Comments

It was sad when it was open..it was sad when it closed. I lived in Salem when DSH closed. There were suddenly people literally wandering the streets with noplace to go, who should NOT have been out there. Supposedly they were going to private living arrangements and into community care, but a lot of them just landed on the streets with no idea what to do.
My mom worked at the hospital in the 50's. She has stories. And stories. One thing she told me about the basements was that patients were transported down there too. That due to the impracticality of the kirkbride design (!!!) it was impossible for a patient to leave their ward without either going outside or through another ward. Since they had, at that time, a communal dining room that most patients who were able were expected to take their meals in, whole wards full of patients had to be moved from their ward to the dining room, which was located centrally in the building. They couldnt traipse through other wards so they all headed down to the basement, which at the time were all divided with a male side and a female side. Not patients on one side and staff on the other. The staff traveled with the patients, one nurse in the front, on in the back, through the basements. From the stories I've heard, it was quite an adventure each and every time.

The anchors almost look like they're makin the 666/ rock on hand symbol!

It looks like the tall cabinets were probably the original 1925 controls and instead of tearing them out altogether they just put a newer controle center in front of it.

Motts mentioned that some of the transformers had power humming through them, and I bet the switches with the yellow caution tape tied to them control live switches and or transformers.

DIB,

Where did you read that? That would be most interesting.

I live in Pittsburgh. The local PBS station ran a story on Dixmont about two years ago....I remember one lady being interviewed outside, along the windows, and you could hear constant bangs & slams. It was the wind blowing through the building, slamming doors open and closed.

I also remember a large mosaic in the floor tiles, I think it was where a reception desk once was. It may have been a star of some sort.

They went all down through the tunnels, showing some of the graffiti by those who were brave enough t venture down there. There was even a mosaic made of broken record pieces. I'm not sure who made that.

There may be information on copies of the documentary on the WQED website.

HIPPA is fairly new, and given the fact that most of these places didn't seem to care much about the patients themselves, why would they care what happened to their records? If you take a moment to think about what was done to some of the people in these places, the paperwork is nothing.

Maybe it was made by a patient.... reflecting their past....

I remember a saw blade spinning and getting ready to cut a guy between his legs.

I really get sad looking at these pics. They said the park "wasn't making enough money". I went here when I was as young as I can remember up to when they closed it down. My band even played there.

You make gentle comments
Dare to meet you there?

Spontaneous Combustion.
This place is messed up.

It's interesting that there are no paper trails left in this lab. And all of the bottles are dry empty.
Sorry State of the Ward

Sorry folks. It's not soap or anything that a mortician would clean with, In fact
it
FAT!..
Don't open that jar.

Where's King Kong?