Curtains Over the Bars

now if this doesnt make prison bars more *home like* i dont know what does.

Yeah. gotta admit it DOES add the homey touch . . . .

I think the curtains are what adds that "Homestyle" touch. If it wasn't for them, it would look like a cell on death row--albeit a luxury Suite due to its size.

just amazes me any curtains still hang at all!!!

Me too Ed. I wonder if they were a cheerful colour at least?

Oh my, it looks as if somebody took a pair of scissors to the curtains and hacked a chunk right outta' them!

If the curtains are supposed to make it feel more homey,- there not doing a very good job.

NICE AND VERY DARK!

the fact that curtains are still intact after all these years of damp and cold boggles the mind , would love to know where they buy their curtains mine dont last that long

what a really, really horrible but cool place. The curtains are probably made from ultra strength non chewable rhino hide.

Motts, where is this room? I can remember sitting with my brother looking out windows just like this one.

This is such an awsome photo i just cant pick word to say.... wonderful job and takin them!!!!

The curtains makes it look like someones living room.

cozy!!

ahhh the Martha Stewart collection for people in a mental hospital.

Its a good thing

thats really homey fealing

ciara took the words right out of my mouth.

This one is morbid to me almost. yes you can't leave, but look at your pretty curtains... No just the feel the the room. It makes me nervous to go to that room.

I wonder how long those curtains have been hanging, and if any prisoners wept their misery into the curtain's dusty threads? One thing to hold onto in the cell, a touch that could be homeyish.

I wonder how many tears were shed...

do you reckon theres blood on em?

If this is the building I think it is. It's gone now. But if you turn around and face the opposite direction there is the entrance to the solarium. I'm pretty sure the wards in the building are set up similarly. In a solarium in that building I found a suicide, one morning. I can't go into any details much as i'd like too. Suffice it to say I spoke to police officers for about 4 hours that morning. Starting with the campus cops, local cops and state cops. It was one of the worst days of my life. It was over 20 years ago and seeing this picture triggered the memory for me. So to anyone who was ever there if that spot ever felt creepy to you there's a reason.

By the way no blood on the curtains, urine maybe but no blood. The curtaisn have been hanging there since the late 70's

this place just moans with dispair. big ed you could prolly write a book on all the things you have seen.motts how long did you stay in there taking these pics. your brave.

Can you really imagine what went on in these rooms? That's what makes these pictures more mystifying.

i had never heard of this place glad i found it. thanks motts for all these historical pics. makes you wonder what happen to all the patients that were here. so long ago so sad

its like jail for crazy people. i dont know whats more strange, the bars, with the curtains...or just bars. very sketchy..

I CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU CANT GO!!!
government blows.

You mustn't forget that these mental hospitals held mental patients in them. Some patients were a danger to themselves and to others so certain steps have to be taken to ensure that they and those around them are kept safe. The bars over the windows were not a way to imprison someone inside the institution, but were a way to keep them safe from harm. I am uncertain what story this room is at Danvers however even a second story fall from a building can be fatal.

The curtains over the windows were not an attempt to be sketchy but were an attempt to make the atmosphere for the patient more pleasant. You mustn't automatically assume things from how you initially see them.

If you were a patient at this hospital and you were unable to control yourself like you do today would you not prefer that the administration take steps to keep you safe like putting bars over your windows so that you wouldn't be able to just crash through the glass and falling to your death and certain bodily disarrangement? And then wouldn't you appreciate it if they took it a step more and tried to make your settings warmer by adding curtains in your room? I think you would.

So please try not to be so narrow minded and think things through before automatically thinking torture and human destruction.

The curtains were put up there to provide a smidgen of privacy from the out doors. Beds were located in the alcoves because of overcrowding. I didn't take these snap shots Pam I worked there from 1976 until it closed. The Picture credits belong to Mr. Motts

CAS, now I KNOW I love you. ;-)

to me this picture represents how many lies and misleading thoughts the patients were victims of. its like the curtains were hung to diguise the imprisonment these people were under or like you guys all said...give a "homly" touch. brilliant pic

No view he found inside his prison. Every window was the same, and now he waits, his final sentance. Fore he was never insane.

Why would we ever lock up insane people? They are way too much work and difficult to handle, to boot. We only want the ones who are sane because they are still able to do what we ask. Oh, you silly people, thinking residential psychiatric facilities are for people with psychiatric issues. They are just too durned much work - don't you get it?

My lynne we are on a roll aren't we :)

You should see all the posts I deleted before I actually sent these few in. ;-)

Hi Lynne,
Please don't be cross with me but I want to ask you a question which is going to sound VERY strange but I am dead serious.

