Love this shot!

Recently done some research on Asylums and read a lot about Denbigh great to see some photos

is it true that police guard the hospital? if so why? i mean whats the reason for it

Be careful on the insides of the buildings. There is a lot of asbestos, a lot of contaminated IV tubing as well which were used on the patients. There have been air samples done of the area which picked high counts of Radon and contaminated construction metals as well. I would be careful, as it is not worth picking up an airborne contaminant just to see the place. The state police and Suffolk county police patrol there regularly. Also, there are still many deep wells which are contaminated and are uncovered. Be careful you don't fall in. Finally the EPA did a lot of research on the bugs and whatever nighttime moths or animals that frequented the area, and those who were affected had photo phobia. Not sure of the cause of that. Be careful around the contaminated construction metals, as they can cause an air borne type of meningitis which is dangerous. So honestly, my thoughts would be to not enter the buildings and I would stay off the property. I had a list of all the contaminants at the site only because that is the type of work I do, most of them were low, the higher counts were the infectious fertilizers on the property.

Creepy? yes, but an important part of how we got to be the person, the soul we are today.

Thank you so much Mott's. P.S. It's important we take on and get to see things of a dim past to help us reccollect what we have today.

this girl died at the peak of World War I. must've been haunting for her to live her last few years seeing as germany was pushing through the french countryside around this time.

These big pot that you see are not mixers, they are steam jacket kettles for cooking. Large institutions were heated by steam from huge boilers from a central heating plant - or sometimes two. The steam was then piped all over the grounds to heat all the buildings. In the food service kitchens, expecially those that fed a large amount of people, the steam was used for cooking. The pots are double walled with a space in between. When the steam valve is turned on the steam - over 212 degress - would fill and circulate in the space inside the pots. The food was put in the pot and that is the way it was cooked. It is very efficient system. In newer places today that have access to steam, they use the same technology only on a smaller scale. I worked at Marquette University and a lot of the older kitchens have these same pots...some even larger. Likewise, I worked at Briggs & Stratton's main kitchen and they have 4 pots that are bigger that these.

These large kettles are not mixer, but Steam Jacket Kettles. The kettles have an inner and outer shell and hot steam is pumped in the space between the shells to cook food. units like these, although more modern, are still in use today.

Bob

I have some news, the Dr. Blood's House of Horror on Sportland Pier, Wildwood, NJ was just torn down. It was inactive since about 1983. Now I hear this house of horrors at Rocky Point will come down. When was the last year this ride operated? 1995? All the great dark rides are going away. And these two at Rocky Point and Wildwood were built by the late Bill Tracy. I guess the New England area has practically no dark rides anymore. They tore down the Kastle Frankenstein at Salisbury Beach two years ago. Rye Playland, NY still has all it's dark rides. Wildwood, only has a few left, Dante's, Pirate's, Jersey Junkyard, Zombie World, Den of Lost Thieves, Golden Nugget SBNO.

I wonder if they tore the house of horrors down yet? There was a fire at the park last October 06 and the mayor ordered the remaining buildings razed including the house of horrors. Good thing you got pics of the inside in case it does come down. It's a shame that no one appreciates this stuff anymore and the powers that be who are clueless about the rarity and history of this stuff would rather see it come down (can you say "eyesore"?) and build expensive homes there that mean nothing to us park/haunted dark ride fans. A shame that Bill Tracy's work such as this is/could be lost over liability fears. Oh well, Rye Playland still has dark rides. Ocean City, MD still has a Bill Tracy Haunted House ride built 1962 and a Pirate's Cove walk-through built by him, too. There's a few others around including Waldameer's Erie PA Whacky Shack ride and Pirate's Cove walk built by Bill in 1970, 1972 shortly before his death. The Erieview Park Ohio Fright Zone was moved to Conneaut Lake Park for 2007 because Erieview closed for good and auctioned off the rides last October. Fright Zone was built by Bill Tracy in 1963 as Haunted House at West View Park, Pittsburgh which closed 1977 and Erieview bought the ride and moved it in 1979 to Erieview rebuilt it as a one level and renamed it Fright Zone. Now it will live on at Conneaut in a different building.

it was a teaching hospital and one of the best , in it's day

this is where you went to have your baby.

