4,224 Comments for Northampton State Hospital

They remind me of beat up cyclopes.

This picture scares the s**t outta me.

I think you will find Northhampton is held in a higher regard than a lot of its peers, I dont think it was as terrible as some of the others

A very haunting shot, I amagine this is what purgatory would look like...

I had the opportunity to visit this amazing building, one of my brother in laws friends use to be a security guard long after it was abandoned. We entered the building on a hot July night and I felt a chill that I haven't felt before.....The underground tunnels were terrifying and like mazes. if you got lost in there good luck finding your way out.....

I thought it was surrounded by water, with the first floor window as a reflection. Took me a minute to see a hole.

There was an observatory type of thing in the administrative building the view amazing. It was built for the beauty of the area that surrounded it. Btw I live on the grounds in a new apartment. My maintence guy says he hears noises & weird stuff in the S old nurses residence ( now apartments)

Kirkbride believed in natural lighting. Their buildings are constructed wih love & care.

In it's time prior to being abandoned this institution had some of the best food. I don't know why the remarks of the food here. They had a farm and grew their own food. They produced their own electricity. This place took care of itself years. Unfortunately the govt kept allowing increase in patients were it became over crowded & the state couldn't afford to maintain the buildings. Very sad. Drs & their families lived here on the grounds along with nurses, med students etc.

I think this is such a powerfull picture. It almost makes you see a patient who wants nothing more than to leave the hospital calling out for love.

Reminds me of the Quote

"Don't cry little bird, you'll get your wings"

@Frazmataz-That's really sad about your great grandfather-mental illness is a very sad and scary condition.

I had a great grandfather who lived and died in one of the wards here. We still don't know what he did to get in there, but my uncle said that when his mother went to visit him and took him, he (uncle) would hear screaming, moaning, and gibberish as he waited at the nurse's station. Scary.

Thank you for the kind words! Although the comments from various visitors range from extremely insightful to just horrendous, I think the latter gives one an interesting perspective on the stigmas still associated with mental health in modern USA.

Also, perhaps you and anyone else who have lived/worked at NSH, or are interested in more about the hospital, might want to try to pick up a small book called "The Life and Death of Northampton State Hospital" by J. Michael Moore (1993). It contains some great history and also details the closing quite well... it may be hard to find though.

This is my first time visiting your site. I have to say have to say having been an employee of the former Northampton State Hospital, I found most of the comments, from people visiting the site both ignorarant and appalling. I found you as a photagrapher brilliant. you captured the devastation of a once beautiful building and it's architectural design and use of light. This building should have been maintained, updated, obviously there was equipmnet that would no longer have been in use. The building clearly would have been have been more beneficial to the treatment of the patients during the time of their stay, with the conjuction of medication, which I am sure you discovered. I really hope you still read your posts so you know how much I appreciated seeing your pictures after all these years. Just alittle insight, I grew up with a family that worked at the State Hospital, I remember the Main building when it was a functioning building, when I started at the hospital, it was still in fair condition, and in my teens we too used to sneek in. Only at the time we never thought it would close so we never thought to take pictures. Thanks