505 Comments for Dever State School

These pictures are quite disturbing. I used to work in some of the group homes and heard about what the clients went through. Being abused, molested, etc. It's morbid

Bethany - that was immediately my first thought, too, when I saw this picture. Sorry, Motts, I don't think the soap dispenser is ever going to be forgotten! :-)

Has anyone noticed that it seems you can see straight through the top floor to the other side. The top floor is either 'really' empty or the windmills in my mind are acting up. :-o

Definitely sucks to be trapped like that... thanks for sharing your stories from Dever! The entire facility was torn down from 2014-2016, and there does not appear to be anything left of the school. The site is now called the Myles Standish Industrial Park.

I worked here when I was 18 years old , that is like 40 years ago. Gosh this place was full of people. I remember what it looked like , the beds were all lined up in rows, nice shiny tiled floors , bathrooms were a little ugly , and smelled very bad. My job was in housekeeping , and one day as I was in my little utility closet filling my bucket to wash floors, one of the residents came in and shut the door, there was no where for me to go , it was a closet with a sink and some cleaning supplies ,she shut the door slapped me in the butt , laughed and left. Let me tell you at 18 I was really scared. There was another women there who sat out in the stairwell screaming all day long, she didn't stop that is what she did. I can't believe it is 40 years later. I would love to go back and look around , can you even get in that place anymore. Do they still have buildings on the property ? Well I just wanted to share my story.

This is in reply to Lynne's comment although I do realize it is several years after. Maybe it will be seen if people are like me and regularly visit this site to look over old galleries. I agree with most of what you say, but at the same time I have to put my two cents in and say that perhaps the reason why people don't report stuff, even anonymously, is maybe because they don't want to have to deal with the after effects. I didn't work in a health care environment, but in retail at the time and I reported things that I saw someone doing that I felt was wrong. Basically theft. Well, I was labeled the "whistle blower" and my life was hell afterwards. Granted this wasn't a situation of people being harmed or abused, but the principle is the same. The company ended up firing the one who was doing the dirt, but I had to live with it after and continue to work there, and let me tell you it was extremely uncomfortable. I felt as though they did not trust ME even though I was the one doing the "snitching". So perhaps the reason WHY people don't report abuse is because they don't want to have to deal with the aftermath of being called a whistle blower and being treated worse than the person doing the crime. This is just my opinion because I lived through it, but I'll tell you, if I had to do it over I would have kept my big fat mouth SHUT.

Lynn...I'm on your side. The ignorance of some of the posters here is apparent.

Looks like those old abandoned auto factories in Detroit!

"Can't disclose" is full of crap. Always these little jabs at how horrible it was..but never any valid information. As Lynne said..if you REALLY worked there and saw abuse, what did you do about it?

It's amazing as I browse the galleries..the ignorance of people. I would guess the majority of those that are saying how horrible it was, the people were treated horribly, etc. have no clue, and did not work there. I always like it when Lynne puts them in their place. Unless you actually worked there, or lived there, shut up!

Hi Tom. I am making a documentary about a former resident of this school and of Danvers State Hospital (Hogan). I'd love to use "the last one" and maybe a few other photos in the documentary. Can you contact me about it?
Judy@connectyourstories.com Thanks. Love your work!

There are still a few buildings there and today I saw an older lady maybe about 45 and she was sitting on the ground starring at a wall rubbing it then she looked at me and ran toward me so I had to hide for 30 mins then I got out as quickly as I could I recommend not going in there

I worked there in 1974 and will never forget the experiences for as long as I live. Seeing the photos brought back the same feelings I had back then, sadness for the residents-the atmosphere so bleak. We created laughter whenever possible though, it was absolutely necessary for every ones sake.

scary

back in 1972 my friends and I were driving around the dever property getting stoned when we came upon a playground with a bunch of kids playing on the swings and such and as we got closer all the kids seemed to stop and look at us that was when we realized these were not normal children most of these kids were no disrespect here but they were cone heads shocked the hell out of us needless to say we drove out of there fast real fast the hair on my arms still rises to this day thinking about it. in its day it was not a run down place .