OMG LOL I was 8 years old and fell up these stairs

is this the walk up to the sliding board?

WoW I remember all of these pictures as if I were a child again Little toot use to ride around that lake and on top of the little mountian that is in the lake you would get dropped off there climb it and use a twisting sliding board to get back down I have pictures of this on sunny days from 1968 , this photo is Surreal to me!

Very Erie Picture , But beautiful

even in decay the work is still so beautiful , you took some amazing pictures

Fantastic photo

I just found out that one of my relatives (who passed away this week) was incarcerated in this place. She was placed in here because of brain damage caused by blunt force trauma. Since I am the unoffical family historian my brother sent me her obit . I am now researching her life. I was aware that in the "old days" children were some times placed in orpahanges or state hospitals for reasons that today would constitute child abuse.
Seeing these pictures of BSS , and knowing that the people in this place were treated the way they were distresses me. But I am sure she is in a far better place now.
BTW.. If that merry-go round is in fact the same one that now is Heritage park in Holyoke then I am very glad I helped to save it. She might have even ridden on it.

Hi Nance, I saw this. It is so sad that a great dark ride was left to rot. And worse is that a fire just broke out at the park and now they are ordering the demolition of the rest of the buildings and a developer plans to build high-end homes, condos on the site. When will it stop? Several seaside parks closed in the past several years for condo development. This year, Myrtle Beach Pavilion closed after 58 years for CONDOS and SHOPS! Florida's Miracle Strip Park at Panama City Beach closed in Sept 2004 after 40 years the owner Billy Lark sold the land for condo development the 1963 coaster was relocated to another park in FL to be rebuilt, the Bill Tracy Haunted Castle building was apparently demolished, but the track, carts and some props were sold to a guy in Alabama who uses them on a Halloween dark ride in a major city in Alabama. The rest of the castle props were sold to a fire company in Pensacola FL? I think for use in a haunted house.
http://www.turnto10.co...10086675/detail.html Fire article http://www.turnto10.co.../2617862/detail.html Expensive homes article

It's a real darn shame that classic dark rides are left to rot, or the parks removes them, or they burn down. There's quite a few old classics left, like the Ocean City Bill Tracy Haunted House built 1962 and Pirate's Cove, and the Haunted Mansion at Rehoboth Beach, and Rye Playland's dark rides, Dante's Inferno's at Coney and Morey's Pier in Wildwood NJ, and there's a few Bill Tracy classics still surviving across the US, there's articles on all of them at the dark ride sites, Whacky Shack, Phantasmagoria, etc. Wildwood had a Bill Tracy Whacky Shack it was located on the now defunct Hunt's Pier which still has the SBNO 1960 PTC/Bill Tracy Golden Nugget Mine Ride but the Shack was torn down early 1996 because the owners at the time who bought the pier in 1995 were redeveloping it into Dinosaur Beach and apparently a classic Bill Tracy dark ride didn't fit in their plans, but they saved the Nugget and "dinosaurized" it. It last operated in 1998. There's also an abandoned dark ride at nearby Sportland Pier, it was called Dr. Blood's House of Horror and last operated around 1983. The Castle Dracula attraction on Nickels Midway Pier which opened in 1977 burned to the ground Jan 2002 due to two young male arsonists who had nothing better to do that day than to skip school and break into the castle and light matches to see in the dark. A real shame, they also lost the 1919 old mill boat ride under the castle which was the Dungeon boat ride and most of the props were handmade. You can see what the castle looked like at www.darkinthepark.com Let's hope tomorrow's kids will have a dark ride to ride. I like Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 because you can build virtual dark rides in it, as well as entire parks and ride your rides.

AWFULL! It must have taken a lot of work to design such a HORRIFIC STRUCTURE!

Doesnt this just make you want to climb into a nice hot bath !!!

WOW! Plenty of rooms to choose from. I wonder which I would pick!

This staircase is really spooky. It reminds me of one I had dreamt about! Very beautiful in a non-beautiful way