Casket

I get an eerie feeling from this pic.

Very interesting that an Asylum would have caskets in the basement, makes you wonder...

Depending on the time period of the hospital and the situation of the patient, most people would spend their lives in an asylum. If the patient was considered "abandoned" the hospital would need to provide for the burial and most burials were done in somewhat secret circumstances. People with disorders - learning and otherwise - were considered subhuman and to be forgotten when their lives were over. For example; tunnels connecting hospital buildings were designed, early on, so that "civilized" people wouldn't exposed to brutish patients. In 1997, in the town next to where I go to school, they found - well unearthed actually - the long forgotten graves (which were only numbers) of the closed down psych hospital across from the towns middle school. The surveyors found the graves in the woods where they were hoping to expand the school's soccer fields. Patients were lost and locked away in life and hidden and forgotten in death.

Motts, this is just an amazing find...the whole asylum I mean, its downright goulish. What an experience...

Motts, i have to ask... what was in that casket? was it empty? if it was, i probably woulda lied down inside of it, just for kicks....lol!

*faints*

that would be pretty funny.....it scare the shit outta my friend when the cant find me, then i pop up outta the casket....lmfao

i never take AnYtHiNg seriously, lmfao

yikes sam, Sam that would give me a heart attack! I wouldn't want to touch those things, I always think they could have been used...temporarily..I just think that if these places didn't care about their dead, they might be to cheap to actually bury them with the coffin...but pretend they would when they show the coffin for a wake. *shiver*
Reminds me when we bought this cardboard coffin for our fake skeleton Halloween decoration, and being like 10 I decided it would be neat to lay in it...my dad saw me and got pretty mad "get out of there!" - I'm sure that was a horrid site, though I didn't think about it at the moment.

Nightmarish...

Motts, did YOU walk around these places all by yourself?

So, what's in the coffin?

My bed looks like a coffin. Very comfy might I add.

I was thinking...how old do you think this coffin is? I mean, its been awhile since they've been made of pine like that, hasn't it? For some reason, hearing the word "pine box" always reminds me of the Civil War era. This certainly can't be that old, but it certainly doesn't seem recent, either.

Motts, what kind of survival rations were down there? Sounds interesting.

A felling of dread creeps through my veins as i look at this picture. I love it but it chills me to the bone. *shivers* i dream of pictures as creepy as this, I love them, weird i know but i love the cills and the fellings of dread i get from your pictures. Amazing. The story of the asylum defenatly helps create a sinister feeling.

*chills *feelings

I have just recently discovered this wonderful site. This is a very creepy picture. Very interesting stuff here...thanks for making this available!!

This picture saddens me. Perhaps it is because I just saw Titcut Follies last night so I'm remembering the burial scene...

I probably would have crapped myself an screamed like a horror film chick upon discovery of this.

Omg, was someone inside them??

I will say that the pictures is worth a thousand words. In ohio where i live a man was cleaniing out the attic of a house he recently bought and had never known the history (it was purchased during an esate auction) While cleaning we found a pine box that had a name brand casket companys name on it when we opened it there was a new casket inside. The shipping date was from 1982 and this was in 2003. After asking around we learned a lady lived ther in her eighties and had no family and died in a nursing home. He sold the casket for a prop. but was interesting.

This actually sent chills down my spine..it's sorta creepy.

whoa, i wish we had places like this in England....pretty cool site ya got here. Id love to walk around somewhere like that, ive tried here...but they dont quite have the same effect!

Ya know, it really DOES seem odd that an asylum would have an on-hand selection of caskets. Perhaps a bit of history regarding the types of patients treated here would enlighten us.

ewwwwwwwwwww, creepy!!!!!!

if i would of found this room, i would of died from heart failure!

Like Ellis posted before, Asylums became a dumping ground for the unwanted, sometimes whether they had any mental illness at all. Many of the old institutions had cemetaries on site. This was done the same way most cities have an old Potter's feild. Hart's Island is a 'Potter's' feild in NYC that is operated and maintaned by DOCS. The state most likely in an effort to reduce costs (who want's to pay more taxes to take care of people nobody wants was the common though and unfortunately is still true in some cases today), probably reused this decorative casket and then transferred the interred to a plain pine box.

ohhhhh I really love this pic!
Im actually taking pics like this irght now...but ya...I LOVE IT!

the best 1 ive seen yet

this pic creepy much. My brother-in-law is mortician in middle Georgia and he can tell some great strories pertain to coffins and the deceased. Al his bedrooms has child coffin crates made into bedside tables. he and his wife very wealthy indeed. He says he is never out of a job.

please excuse my bad speling and word sentence structure.

deafangel, don't worry about your spelling and structure; we all understand you just fine! You make a lot more sense than some of the other people who post on here. :)

am i the only one here who looks at that photo and automaticaly think of zombies and vampires?? anyone anyone at all?

holy mary mother of jesus!
what posseses you people????
was the lid already up or did you lift it?

