3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

I can still remember the horrible sound of the metal doors when they closed. A bang like you wouldnt beleav. On top of all the other sounds in the building when it was open, it's a wonder I didn't fall in to a madness of my own.

rudysdad, if you look closely, thats not the only face you see.

Motts, when you were in this building, did you feel anyone watching you? I know I did.

Please someone tell me that before this place is reduced to rubble, someone will go in and retreav at least some of the articles that sit within. And if this happens please tell me that I can come with you, if for nothing more then a spare set of arms to help with the lifting.

My mother and I walked thease stairs many times. The admin building was where I spent a lot of my time, waiting for my mother. When I think back, I was prety much able to have the run of the place, or at least I thaught so. A mother wouldnt dream of letting her child run free in a mental hospital today, but things were different then, I never got in to anyplace that I shouldnt have. I remember wandering the halls, the various workers all seemed to know who I was, as did many of the residents. I would often run my matchbox cars up and down thease very rails oblivious to everything that surounded me.

Thank you Barbara : )

This is indeed a spooky area. Danvers was in fact Salem Village, the starting-point of the witch hysteria of the 1690s. It also has Lovecraftian associations.

Handsome as these buildings undoubtedly are, I can't for the life of me understand the mentality of those who would convert them into rental units, not to mention the state of mind of those who would actually live in them, regardless of the almost palpable legacy of suffering and cruelty and pain almost the whole of the place gives off.

I suspect posterity will not deal very kindly with the town and commonwealth officials who allowed these buildings to fall into disrepair, & let them be sold off as 'luxury condos'.

Finally, I wonder about a society that no longer feels the slightest obligation towards protecting the weak, the mentally ill, the poor & defenseless. This hospital was built with the loftiest aspirations & did succeed for a time in bringing about a change in the way 'lunatics' were treated, until it became a dumping-ground for the unwanted. Looking at the zeppelin-sized reception area makes you wonder, too, how many patients were in fact dysfunctional (by today's standards) & how many were given life sentences there because they were vagrants, or 'difficult', or old and poor, or just in the way somehow, of no further use ...

Very sad.

Check out what appears to be the face of an old man with beard in the debris to the left of the 2nd step going down ...

Mr Motts, I can only say thank you so much for this trip through my memory. Both good and bad you have braught things back to my mind Ithaught I would never think of again and for that I thank you so very much. My only hope is to be able to go back there before it is demolished as they say it will be. I beg you please, If you plan another trip before this happens please let me know, I would love to go there once again. Thank you so much. wickedwiccan77@yahoo.com

Chris, it was a sad place yes. As a child there I remember all the screams and the voices, they hanted me for years. Jiberish mostly, words that didn't make any sence to anyone but the person that spoke them. The tears, screams and whispers burned in to my memories I'm sure until the day I die, and who knows, perhaps after that as well.

Liz, you are very correct, sad and lonely it was. Lomg stretched out halls full of rooms like this. When I was a child this place was home to more then 2000 residents. Half of them should not have been there in the first place. DSH, Hogan and the surounding buildings bacame home to those abandoned by relatives and an unwanting socioty.

Once again as I child I was in this hallway, if I am correct, at the right side, that is a reception desk. As for the lights, or reflections, beleave or not I'm sure there are many of spirit within thease walls.

All the buildings are filled with stairs like this. I remember waiting at the foor of stairs just like this holding my mothers hand waiting for my brother to come down. Strange how thease memories enter my mind, some of them are wonderfull, others I would rather not have.

I remember playing in thease yards as a child. Funny when I think of it now, you would have thaught I owned the place. I know I thaught I did.

It makes me so sad to think this will all soon be apartments and condoes.