4,081 Comments for Norwich State Hospital

The reason I think these are restraint beds is because I remember seeing something of the sort in WIlliamsburg's Old Public Hospital.

3D, theres rooms were nothing like cages, this room in fact was surely at one time a beautiful solarium. It may be decaying now, but think if you had no family or anyone to take care of you and you came here, where there were other people like you, beautiful fields and everything inbetween. It would be like finding a safe haven.

If i had to live in one of these rooms (cages) my mind and mood would decay very fast.

Well, I suppose that would be the case if these rooms looked like this when people were still living here, but these didn't look like this until some years after the people left.

It seems ones mind and mood would decay just as fast being in these rooms.

I lay in the light to chase away the darkness from within.

Ahhhh yes Lynne, when you going to pop by to see my new manor house Ive purchased with my spoils? Though we should have steered away from the mental health field and focused on bogus weight loss schemes. Damn!

One has to remember as well that these patients were treated with what the medical community had access to. There were no psychotropic drugs like what we have now. Doctors essentially tried to treat these patients through non-biochemical means such as hydrotherapy and isolation. When I see these images I do not feel pity or shame for the lives that the patients lived in these institutions. I see the amazing improvements we have made in the realm of psychiatric medicine in such a short period of time. The very people who would have been locked in an attic or smothered in their sleep as children can now live semi-productive lives in regular society. People like my mum who worked with these people loved them and cared for them and sought to make their existence easier. Even though they were surrounded by bars and cages they were treated with respect as the humans they were. Of course there are always people who are coarse and careless of the feelings of others and abuse those in their care, however, they certainly were a minority rather than the majority.

Twug, I know Motts answered your question already but to add to it, you have to remember that these were areas that the general public did not see. My mum worked in a state hospital in NY in the 60's. There was lots of woodwork, plasterwork and tiling were placed in the general rooms that patients family had access too. Most often the patient rooms, corridors, and day rooms were stark and to the point. Not a lot of effort was placed in making these places decorative. There were mostly plaster covered walls without a great deal of wood or brick. This is why these rooms tend to decay faster than other areas.

And to think of all the money I spent buying these bottles on ebay for my collection!

Until somebody uses the camera for target practice...

Keith - You are not alone. I have always thought it would be interesting to set up cameras in abandoned houses to see just how things end up the way they do.

that kinda looks like a telephone punch down block in the right corner?...what is that?

i think it would be intresting to put a video camera and time elapse it so you could actually see the paint do that peeling thing it does...mabey im weird but i would pay to see that.

wow lysol should use that bathroom in there commericals..then i would belive that 99.9% of germs claim they seem to make in all their ad's