Is it possible for an older person to be admitted into a nursing home when they really don't need to be?

I ask because I just found out that a Great Aunt of mine was put into a home in New England. Now this is odd because she was always very active and I know she didn't want to go into a home. She was moved practically overnight into the home six months ago but we just found out about it last week.

In this place she is not allowed to leave, she is not allowed to go into town, she is not allowed to make phone calls or have a phone in her room. She must be in bed by 6:30 and make NO NOISE, no radio or TV. Visitors are only allowed in for 45 minutes three days a week. I'm not kidding.

This woman is not sick nor is she declining mentally. We got her on the phone and she remembered who we were right away--she started crying talking to use on the phone. She kept thanking us for "finding her."

Now all of this seemed really weird to us and we weren't getting any answers from distance family so we decided to take a long shot and called my Aunt's best friend who still lives in town. So here's the crazy stuff:

Word on the street is that my Aunt is not crazy at all but was diagnosed as being "demented" and moved into the dementia ward of the local nursing home.

This is a rich old woman and when she was moved into the home all her nieces and nephews (she has no children and all her nieces and nephews are now in their 40s and 50s) got control over her money. So far we KNOW that one of her nephews has brought a boat, another has a shiny new corvette and one of the nieces is away on a surprise European holiday. They came into all this money as my Aunt was put away.

We know that a doctor must confirm that my Aunt was senile and so we asked who did the examination. It turns out her nieces husband did the examination thus when the old woman was locked away he also got a share of her money!

Lynne, is this possible? Can a relative actually do an examination of an older person and deem them "demented"? They live in a small town mind you so he might have been one of the only doctors around. He is also tightly knit with the other few doctors in his firm.

I'm just asking if this is possible? I mean could they really get away with something like this? They have almost drained her $700,000 bank account in a few months!

How can a relative do an examine? Can they?

I know this sounds like the classic "tormented patient" saga but now this seems to really be happening in my family. In this day and age? How?

I figured I'd ask you about the doctor thing hoping you'd know. Thanks. I'm just worried about her.

You'd have to find out some legal things first. Does her family have a durable Power of Attorney over your GA. In that case they can put her in. To keep her in they'd have to have her found incompetent. If a relative did the exam and benefited from it sounds limke a major conflict of interest to me. Maybe actionable, especially since he's derived benefit from it.. The "home" sounds pretty draconian to me, The legal stuff is public record and shouldn't be had to find out about. Having POA means that they have to act in your GA's behalf and her best interests all the time. They are permitted to be reimbursed for expenses. You may have tpo file suit to have things changed it' would be problematic because she his only an aunt

Thanks Big Ed,
Yes, they do have Power of Attorney but they certainly DO NOT have her best interests at hand. All that we have been able to find out is that they won't let her have a phone in her room because every chance she gets she talks about what is being done to her. Very few people have spoken to her within the last six months but those who have said that she has sounded totally sane and desperate to "Escape from this hellhole." Her words Lynne please don't get mad I'm just quoting. :-)

What a mess right? All I know is that her money is disappearing because all "the kids" (aka nieces and nephews and their spouses) are spending her money like it was growing from a tree.

They have my Great Aunt listed as demented so even if she rages on about being treated poorly the family just puts it down as the ramblings of an elderly lunatic. We have tried to call her niece a few times but she hangs up the phone on us. Now she won't even answer it because they know we are trying to help my Great Aunt.

When I say "us" I mean NY family versus New England family by the way.

Okay now here is the really screwed up thing--I told you this was a small town right? Well, the doctor who diagnosed my Aunt as being senile (my Great Aunt's nieces husband) is one of the towns rich boys.

"Family doctor" as I will call him here is the son of a powerful town politician who opened the nursing home my Great Aunt is now imprisoned in back in the 1980s. He's dead now so "family doctor" runs the place and rules with an iron fist. That is why they moved her into that nursing home, so family can keep an eye on her. Also that is why I think no nurses or anyone will speak up for her--they are afraid of angering the boss. Did I mention that the other doctors in the nursing home are "family doctor's" brothers, cousins or VERY close friends from childhood?

Basically my Great Aunt has enough money for everyone involved to be feeding off of. We know that she had about $700,000 in her bank account alone. What's more, her three older sisters (all dead now) also never married, had no children and were very wealthy so when they died they left her all their money. My Great Aunt could have well over a million for all we know and everyone involved with putting her away have got a share of it from the sound of it. Again, she's my Great Aunt--it's my Mom who's really close to her because Great Aunt was good to Mom when she was a kid and would go for visits.

