3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

and the day this is gone;

i will cry millions of tears.

talk about a sad story.

Yeah, Motts,
Better watch out for that dreaded zipper if you go commando, I heard it can do some real damage

Yeah, DO you go commando? *blushes and runs away*

Hey, motts, how did you get into these buildings? (if there have been over 100 arrests or whatnot)

Did you talk to the people that own the land and ask permission, or did you go comando and sneak in? just curios.

I notice a lot of places on your site from md, but I didnt notice the henryton sanitorium. I do this sort of thing a lot too.

Email me Mattshood@Hotmail.com and let me know.

Gorgeous photo's btw. If you get on aim, my instant messenger name is foursidedoctagon.

This is my first time on this site, and I have to say...what amazing photos they are. Great job!

[gigantic adoring eyes wide open in stunned silence - huddles on floor near bottom of soapbox, wipes corner of eye with sleeve - slaps self to see if dreaming]

Yeah all those boards are now off the windows, I'd love to capture the interior of the place with natural light, but it's too late for that.

came across this thought I'd post it. Glad you have captured it while you could and shared with us all Motts...http://www.danversstat....com/chronicles.html

*Stage whisper* Pssst...Lynne Lynne. *Okay she won't see me borrow her soap box.*


Again I most sincerely apologize for being long winded, but mattie and Nikki just pushed me over the edge.

First I'll touch on matt's survey. Well if you got your facts from the news/internet I'm sure it must be true hmmm...and ending your comment like you did man, come on. One must always keep in mind all the things Lynne says are 100% correct. Almost no facility can be inspected and found to not have any violations/deficiencies found. That is why we do those inspections, (I mean they) to look for a problem that needs to be corrected, and dealt with. Outside inspectors are there to dig deep, and find things staff or administrators may not see because they are too close to it. Most ALWAYS, I said always, that's right; The violations found are so...(I hate to say minor *scratches head stuck*)well so, umm not really that serious in the overall scheme of operation, and patient care. The violations that might be found could be things like dietary getting hit for not maintaining a perfect temperature of 187.45 degrees F on the steam table (Or whatever it's only an example..sheesh). The steam table at that facility might keep a perfect 186.5 degrees maybe because it's old. Now I'm pretty sure 180 degrees kills most all food borne bacteria, is this treating residents cruelly, callously, creating a nightmare environment within the facility... UMMM NOT! This is an (maybe poor) example of things that can end up on matties oh so accurate surveys. Before someone says it I will. Sometimes a facility does get found to have serious violations, and when they are, they are dealt with accordingly. Patient abuse is taken SOOOO seriously that IF..IF..it does occur, sometimes people who are only suspected, SUSPECTED mind you, of knowing it happened and did not report it, can face major disciplinary actions.

Now, please, please would all who comment about how hellish, and cruel the staff in these places were, "how could they have done that to those poor people?" remember this one tiny little itty bitty thing : THESE PLACES WERE STATE OF THE ART IN THE MID TO LATE 20TH Century OR WHATEVER!!! They were not about cruelty and torture. Those people were being treated with the most advanced techniques OF THAT TIME. The pictures that Mr. Motts provide for our perusal (Magnificently I must say) are of BUILDINGS THAT HAVE BEEN ABANDONED FOR AROUND TEN OR MORE YEARS! They capture some of the beauty that was part of some places, as well as some of the starkness, but um, um, well institutional buildings look like, well, institutional buildings. I personally attended a middle school built in the thirties and it looked more like a jail than the local jail, but most schools of that era were built like that. It's the same with these buildings, the ones from the 1800s are architecturally stunning IMHO, the ones from 30s are more stark, why you may ask was it built so stark..That was their idea of a streamlined efficient facility, a MODERN FACILITY, not one that was intended to be cruel and inhuman.
Lastly NIKKI, Dear Nikki. Lynne Most certainly has a clue. Please people stop lumping all caregivers into the same category as the commandants of Nazi death camps, they are the frontline in the battle to provide people with various problems the care that they need, to live as fulfilling a life as they possibly can.

*sigh* Sorry long winded again.
Here's yer box back Lynne. *Shuffles away from keyboard repeating I will not be long winded I will not be...*

I bid a sad farewell to the old hospital, i have great amount of respect for the hospital and never wished to see it go, i'll pray when the demolshing commences
farewell Danvers State Insane Asylum 1874-2006 via con dios

jai? from vegas? i showed you that movie.

this is a great photo.
and so it lies there.

Even if you're perfectly normal it's good to do this, it's so relaxing. I <33 it.

I'm very sorry to hear about your husband...<333

Yes most places, Danvers had a morgue in the Bonner medical building which is across from the Kirkbride.

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.