3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

This window feels like you're almost looking through someone elses eyes. Feeling their emotions.

Not a hydro therapy tub. Hydro therapy tubs had spots to anchor a canvas top to the tub so the Hydrotherapy patient could be kept in the tub. And so the staff doing it would not be innundated by water.. All the floors had bathtubs. . Regular bath tubs. That I believe is one of them. Hydro was carried out on a specific floor in the hospital,which one escapes me, one of the destroyed buildings I think. Helluva picture though

Clothing went on the shelves, most likely,and the drawers were used to put in the items painted on them, so there would be a stockpiles. Bugler tobacco made a fortune off asylums. "Rollies" were a form of currency. ""Tailor Mades" (brand name smokes) were the Benjamins for the patients

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww SCARY stuff to all my home boyes dis site is da best

LOVE the name...very phallic. ; )

Beautiful shot--just discovered this site and I love it. Thanks for posting your pictures for us all.

Oh man DK, you and me both! Some days I get a headache just trying to figure some of these comments out... :)

I just wish that when people posted comments, they would take the time to use "spell check", a Thesaurus and proper grammar. I feel like I'm reading things an illiterate eight year old would have written.

I also worked in the Bonner Bldg , I was there for almost 3 yrs. I remember when I started there I worked the over night shift , if I needed a snack or cigarettes, I had to go to the vending machines in the basement .. well to my left were the doors' to the tunnel and let me tell you at 2 in the morning , I would stand there getting what I needed and the whole time the hair on th eback of neck would stand straight up! I stopped being afraid after about 6 months .

Security took myself and another female staff member for a tour of the Kirkbride one evening on our dinner break.

Everything was fine til we entered the kitchen area , all of a sudden there was a blood curdling scream and the 2 security office ran from the building BEFORE my colleague and I got out.

I have never forgotten that sound. Like Mary I have many stories from my time there. I saw some terrible things but I also remember all the good we did.

When I worked there,During the Summer we would watch thunderstorms approach form th 5th floor Bonner Builing solariums. Usually we could see them coming from the direction of Lawrence. I gotta tell you watching a storm approach from that height can be a spectacular view

i know what the reality is, but try telling that to my subconcious. i admire this piece for its aestetic value, and i am aware of what these devices were used for. though it may seem like torture today, its treatments like hydrotherapy that led modern psychology and science to pursue the truth about how the body and the mind works and how to better treat it.
im a lot more historically sensitive to these sort of things than i may come off as at first. i was just expressing my personal thoughts that this particular image generated in me, and it did weird me out slightly.
i browse this place to learn about the historic value of these sites, not fantasize about knife wielding maniacs and insane freaks

Reminds me of a scene from House on Haunted Hill (the remake). Anyone agree?

I used to work in a SNF on the psych ward... Perfectly nice people can, at a moment, snap. And, they can't be blamed and one should not take it personally. With that said and with an objective point of view, it is possible to restrain someone because you don't want them to hurt themselves or other residents. It's not inhumane and it's not an "entire day" kind of thing.

the last name is not hansen, i don't think. i believe it's Hamslin. the first name might be Anne or Ann, that i can't really see. but i think the last name's right.

this is the hospital where the movie "Session 9" was filmed. Actor David Curuso described the facility as "probably the scariest building in the world".

This is stunning!