I know we aren't supposed to have conversations on these threads but I hope this is left up. If this is what is happening at a nursing home can you imagine some of the things that went on in these asylums bak in the day?

Again I'm not trying to argue about staff or anything with Lynne I just think my Aunt's case is that one in a million example of what can go wrong with living systems. The fact that this is a small town situation doesn't make this any better.

It's just sickening that this could actually happen! And to such a sweet woman too!

Call the attorney general's office in the area and ask for some assistance.

thanks Lynne,
We are going up to visit her soon. Do you think that if we call ahead of time the AG will be able to help?

She has 700,000. Hope your family isn't spending too much, if it's Massachusetts the state is going to want a hefty part of her assets to fund her care. Any way your GA has the right to get a second opinion about her mental staus evaluation. Contact the AG by all means. Or find a lawyer that specializes in Elder Affairs practice and cosult with them.

Well she could have more than $700,000 if my other aunts left her their small fortunes. As I said above she could have over a million.
We haven't spent any of her money but the New England family has. I don't think they are spending too much--I think they have spent it all and now have no futher use for the old woman.

wow.....thatz all i have to say...<3

i can see myself spending the night there in that room, sleeping bag rolled out and a bottle of corona half filled with cigarette butts,

I wonder what most of you would write if you were a patient at Danvers in the 1950's - 1960's.How would you like to be totally disabled with mental illness and confined to a hospital with thousands of very sick people.Some people spent their whole life there.

Perhaps,before you unroll your sleeping bag and finish off your corona,you may want to take some thorazine or meloril and feel a little like the person who lived in that room felt.

Whoa, Randall - chill. It would be a little warmer than out on the street or down by the river where a lot of them currently are (those who have survived living on the streets, that is). I assume you are down there handing out blankets and sandwiches, right? If not, don't come here and give us your own personal guilt trip. This is an urban exploration site - not a personal flogging spot.

If their Corona is half filled with cigarette butts then they've already finished it Randall, but nice try.

Perhaps you should direct your disapproval towards their wicked smoking habit instead of them visiting an abandoned building.

Whats up with Randall?

He missed a dose.

Iam very far from personal guilt trip.I couldnt make it that far doing the thorazine shuffle.

Then you might want to think about a nice anticholinergic agent to help you with that. And after you loosen up a little, go down to the streets and rivers where many of the people are who have been "freed" from the mental hospitals and help pass out blankets and sandwiches, wouldja? Talk is cheap and whining is cheaper.

I have helped.

And you thought YOUR room needed redecorating?

Any update on Long Island's great aunt?

Hi L,
Nothing good. I think they have her drugged or broke her spirit or something because we called her on Christmas and she didn't even remember who we were. She's had no one to talk to for so long that her mind seems to have shut down. :-(

Thanks for asking though.

This reminds me of Eastern State Pedidentary

Is a Pedidentary where the put recalcitrant toddlers?

NO its another name for a torcherous prison

Danvers state was not a penitentiary, nor did we use torches we had electricity.

Mad house Prison

Big Ed,
Are you a old tour guide or something

I love when there are still curtains on the windows in abandoned places. There are some at Taunton State Hospital, too, but the ones I've seen aren't nearly in as good a condition as these ones are.

At any rate, this is a phenomenal photo. I'd love to have it framed and hanging in my living room. Absolutely stunning.

this one is great spirits can still look at their homeland

i know someone who went there 2 but now its knocked down

Strange -- the bars on the windows to prevent escape but the curtains -- a danger for a suicidal patient, as in, potential for hanging.

My mum has spent most of her life in and out of places like this. In the 80's she had a really bad spell and ran head first through a glass door, she survived but was a real mess, after that they changed ALL doors, she also managed to take down the security door. When shes mentally not well she is one powerfully strong , violent(to self or others) woman, it takes five (big) staff member to hold her down and sedate her. But when she well she is the most softest, gentlest, loving person you could meet.
Its a haunting thing to keep watching someone you love, who gave you life go temporaily insane over and over again....
The illness started as depression than manic depressant, so they gave her ECT a few times, now when shes ill she gets depressed than violent. We try to keep her at home for as long as we can (she hates them places begs not to be sent there) but when we cant cope/handle her anymore we have to send her.
It breaks my heart and soul but i know it has to be done before one of us or herself gets really hurt or worse...
Thankyou for taking the time to read this, dont know why but needed to share. :) x