and a half feet long there was a tunnel from the basement that went to the burnt wing of the building and i swear there was a matinence guy in front of me i blinked and he was gone scared the crap out of me but i must say the towers are killer the one i coudnt find a way up but the left one there was a ladder i went up the veiw was breathtaking anywas the best part of the story is that when i got outside john and carter the guys on the front steps were gone they were right behind us and then gone true story and as far as i know buff state bought the building and is turning part of it into classrooms for the new exspansion plans this coming spring

Oh and I forgot to mention the IBM 8 inch floppy disks of which I still have a few....

I can top ALL OF YOU! My first computer was a Tandy 1000, had no hard drive you had to swap out 5-1/2" floppy disks between the program and saving data if you wanted to. Then a 10mb hard drive came on the market and I remember the ads tells us that 10mb (megabyte) would be all that we would EVER need, we NEVER WOULD FILL IT UP! HA! Now, I have a 165 GIGABYTE hard drive and that's almost full! Then of course there were the mainframes. My first bank job (let me rephrase that) there was an entire room that was the computer. The floors were raised to provide cooling and boy was it cool in that room. Sliding doors, the whole works. Watch that old Kathryn Hepburn movie "Desk Set", and that's exactly how it was. Ahhh the good OLD days!! They weren't that long ago when you think about it!!