Comments

This photo stopped me in my tracks while researching the history of CVH. Your entire photo series is beautiful and haunting, but the human touch that left those handwritten words scrawled upon the page give this photo a soul that almost speaks to you across time. Heartbreaking and exquisite.

In the end time eats everything.

Can't help but think about Session 9 looking at this safe.

"Next woman to take me on will light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!"

Observation/ seclusion rooms. That Baker's pink and it's partner, the ugly ass seafoam institution green couldn't have helped the patients. Imagine a major depressive staring at those ugly green walls, day in, day out. Those are horrible colors, the colors of despair, resignation, and hopelessness.

This place was beautiful in it's abandonment, and most definitely haunted. They should have put it on the historic register, as there are very few Kirkbrides around anymore. Deinstitutionalization has led to a lot of homelessness and imprisonment. I'm afraid the pendulum will swing again , and those troublesome "nutters" will once again be warehoused in places like this. And the whole thing was based on saving a buck, whether in an asylum, or out in a tent somewhere. It's almost blasphemy to put a Wal Mart on the grounds of a 150 year old insane asylum.

I'd die of an impacted colon if I'd been imprisoned in here. How can a person be expected to shit under these conditions?

Dixmont and all the former patients imprisoned here got their revenge on Wal Mart at least!

So that's what George Costanza did in the 70's.

The outside world is as much of a madhouse as anything you'd find in here. The only thing keeping us out of those seclusion rooms is luck and the gulf of time.

happy and safe new year to all. Not sure if Bennett is still standing or not, actually. Short of actually going there to see, my guess is it still stands to greet its 127th year gracing South Millbrook. Just not for long.
In somewhat related news, the effort to preserve the James E Ware-designed gazebo in Millbrook has elicited many suggestions for its restoration, the most interesting among them being a loose proposal to relocate it to the site of Halcyon Hall as part of the new park. I think it is a great idea, but will wait and see. It is complicated, owned by the school district, but Friends of the Gazebo are advocating for its maintenance. Others say tear it down, yet others say buy a new gazebo, which misses the entire point by a mile.
Short of restoring and maintaining it on site, it would be a good plan B to incorporate it into Halcyon Park, or whatever the place will be called. Crazy, though, how just to save this modest structure, it has required a whole enchillada of lawyers, surveyors, Board of Ed meetings, public opinion surveys, etc. All to save a gazebo from 1890.
Back in the day, it would have been some locals would buy a case of beer, some lumber and shingles, and go fix the thing up themselves one Saturday. And then they'd probably play a game of baseball after, too.
Different times we live in.
Best New Year's wishes for the Halcyon Hall loving community.

I was a Navy Corpsman. We trained on how to use these beds with paraplegics and quadriplegics. It seemed a great asset to the care of these unfortunate and complicated cases. It just sort of suddenly disappeared from use. We also provided "prism eye glasses" so the patients could see the TV or visitors when they were "upside down. I think it would be a great tool to pull back out of mothballs in the care of COVID patients.

That is some great haunting artwork. Man, my heart is heavy seeing and thinking about kids locked up in this place. It looks like hell on Earth to me.

TYPE O NEGATIVE IS HERE.

Room looks like a bad acid trip kicking in full bore.