Pure Googie, atomic-age style. I love these old neons (not too many on this side of the Pond though!)

Well Kim, I wouldn't be freaked out by stuff like that. I would probably display them in my front room! Well it would be more of a talking point than a ship-in-a-bottle.... :-p

An ex of mine bought an ageing Dodge ambulance (they're very cheap, as no-one wants them) threw in a matress and converted it into an extremely cool camper van. Complete with its original V12 engine of course :D. However it's original purpose remained obvious, and it used to seriously freak some people out. I also knew of a Goth girl who had herself a retired Daimler hearse, sprayed pink, with 'Highway to Hell' stencilled on the back, blacked out rear windows and neon crosses above the windscreen.

OK, so that's probably too much detail about my freaky friends lol! What I guess I'm trying to say I think we should respect the dead and their memory. However that doesn't mean being afraid or creeped out by death (or items associated with dead people). However I see no reason for this type of mindless vandalism, whether in a morgue or anywhere else for that matter. It's pointless and juvenile, and a complete waste of energy...

Heheh awyper, I think maybe we could all do with a change of meds in here!

I attended Nottingham University, which was still running Netscape on all its campus machines when I left in 2003... mind you, the computer room in our hall building contained half-a-dozen 486's, whose speed could be measured in decades....

These days I'm 'down wit the kids' - I have Firefox :-p

OK Mathue, looks as though NBC have moved it since I posted that link. From the main Feedroom screen, you need to select 'Video Vault' from the jumpbox in the top left-hand corner. Keep clicking the button marked 'More' until Pennhurst Parts 1, 2 & 3 appear down the left-hand side of the screen. At the moment the first segment is around number 40 but I suspect that it will drop further down the list as new items are added. Good luck!

Well spotted ~Me, since I was wondering that too.

That Gothic script on the front is very cool. But yeah, I wonder why they felt the need to put the name of the institution on the doors? It's not like anyone's going to pinch it...

What on earth were they thinking, taking kids on a field trip to a mental institution?

I've been on some pretty weird outings in my life (trade fair at the age of 11, anyone!?!) but that would just be too bizarre, even for my school!

I'm sure 'Green Door' was a song by Shakin' Stevens (and no, I probably shouldn't have admitted that I know that)

Lynne that may be an old one, but it still cracks me up!

Very weird seeing that, as my girlfriend lives in Malden, and frequently passes through nearby Everett...

They are massive, these halls, you could get three or four beds alongside one another! And I'd love those floors in my house (someone 'modernised' it by removing all the Victorian boards and replacing them with chipboard... grrrrr!

Yeah this shot screams 'Byberry' to me...

I sure hope those brown stains are rust :-O

I have a warrior's heart, a poet's tongue, and an artist's eye.... all in jars on my bedside table lol!

It almost looks like a pew, but looking at the way it's bent I doubt it's wood. I'd suggest it's the innards of the radiator / heater, the cover to which lies to the right-hand side....

Thanks all. I was feeling particularly poetic the other night, happens occasionally ;-). And Neefer, do you *really* need another reason to boycott Wal-Mart?

Agreed. I've seen more than a couple of crematoria (at cemeteries and so on) and they NEVER have chimneys like that, usually they're shoert, stubby and well-hidden by the roof of the building, disguised as a tower etc.

I'd imagine that relatives wouldn't really want to see a huge factory-style stack dominating the skyline and reminding them of the exact fate of their loved ones' remains.

People's images of crematoria seem to largely stem from images of Nazi death camps, which I suppose would have had those big chimneys to put the fear of God into those sent to them :-(

Lynne, that's a great set of links, and an interesting insight into the downside of de-institutionalisation. Shame it was taken over by the military... I wonder if there will be anything left for urban explorers when they've finished their exercises on the campus?

For me it's the vegetation that makes the difference. Incredible how Nature takes over.

If your friend's room looked like that, perhaps there was something s/he wasn't telling you LOL!

I blame One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and those pictures of abuse from Byberry and Pennhurst (1940s and 1960s respectively) which people think still goes on. Didn't Byberry have 4000 people in it at one point, and Pennhurst 2,500? Overcrowding isn't the word... but I'm sure that de-institutionalisation has massively depleted figurs like that!

Big corporations have no time for history. I've seen that time and again. All the likes of Wal-Mart want to do is concrete over the world with their corporate identity, they're not for sharing it witht he relics of the past. I hope that eventually we all order groceries on line and have them delivered, then these huge superstores and their endless parking lots will be mere dinosaur stables, for the next generation of Motts to explore...

A dead cat?

http://www.opacity.us/image136.htm

Hey, I'd take the 'Duke' anyday - she's beautiful. And UK law dictates that any squatted structure is automatically yours after 10 years :-)

And a beautiful building, which will finally be at peace very soon, returned to dust, her work all done. Those rays look as though they're calling Dixmont and the ghosts of all who resided here back home...