3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

A very inspiring view... I'm upset I'll never get to see it in person :(

I hate the red in the windows

I took a look at the Avalon Danvers web site and the Administration building and side wings look great, they did a great job restoring these buildings. It is too bad the rest of the buildings got demolished.

I remember this tower in Session 9.

Yup Watertower all gone this spring I beleive.

did they get rid of the water tower

And tried, again, I do understand what you are saying. i feel for you, for all patients, not just the buildings. I was locked up more than once b/c I was at the end of my rope - watching my young mother die a long drawn out death from bone cance after losing her leg, losing my job, way overly self medicating myself out of my mind, getting a DUI, they called the cops b/c I said I was goign to off myself and they locked me up for 2 weeks, treated me like a moron. They made me color pictures from a coloring book with crayons, finger paint, and all sorts of juvenile shit like that. There was ONe decent guy there who took me seriously and knew I was basically having a nervous breakdown and a life of clinical depression, that i wasn't "crazy" he pretty much told me if I ever wanted out I had just better play along, take the meds (against my will and better judgement) and colour the damn pictures. The people there stunk like piss, ATE the crayons, tolds massive lie after lie like Jon Lovitz on SNL and I DID not belong there. It was SO demeaning. But that was the new, "modern" SYSTEM. It's all the SYSTEM, and if I wanted out I had to play along. It did a hell of a lot to break my shitty self esteem doen even more. I feel for you, and i can still feel for these poor old structures, they have a soul too, just think what those walls have seen.

Well, tired, I sympathise with you, to a lesser degree, fortunately. i have had my own experiences in places - yes, better than these, but if the buildings are not preserved, or turned into sterile condos with no sense of what went on there..... history is forgotten, and you know what they say about forgetting hostory and being doomed to repeat it. These places should be saved, many of them are archetectural masterpieces, and if horrors occured there, people should also be made aware of that sad history as well.

Does this mean you turned a negative patient satisfaction survey?

Screw this "save the buildings" crap.
Screw this "psychology has evolved" crap.
Many of you don't know what it is to be locked away. I have been locked away many times. There are STILL bars on the windows, there is still a padded "quiet room."
To be fair , I have met staff that were kind and meant well; but this is outweighed by the number of people who work in these establishments as a way to have power over others. Manipulative people. Abusive people.

You think psychiatry has improved so much since the 1960's? Now that doctors have decided that Mental Illness has a biological basis, they prescribe medicines like candy. Medicines, that they have only the vaguest idea of what it does. I have wasted my life trying these medications, getting sick with side effects, being locked away, treated like a child, with no improvement . I have met many, many others with the same experiences.
Society treats the mentally ill like shit. They hate us because we are on social security and disability. We are not "useful" and economically viable.
Don't romanticize Danvers State. The patients that lived there were human beings. Don't defame their lives by alluding to ghosts and ghoullies.
When looking for an example of how "respected" mentally ill individuals were at Danvers state- look to their earlier burial process. The patients were buried in unmarked graves. Not to be remembered until the 1990s.
ps: In the past I worked as a mental health worker (i was, ironically, a psych. major). I have had practical experiences as well as personal experiences.

Thats really scary, I wouldnt go there even if they payed me a million dollas!!!The angels are nice but the other thing! Scary!!!!!!!=(

The tower was the abosulutely last piece of demolition. It only was taken down in March.

"can someone tell me how this is awsome please? ya it may say something cool on the door but when it is on that door it is not oh your brother may have it on his door but he doesnt have to go through his life living in is room never coming out and having people be scared of him. Let them rest in peace"

That was a ward door. None of the patients doors had any writing on them. Other than a piece of tape with their name on it. It was a warning to people entering the floor to be very aware, and careful.

Apparently they didn't like his routine.

I really hope avalon knows what there doing. Taring down shuch an artistic masterpeice. What a shame.

I was just there( 9-23-07), on the site and saw what has been done with the Kirkbride building. Totally renovated and beautified!!! Too bad that it is a condominium city now! At least they kept the Kirkbride. Session 9, the movie is what got me interested in the place, see the movie!