I live in N.C., and work in an E.R. This photo reminds me of a story one of our ER Doc's told me about one of our state mental hospitals (Broughton) He said that in the early days of the hospital, patients would actually SLEEP in their simple pine coffins instead of bed's. And, when they died, you simply had to nail the lid on on and bury them. I suppose they thought it was not only cost effective, but convenient as well.
FYI- Your site is amazing!! Fascinating and wonderful photo's- Keep up the great work!!

Thank God for people like mott that dont give a flying fart about censorship. The old stories from my home state Pootah (Utah) is that Brigham Young just orderd the insane to be executed. (Many of which he performed himself.) infact it wasent 10 yrs. after his death that the State (Territory before 1896) began building a state nut farm. in provo by the county cesspool dump. So as far i can gather the Mentally ill fared better on the east coast. even in that old Happy Acers Center for the Tappioca Minded.

Similar to before - swearing is fine - why do people have to be so cruel and thoughtless in the names they use for people with psychiatric issues and intellectual disabilities? This is not about being PC - it's about respecting others.

Hi Lynne,
I know you get upset when people go on about hospital staff being abusive and all the ill either being stupid or dangerous soI just thought you'd like to know that around my town things are getting better.
Seriously, the other day I was driving by blockbuster and their was a whole van from the asylum full of people. A few of them looked profoundly reatrded and a few of them seemed to have torette's symdrom (sp?) but they were all fairly well behaved. I think that one of the aids had gone in to blockbuster to rent a movie.
A few years agao it was unheard of to take those in a mental institution out for a day in the town around here, now we see it more and more. Everything is well supervisied and the patients never seem to be a problem. They don't bother anyone.
Hopefully society is getting more accepting now huh? :-)

Hi Long Island. Same thing in my local shopping center. The attendants come in with with young people in their teens and are transported in a mini-van. They seem to enjoy being in the store and are always treated with respect from the patrons of the store and from the staff. I have always had the belief that we are all God's precious creations, and that they are no different from us in his eyes. That's my opinion, anyway!!

Hi Janice,
I totally agree. Now mind you, this would be a different story if violent patients were being allowed to run free around the malls but these people are really calm and nice. They seem well looked after and happy to be in the store. The aids seem very kind to them. Actually they seem much nicer and better off supervision wise than most of the "normal" kids roaming the area.

I've seen something similar as well. I was at the mall a few mos. ago, and saw a group of people in matching yellow shirts. As I was doing my shopping I'd seen that the big group had separated into smaller groups; one aide per each group with 2 or 3 of the patients in their care. The aides seemed really kind & caring, and I saw one guy treat his patients to Starbucks.

Cool Sara, I'm glad the world is getting more accepting. Some of these people are totally fine if they stay on their medication and the aids do seem super nice. Most of the caretakers around here are from Jamica and the other West Indian Islands, very nice people.
My aunts best friend is a nurse and she told me that the only time that she has ever seen anyone turn dangerously crazy is when they are either off their medication or have not been treated.
I heard once that it was considered shameful at one time to have someone with a mental problem in your family so many peopel were not given the help they needed. Isn't that sad?!
It's awful to think that someone could be cured of a disease but was denied the right to do so because of social codes. :-(

That's terrible about the family thing. My little cousin is autistic. He barely talks (he'll be 5 this year, in December) and acts in the manner of a 2 year old (VERY hyper & sometimes destructive)...yet the child could say the alphabet backwards when he was 3, without even taking a pause to think.

My fathers best friends son is autistic. He's very calm though, apparently it's sort of a catatonic sort of autisism. He rarely moves but he is HUGE, the massive growth is also part of it.
I think mental disorders such as autism and downs symdrome are a bit more acceptable. For some reason it's the idea of people hearing voices and arguing with walls that seems to freak more of society out.

This is so compelling. So sad. It makes me so relieved to be living in 2006. When my beloved sister died young, I was so saddened by her death that I went to a pyschologist twice a week for a few months to get over it. Had I been "back in the day", I would have wound up in that God forsaken place, simply because of a broken heart. It makes you think, doesn't it...

boy if I knew my previous comment was going to draw heat like that i would have used more descretion in my use of wording. the truth is that i am thankful the mentally ill (not a PC wording, but a commely used term) is now recieving much better treatment. a former state hospital employee myself I went through many hours of intensive training of the do's and dont's and the proper usage of this, that's and others. But the fact is still the same alot of the treatment in the old days was just the old term "strap em' down and dope them up"
But one point i think i must stress. and
this comes from motts photographic recording of these old Asylums is to remember the past horrors of this old buildings SO WE DO NOT REPEAT IT IN THE FUTURE.

