1,927 Comments for Pilgrim State Hospital

these look newer therefore would have no pcbs

This is the building that once stood on Commack Road in Deer Park I can tell you first hand it was a wild place to hang out in. It was even scary in the day time but to get the full affect you had to spent a night there. You had to hide from the cops and security they where always there. They had 4x4's and dogs so it was quit hard to get in the building. In the day time you could wait till security went around the front of the building, then you could get in pretty easily by running down the tunnel that was in the back of the building. But at night it was much harder, you had to make your way across a open field to the front of the building and climb up into a second story window in the ward on the left side of the building. This was a heart thumper because if security showed up you where pretty much nailed. Once in the building you only had to get up to the third floor to feel safe. I know that security often came in the building at night with the dogs, but we knew they didn't have the balls to go any farther than the first floor. There where 2 sets of stairs to climb up into the building but security blocked one of them off with old bed frames. This is how a lot of kids got busted, if you went up the wrong set of stairs they had you, there was no place to go you where cornered. Anyway the first time I was in there was back in the late-70's and it was in the day time, I really felt if I was going to start hanging out there I wanted to see where all the danger would be, and trust me there was a lot. Someone had opened the doors to the elevators but there where no elevators in there and it was a long way down. We threw bricks down the shafts and you could hear how long it took for them to hit the bottom. Even if you had a flash light you could see the bottom of the shafts. There where many door ways and some of them where still locked, to get threw them you had to climb thew where the window once was. At night this was not any fun, I can't tell you how many times I got home to find nasty cuts on my hands and arms. If you staid clear of windows you could use a flash light, but you needed to keep it low to the floor and only turn it on when you needed it. But the best thing to do was wait for a really clear night with a bright moon. So as you can figure when there was a full moon that was the night to try your luck. As you can imagine I was not the only person smart enough to figure this out, so these where the nights when the house was full and everyone was scaring the shit out of each other. These where the nights I remember most, there was nothing like running in to first timers and just scaring the crap out of them. First timers always made it easy, they just couldn't shut up so you heard them coming. We would break up in to pairs and the first pair would light them up, then laugh it off with them and give them time to feel like no body else was around. Then they would make a subtle suggestion and send them down the hallway right at the second pair, I can tell you more than once we sent kids home with piss in there paints. I kid you not. I know people that got the shit scared out of them so bad they never went back in that building again. I can remember nights when we heard noises and we would search and search for other kids and never find them, you can imagine the things that would run threw our minds. I think the wildest place in the building though was the attic, there where 2 giant water tanks up there and you had to jump a big gap between them to get to the ladder that would give you access to a tiny crows nest on the roof, where only one person could sit at a time. It had no walls or rails so you could imagine it was pretty scary up there. I only went out there twice, and only to look west because on a clear day you could see the city. This was the first time I ever remember seen Manhattan and it was amazing.
Well I'm leaving this story off here if I think of anything to add I promise I'll be back. I hope I was able to give you a taste of the joy of exploring an old scary building, I know I will never forget the good times I had there.

I was a student nurse from Plattsburgh, Ny in 1956 and attended classes in this l
library. Hard to believe, I recognized the nursing caps from my schoo!!

esa es la manilla de mi pieza
!!!mm!!!!

Makes a hell of a kitchen

The pictures and the history fasinates me. I too would love to see inside these homes. It's an eerie but intriguing site.

Yeah, damn those nasty staff, anyhow! >:-(

[Anyone have some aspirin for the poor old Doc?]

gives a whole new meaning to "warehousing."

I also thank Motts for showing us the inside of these places. I make sick jokes about it all, but there was so much pain and suffering in these places. The history of medicine is really important. I wish our society would acknowledge it and be upfront about the mistakes of the past.
Maybe Andrew was in one of these in a past life......

And wouldn't it make a great kitchen island in the condos up at Danvers State?! (yeah, I'm obsessed with that....sorry)

hey, maybe they'll reclaim some of these for the bathrooms in the condos being converted up at Danvers State hospital. All the rage in former mental hospital decor.......

Think Dr. G. should use this quote at the beginning of her show, instead of the warning about "graphic nature." The MEs were probably more compassionate than some of the staff.

this is very scary and makes me shiver

HOW SPOOKY

Chemistry, hey, it's what made our country great.