3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

The lines on these Kirkbride buildings are just stunning. I didn't even know we had one out here (Dixmont) until I saw in the paper that they were blowing out rock and accidentally closed the highway by blowing up the hillside where Dixmont was with "too much explosive" - right out on the highway - closed for a day :-)

I wish I would've known about this stuff earlier.

Give me a surefire light and a .45 auto, and I'll go through there no problem. I'd go without the .45, even. I'd be more worried about a rat or a raccoon in there than I would anything else - that's what the .45 would be for.

Those are some really nice doors. I would LOVE to have them somewhere on my property - even if they were just on a detached garage or something. I'll bet they have a nice heft to them when you swing them.

Yeah ........... it's like rain ran down them for years and stained them. Just like every other building - including the brick-work and roof on my house.

Lynne - that was a nice story - and I'm not surprised that your compadres do the same thing. My mother was a tough teacher (she tought SED kids (socially and emotionally disturbed)), and she was always doing the same thing - raiding dollar stores to find things she thought her kids would like. When the kids would do things well, they would get "room bucks", and they could spend those "room bucks" on anything in her classroom that wasn't school owned.

She's retired now, and I'm afraid that a lot of the teachers that have followed her are just the tough part without the heart. She made a lot of difference in a lot of kids' lives - who were on the edge of going to special ed or youth homes because of their behavior.

Damn was she ever hard on me, though.

I just went into the Forum Photography site and saw the recent pictures by Porcelain Doll of the demolition. Danvers is still beautiful -- you can't take that away from her AvalonBay

So many angles, the spire, the small pyramid with the dark door, the billowing clouds -- beautiful picture -- but all your pictures of Danvers are beautiful, Mr. Motts.

Those files were all over the place. Last time I was in there, the confidential paitent files were there for the taking. Someone locally here just got in trouble for trying to sell a Patients file on Ebay. Some rooms were knee-deep in files. Ask anyone around Danvers, from regular citizens to the State Representatives, they all knew about the file . . .

This is a view in the actual Kirkbride Building, the most center building that Avalon Bay agreed not to tear down. The bat-wing buildings all had metal railings / staircases, but the Kirkbride is the only one made of wood. We used to run up these stairs all the time, because the elevator was always busy.

When I worked at Danvers State, was on this room many times. A security guard gave me a master key so I could go anyplace we wanted. Also, Session 9 filmed one of their scenes on this roof . .

By the way no blood on the curtains, urine maybe but no blood. The curtaisn have been hanging there since the late 70's

If this is the building I think it is. It's gone now. But if you turn around and face the opposite direction there is the entrance to the solarium. I'm pretty sure the wards in the building are set up similarly. In a solarium in that building I found a suicide, one morning. I can't go into any details much as i'd like too. Suffice it to say I spoke to police officers for about 4 hours that morning. Starting with the campus cops, local cops and state cops. It was one of the worst days of my life. It was over 20 years ago and seeing this picture triggered the memory for me. So to anyone who was ever there if that spot ever felt creepy to you there's a reason.

Kezy -- you must be from the UK!

WTF is a condo? It's a condominium --

what the fuck is a condo?

those colours look well nice!!!