I remember walking down these corridors every day. A nurse student there from 1993 -1996 hate that it is now just a wasted space being wrecked. Part of my history.

this is such a cool shot

this is so intresting, im from sunderland about 10 mins from the asylum. me and my friend have also been inside, but not as much as you managed, love to do what you do before its knocked down.

it looks like the dirt has been freshly swept from the stair case....spooky.

I have to agree with Lynne on the whole medication thing. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Someone mentioned that some fairytales weren't really meant for children. If you read the original Grimm's. most of the tales are quite dark and much scarier than their modern day versions.

I always found it ironic that Alice in Wonderland was used so much for children. Especially seeing how Lewis Carroll was rumored to have had a "strange" relationship with the young girl he wrote the story for as well as other children. The story and it's author definitely has a darker side.

Just like the children patients...you can grow up and look towards the wide open sky all you want but at the end of the day, you will still be in a cage. Very depressing.

There is so much talk of elevators that I just wanted to throw a little bit of useless information out there. The next time that you are in a hotel that has 14+ floors, notice that 9 out of 10 times there will not be a button for the 13th floor. Unsure of the reason but interesting atleast :)

It's true that used correctly, hydrotherapy can be a very therapeutic tool. However, in the early days and especially at this particular location, I'm not convinced they were used to give nice, warm, muscle-soothing baths. Somehow, there is pain in this picture and that object. Also, I haven't seen the infamous picture but I had an episiotomy and ya'll are right...some things should NEVER be sewn up lol

Perhaps this is a very ominous observation on my part but I can't help but speculate what these tunnels were used for. I have found that most of the time, tunnels such as these were used for the transport of bodies so that the other patients would not see the dead. Regardless of their use, they give off a very "dead feeling" to me. Sad.

Sometimes a room such as this is all you can do. Sometimes the darkness has crept so far into your small mind that no amount of therapy or medications could ever change that. Whether in this room or in their own minds, some of children, including myself, are prisoners of their own minds for the rest of our lives.

I have to admit Mr. Motts I'm not too concerned about the soap dispensers :) Wonderful picture. Perhaps someone once believed if they scrubbed hard enough, they could wash away the maddening loneliness.

As soon as I looked at this picture I felt and overwhelming sense of "this is it". This sight seems to say "This is your home now...always has been...always will be". Heartbreaking. On a lighter note however, I have seem numerous posts by "AO" and I would just like to say that whoever you are, we seem to be very like-minded. Like me you look at a picture and see more than decaying furniture and pretty lighting. I am only 20 years young but I also try to see the forest and not just the trees :)

Forgive my comments Mr. Motts for as I read through the previous ones I find that mine are a tad on the darker, deeper side. There are lost souls in those rooms. Terrified of the voices in their heads and the images their brains made them believe they saw. I really believe those patients will be there forever. Not so much as ghosts but as one of time's many memories. Souls with eyes that stare out of those cell doors aching for something or someone to simply make it all stop and souls whose minds had deteriorated so much that their minds were no longer their own. Painfully beautiful.

This shot is so fitting as a symbolism for mental illness for me. You clearly and obviously see the wheelchair just as you would a person. Yet, in the background there is dark, mysterious room which for represents a mentally diseased mind far away from the real and tangible. Absolutely beautiful.

I look at this picture and can't help but wonder if a patient ever stood there, looking through those bars, and either understood or realized that the prison those bars created was nothing compared to the prison of their own mind. If only we could see what that window has seen. It seems very sad. Like that is a window where someone lost their mind and themselves forever.

it looks like theres a person floating behind the fixture

This place was torn down. Toyota owns the land is is building a headquarters there.

very very creepy!

so beautiful...

the tv version of "The Shining" was actually filmed at the Stanley hotel in Estes Park, CO. This hotel was the original inspiration for the novel by Stephen King.

(responding to a previous comment) > it was not filmed at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, although that hotel does resemble The Stanley Hotel in exterior designs. my parents have a home in Bretton Woods, NH where the Mt. Washington hotel is, and i practically live in that hotel. i know for sure that it isn't where the movie is shot.

i have to say "The Shining" [original of course], is one of my favorite movies and novels by Stephen King, and your shot does eerily resemble it. You have a great site, I am very intrigued by it, although i would never have the guts to go into any of those buildings, esp the Pilgrim state facility on Long island, which i live right by. a few of my friends drove in there the other day and were scared out of their minds.

it is very cool to be able to see these buildings through your photography :)

wow....i did not intend for this to be the longest comment ever. i'll stop now.

*Trought
my mistake

this place is so beautiful!! i cant get over how amazing this building looks..i want to go visit it so badly..if i am ever in Mass i that will be my first stop for sure!! gorgeous pictures by the way.

Beautiful!!
This looks familiar..
Is this the south infirmary?