1,927 Comments for Pilgrim State Hospital

Several posts ago there was a discussion of "time of death". For many years it was exactly as the next poster detailed. If a patient was dead the only individual allowed by the state to determine this was a Dr. This led to exactly the situation the family member detailed. Many misunderstandings happened . About 20 years ago the state of OH passed a law that anyone with any medical training could declare someone dead. The ER docs, where I worked, loved this one because nursing homes and hospice patients no longer had to come to the ER to be pronounced. For years the doctors had to leave their patients and go out and get in the back of an ambulance and declare that the patient was in fact dead. Just one of the little wrinkles in a system that is Dr centered.

I've been through the hospital a couple of times. Me and my friends all heard a voice at the same time, so i knew it was just me freaking myself out. My friend started getting bad anxiety when we went in a certain part of the hospital and she said she heard a ton of voices in her head repeating "get out, you shouldn't be here, they dont want you here, we don't want you here" over and over. and she said when we went into a room that must have been just a room for the patents to hang out in, that she saw them and she felt like she was walking through and it was all kind of in sepia.. it's weird but it freaked her out so we left. she's never had voices in her head and never has seen anything like that. i know she wasnt just making this up because when we went in that room i saw her looking around like there was people there..freaky what that place still has the power to do. idk what really went on there..but i'm not too sure i really want to know.

This photo would make great wallpaper. Wonderful, Motts.

Not a stupid question at all - when a photo is taken at a long exposure (these were taken with the shutter open for a few minutes) the color of the sky starts to emerge in the visible spectrum, which is blue due to Rayleigh scattering.

"In locations with little light pollution, the moonlit night sky is also blue, for the same reasons that the sky is blue during the day (moonlight is reflected sunlight, with a slightly lower color temperature due to the brownish color of the moon). We do not perceive the moonlit sky as blue because at low light levels, human vision comes mainly from rod cells that do not produce any color perception."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.or...lue_color_of_the_sky

Most of the colors in the above photo were not visible when I took them, simply because it was too dark to see them. If there were a bright light shining on the building, the sky would appear black as in this photo (a 10 second or so exposure): http://www.opacity.us/...158_quarter_moon.htm

In this set, the sky is also sometimes takes on orange and violet hues due to light pollution from New York City.

Don't want to ask a stupid question or anything, but you say this was shot with the moon out, so I assume it was at night. Why is the sky blue or bluish rather than black, and why is it so bright it looks like daylight? Is this done in the lighting or camera settings? Thanks.

does anyone know if this building has been demolished ?? or if any of the other abandoned buildings on the pilgrim property have been demolished ?? im doing a school project about this place..

I graduated in 1966. We were the first class to live in 69 as a co-ed dorm. Pilgrim turned some of the best nurses that I have ever met in 40 plus years. It was a great school and believe in the" art and science of nursing"!
It makes me sad to see what it looks like now...It is easy to believe that many ghosts walk those grounds....

this is a sick picture

My brother was there on and off for years. he was probably dyslexic but back in the 50's if you couldn't comprehend you were considered retarded and sent to an institution. My brother was maybe 10, it destroyed my Mom, hence our family. I never liked going there because when my brother came home it was bad enough that he wasn't 'himself' anymore. I think the psychiatric doctors back then were nuts. They labeled inocent people and ruined lives. May god rest my dear brother's soul, he is now at peace.

I am such a big fan of comparing old and recent photos. This is a great photo.

I just read a book about Pilgrim. The quote is a summery of how desperate and lost the patients of Pilgrim State Hospital were. The patients suffered chocking back their truth as any statement other than they were doing fine - brought severe consequences. Laughter left this place because it was over all a living hell. Your only hope was to be good, don't talk about your problems, tell the doctors your medicine or electric shock therapy was working and pray that they would let you out of there. Death was no stranger to the patients and often they got well as a way to escape death. Doctors believed by punishing patients it releaved their feelings of guilt. Patients were given 150 volts of electricity without anastesia, as well as being kept bound in a camisole, in a cold tub for hours, a sedative pack which were lined with wet sheets and blankets and the use of "scotch Douche" which is spraying patients with alternating forceful warm and cold sprays. Many people also died from syphillus, TB and other common illnesses. This is not a stoic statement....it is just SAD.

It's amazing that with the rest of the place falling victim to the elements, it seems immune. I know that is the point of stainless steel, but still it looks amazing.

One...Two...Freddy is coming for you... Just kidding great photo.

i went there today in the day lite ,went inside took some pix ,got the chills but i am going back tomorrow to take some nice pix ,,i just so shock how the place use to look and what they use to do

Bld 25 training with Patti Laura ed Lenski