Wide Hallway

I'd SAY that's a wide hallway!

Holy football field!

Reception area of the damned

Whoa! Hockey rink! This makes the ceiling seem so.......low.

I always had to pass Danvers State Hospital on my way to school. Got curious and found this site. Started to talk about the place with my mom and found out that when she was a nun (before she quit!) she had to teach religion at Danvers and was attacked in a hallway just like this one night on her way out. It took three orderlies to save her.

Motts...That IS a flashlight in the hallway on the right, yes? And, are those reflections at the end of the hallway, or ORBS??

yikes!! fantastic shot

Does anyone know what the strange light is in the right side doorway? It looks odd and unlike a "normal" reflection...

Once again as I child I was in this hallway, if I am correct, at the right side, that is a reception desk. As for the lights, or reflections, beleave or not I'm sure there are many of spirit within thease walls.

This is indeed a spooky area. Danvers was in fact Salem Village, the starting-point of the witch hysteria of the 1690s. It also has Lovecraftian associations.

Handsome as these buildings undoubtedly are, I can't for the life of me understand the mentality of those who would convert them into rental units, not to mention the state of mind of those who would actually live in them, regardless of the almost palpable legacy of suffering and cruelty and pain almost the whole of the place gives off.

I suspect posterity will not deal very kindly with the town and commonwealth officials who allowed these buildings to fall into disrepair, & let them be sold off as 'luxury condos'.

Finally, I wonder about a society that no longer feels the slightest obligation towards protecting the weak, the mentally ill, the poor & defenseless. This hospital was built with the loftiest aspirations & did succeed for a time in bringing about a change in the way 'lunatics' were treated, until it became a dumping-ground for the unwanted. Looking at the zeppelin-sized reception area makes you wonder, too, how many patients were in fact dysfunctional (by today's standards) & how many were given life sentences there because they were vagrants, or 'difficult', or old and poor, or just in the way somehow, of no further use ...

Very sad.

Damn that's a wide hallway! That's awesome!

Motts, have you by any chance try'ed using a tape rocorder (sorry about the spelling) to see if you could find any spirits, or even a cam-corder or something like a video recorder? just a thought, i want to try it out in that place.

wow how some you dont bileve in ghosts i think the tape recorder is a good ideah EVPs or (electronic vois phenomona) is very good i think you would pick up somthing. use a digital one not analog you get the electric motor noise in tha analog ones. or an EMF detector sperits use electric enegry so any high reading would could very well be a sperit and especialy in this old building you wont have to worry about electric interference form outlets and stuff.. even if you dont beleve i think i would try it any way but thats up tou you.

This is a picture of the J (2 or 3) ward. It's gone now. Back in the day, beds were lined up on both sides of the hallway. Beyond the nurses station desk is a dining room/kitchenette. Beyond that, is a service elevator that meals were delivered on. Directly across the hall from the desk are the seclusion rooms. The solarium is just behind the desk you see where the light 's coming from.

I'm curious how you know that Big Ed.

I worked that floor for a few years, is how. It's been torn down now. Exists no longer. I recognized the set up of the ward. The wards on the 2nd and 3rd floor are identical in set up. The windows at the end of the hallway told me iit was J building, were it A building the set up would mirror imaged

I can tell you if this is the third floor, the door to the ward is not the one that was first installed there. The following story occured after the fire. We had moved to the 1st floor, because the annex on the 3rd floor was toast basically. (Kinda neat lighbulbs had melted in their sockets.)

A patient had broken the 3rd floor door lock in an escape attempt. It was our job to watch the door as well as the patients. Several colleagues and I decided screw this noise. Lets find us a door. We went out got some tools and went an stole the 3rd floor door and hung it on the 1stt floor . We then brought the 1st floor door up to the 3rd floor and rehung that door there. The way we looked at it, it made the floor a more secure floor.

I shall no longer speak of getting spirits to talk any longer on this CERTAIN pic, the others i shall if i think i should....

Okay the place was open for about 110 years give or take a few. There is a Graveyard on grounds with 700 odd bodies buried with out names just numbers. I remember at least 5 suicides there. God knows there were more. Tranquilizers were not used until the last 50 years of the places existence. So I believe that there are probably more than 1 sprit in residence. Grounded, residual, poltergeist you name the spiritual spectrum it's can be found there. Ghost stories have abounded there for as long as I've been alive. All sorts of phenomena have been reported. I never had any overt experiences there. The feeling of never being entirely alone pervades the place.

