3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

Ahhh, home sweet home. It's great to finally see what this place looks like from the inside. I live right down the street from the hospital, but never had the chance to go in it. Thank you for posting these stunning images.

absolutely, positively the BEST.

this building is so beautiful, why did they have to do such a nasty thing to it?

This is beautiful. I wish I could have seen it for myself.

I know that she's gone, that she's been ripped from everyday life. She's still with us and other hospitals as well. Mr. Motts gave her a memorial...the best I've seen. Thank you so much, I hope you see this someday being I'm posting so late.

THANKS FOR SAVING D.S.H. FOR US MR MOTTS HAVE YOU GOT ANYTHING ON THE ESSEX COUNTY SANITORIUM IN HATHORN MA.?

there was no reson for them to nock it down it was fun livig there

Big Ed, for God's sake, let it go. Let's get a few things straight:
1) again, I meant no personal attack on you; I would appreciate it if you would cease & desist w/your attack on me. I am sure not everyone at DSH was a bad person who abused his or her power; unfortunately I had some bad experiences there with mental health workers, nurses, & one psychiatrist who did abuse their power.
2) If you read my original posting, you would see that I was not admitted to the Transition Unit "right off the street"--I was sent there after my insurance ran out at another hospital in Lynn. As I've stated two times, I was admitted to the Transition Unit and then, after a month or so, transferred to the first floor.
3) Don't you think it's a little silly that you insist on believing I am lying? I should doubt your "veracity" because you worked there & don't even know someone could come into the Transition Unit from another hospital. I spent from late '91 to the closing of DSH in the Bonner Bldg., and then I spent another 6 months in Tewksbury before I was finally released right before Christmas '92. I have many memories from those places and from that time in my life. I came to this website not intending to have this dispute w/you but to look at photos of a place I once lived in.
3) the shower was not my "main bitch." Don't take what I said so literally. Use some common sense.

Nobody was admitted to the transition unit. right off the street as it were. Admissions went to ironically enough the admission unit. which was 1 floor up. Respectable hospital? It was a state hospital. You were not admitted because you had options. You were at the end of the line hospitalization wise. As far as showers. Every one got them. #1 because we checked for scars, injuries and possible vermin . #2 you'd be surprised how much contraband we'd find. #3 for the protection of the other patients. You may claim you were clean, you may have lied, been full of crotch crickets. They are unbelievably contagious. We'd rather take our chances of offending your dignity. than letting critters spread. Besides scooter you are not the first person who claimed they were clean. We didn't believe the others either. That's the crux of it all we had to be concerned with the whole of the place rather than the individual. It not easy to manage 25 or so peoples human rights with out treading on someone's individual rights. we'd rather err on the side of safety for the masses. Because our main mission was to provide safe emphasis on the safe place. Besides if you main bitch was you got a late shower...

Big Ed - Defensive much? I meant no personal attack on you; sorry you took it that way. That's my opinion on DSH, like it or not. As far as my veracity goes, I wish I were lacking it. Yes, I was admitted to the Transition Unit in 1991 (thank you for refreshing my memory on the name). I was not admitted to the second floor. It was late 1991. I was there for Christmas. My comment about the shower was intended to be "rich," actually . The fact that they made me take a shower at around 2 a.m. is a testament to the useless craphole that that place truly was...it was no better than a prison. Respectable psychiatric hospitals that actually provide treatment and employ educated, intelligent staff do not make you take a shower in the middle of the night upon admission. I can tell by your comments and defensiveness you are really "rich" yourself.

Danvers State Hospital fire
A raging fire reduced four unfinished apartment buildings to rubble at the site of the former Danvers State Hospital. April 2007

Have you ever heard that saying to leave well enough alone.......that land should not be used for condos and I certainly would not invest in one, not on those grounds.

If you arrived in 1991 you weren't in the Bonner Building basement. It was a ward, yes. It however was the Transition Unit. You were admitted to the 2nd floor, if you were admitted at all. I find your veracity lacking. If your main bitch was, they made you take a shower , they were supposed to believe you'd showered. That's rich. Everyone got one.

We just abused patients to wile away the hours until we could go home and totrure our children. We had obviously the largest collection of sadists and perverts known to man, working there. I trust you filled out the patient satisfaction survey when you were discharged, God I hope you weren't too harsh.

oh my god i love looking at abandonded sanitoriums/santariums even though im only 13 but i think they're interesting

The basement of the Bonner building was used as a short-term ward. I was admitted there in 1991, after my insurance ran out at another mental hospital. All sorts of people came there--often guys in shackles would be admitted. I lived in the Bonner basement for a month or two, at which point I was transferred upstairs to a ward on the first floor. The night I was admitted they weighed me and made me strip and take a shower. I let them know I'd already showered that day...they didn't give a crap. Afterwards they gave me one of those little black combs. Needless to say, I am not able to comb my hair with one of those. These people--these nurses, "mental health workers," etc., were base, awful people. They were total dirtbags--the type with tattoos all over themselves, chains hanging from their belts, etc. Real scum. They had no skills to work in the real world so they abused their power at the nuthouse.