Maybe someone broke out?

how did ya feel when you walked in there

i lived across the street from a psych asylum. Its pretty odd why they would put a neighborhood there but check it out its called. Pilgrim State. So scary and still active. We go atv ing there you see the crazies watching through there cells. Place is the most scariest looking place. In commack, new york on long island Pilgrim state check it out tell me if you agree.

this is an extremely eerie picture....i makes me wonder why they would have caskets in their basements....were they doing something wrong to the patients...i dont even want to think about what went on there...

It was common for asylums to take care of some of the people even in death. They offered dignified services and simply interred the people somewhere on the grounds, where there was usually a common cemetary for the institution.

I'd like a bed like that. Just a box with some pillows and stuff in it. Might as well shape it like a coffin. It's always fun to shock friends and family that way.

Tales of the Crypt.

Signed: An American Soldier in Germany.

As a Soldier I have taken part in several burials as a member of the funeral detail or as the Army likes to call it; Ceremonial Detachment. And to think: that some of the dead soldiers that I have buried are lying down on straw like a cow in a barn is horrible.

When it is time for me to die I will go to the funeral parlors and cut open the lining of the coffin and see what is inside of it. I will now have to do research on coffins and see what other types of materials that are used to fill up a coffin.

Signed: An American Soldier stationed in Germany.

looks like inviso-man died

Yikes !

Motts this gave me chills. amazing picture

These are terrifying i dont know how you dare go by yourself! Id expect a nutta or monster to jump out at me, its like a horror set, you are crazy motts no pun intended, i love it!

Hey Mott, u wanna go nuts go to Willowbrook State School. im sure youll find it. i went there when i was 16. im 21 now and i found it crazy odd that alot of things like bedpans,plastic water pitchers,hospital finance files and ripped up str8 jackets were there UNTIL i came across this website. its seems that when these asylums close down, the take on the true meaning of abandonment. Sadly that trip was before my digital camera days

An "accident" occurs, you quickly and quietly whisk the memory of it away, throw it in a box, and bury it out back. No different than many prisons of the period. Had cremation been a more common practice then, nobody would know where the ashes went or who they once were.

that is so freaky and i would not go in there if i was payed

Death Is for the insane

If you view picture from the proper angle, the open lid of the casket looks to be a skeletal arm, reaching and grasping - creepy.

EEEEK!!!!

Seriously. My bed is WAAAY cooler. I finally have pics up of it. Check 'em out. Look up Phantom Shewolf on myspace.com. It's pretty bad ass.

now that's eerie

I doubt if any hospital ever used coffins as beds. But such a story could easily stem from the use of "Utica cribs" in the nineteenth century. Their size and shape had a coffin-like appearance, although the sides were slatted rather than solid.

It's hard in comments like this to discern a writer's motivation when all we have is the words. The benign "gallows humor" of a person working in mental health can come across just the same as someone else's uneducated or mean-spirited derision.

I sincerely hope that all ATV riders wear proper protective equipment, especially helmets. Brain injuries can really make a person "crazy." One of the scariest things about traumatic brain injuries is that in civilian life, they are nearly all preventable.

in all the asylums ive read about and seen pics ive never seen coffins in them

... super creepy.

Hey hey! Who wants to see a dead body!? lol....sorry, disrepectful...very nice shot. I'm just waiting for a vampire to rise up....or that guy from my imagination to rise up. *shiver* that creeps me out....

nice pik made me fell happy "beutty has manny forms"

I live near Broughton and that comment about patients sleeping in their coffins is ridiculous. A doctor might have told you that, but he obviously considered you naive. As far as these coffins being used for "indigents", I have seen the coffins used at Potter's Field on Hart Island and they aren't like this. They are simple rectangular boxes with no linings or anything. I can't imagine that the facility (any facility) would spring for lined coffins. I could be wrong and I don't have any other explanation but I wanted to comment. Also, I can't help but wonder why these would be NAILED SHUT if they were empty??

I've always found abandoned mental asylums to be interesting.

wow!!! i live in california and gont know wher this is, but i sure would like to visit.

Exactly like what Ellis said depending on the time period because the mentaly ill were viewed as evil or possesed so they would be sent to an asylum and spend their life there. They would be locked away abused and tortured because people of that time really thought that mentally ill people were being used by the devil so they would be killed and burried near or in the asylum

*shivers* I know that those were necessary, but... still... its the memory of these places.

love the pic. and thanks to this site i have discovered a new place to visit. brughton mental hospital is on my list. does anyone know if it has a cemetery on the grounds? if so let me know at eddievon@hotmail.com.

Ya know what's gonna be fun? Seeing that tonight in my dreams....