I agree. I thought this last night. Who in the hell would want to live there where this bulding stood? I pity the fools who actually consider it. There is without a doubt, a living entity flooding these walls. And even when the walls are gone, it will still live here... And the word, grounded in that last comment is a great word to describe the feeling,etc. here...

Well Just the story's that were told to me by the persons who experienced them I know at least 4 types of phenomena happend. Apparitions have been seen. Foot steps heard, Voices heard (not the usual voices heard in a psychiatric hospital). Light going off and on in epmpty spaces. I know thw ladies on A-3 used to hear footsteps in the attic. Frequently my dad was called on to investigate,(he was 11 to 7 nursing spervisor during the 60's. The attic was empty all the time. It wasn't employees from other floors or security either. He'd find them asleep in their office. Many people reported lights going on and off after the Kirkbride was closed. This was before it was chic to go there at night to check the place out, and security only patrolled out side. Others reported some one whispering to them on one of the I wards. Occasionally people saw what apparently was a ghost in one of the empty spaces in the C building. I myself never had an experience, other than the feeling of not being alone. Wheter these stories are true. I admit I believe the majority to be so.. If there are any grounded or residual spirits there The change to condo's sill not make a great deal of difference to them.

I believe you, Big Ed. Please see my entry in the Forum "Why Are You Interested in These Abandoned Places." I lived in a mansion in Washington, D.c built around 1800 and was used as a hospital during the Civil War. I KNOW WHAT I HEARD!!

You are absolutely right! Condos are not going to make any difference to whoever walked there!!

ghosts are real Motts.

i've seen one and have had experiances with it. like it was leaning over to look at my friend (who can see them) and (thoguh i couldnt see it) i felt it touch my arm. i sorta saw an apparition of the same ghost in a field. (just to inform you this ghost lives in my friends house, thats why theres so many experiances) he threw something behind me. i saw him briefly (really for the first time) on vacation with my friend, where i actaully opened the gate for us. and made a loud noise when we asked him to. ... so, if thats not enough to convince you that they're real, talk to my friend who has PLENTY more experiances, such as the time where a boy was chained to pipes in her basement and his ghost would make ratteling noises and moan. and once he called her from an unused separate line from the basement.

What a wreck! Why do people let a place like this get so bad in the first place? A crying shame.

Big ED, if you're still here, do you know what's happening with all the bodies that are buried on the grounds? When they're tearing up the place for the crappy new condos, are they leaving the bodies or removing them to another location? I keep thinking about Poltergeist, where the cemetary was supposed to have been moved but wasn't really, and the spirits were very unhappy to have houses built over their graves!

Anyone? Where are the graves going?

They are leaving the graves, they cant touch them, well, i think they can clean it up, but thats it.

The Cemetery is intact and being maintained by Avalon Bay. At least that was/is the agreement.

I read an article in Boston Herald a while back that the cemetary is being restored and they are putting patients names on the number grave markers that are there.

tony c. it looks like a bunch of gost heads

My friends and I used to walk around that cemetary and drink. the places is hanut no doudt. again great stories and pic

As far as putting patients names on the markers. It might be problematic. Records were lost as far as I know. So it would take a bit of research to find who's who. I hope it can be done.

This is my all time favorite Motts photograph. I used to work on that floor. I spent about 8 years working there. My father worked that floor for many years as well. Put beds and a paint job therre it would look identical to the way it was when I worked there. It's gone now , pity, but what's replaced it looks good. I've heard horror stories about the quality of work there, but on the outside it looks good.

I'm hoping maybe someone can help me. I heard a "possible rumor" about how when the hospital was still open that a mental patient had escaped, killed another patient with a shard of glass, and then was never found...is there any truth to this and where can I find more information on history and whatnot.

I think it is just a legend. It didn't happen in the last 60 years I do know that. Whether it happened before that, not so sure. It's not a part of the ongoing lore from there. Everyone remembers the suicides, so I'm sure a homicide would be remembered as well. You could check the Danvers Historical Society website.

Thank you!

Great shot. I can just see Danny from that movie, The Shining, riding his bigwheel down the hallway.

Another masterfully light painted photo by Motts.

eww is that still carpet there?? that must stinkk.

At the end of the hallway, it looks as though there is a figure standing there, does it not?