Hi! I figured after the ghost towns that we could go to another of my favorites, abandoned and creepy asylums and hospitals. I believe I got an email on the world's most haunted asylums last October when I was in blogger timeout, and I wanted to find some places that I hadn't come across in some of the other articles. I think asylums and hospitals are two places that are often given the 'haunted' label and since they're a common Halloween theme I can see why, there's never a shortage of inspiration or scary stories to tell. I've never been able to visit either one and honestly, after doing this post, I don't think I ever could. What scares me about these places and the concept of them being inhabited by spirits is not necessarily the ghosts themselves (if these places are really haunted), but rather the kind of spirits that would be there. So I believe in ghosts. Don't judge me. Moving on!
Taunton State Hospital
The first entry on this list might also be the oldest and probably the only one still in existence at some level today. Taunton Hospital was opened in Massachusetts in the mid-1800s as a sister hospital to Worcester Hospital after the latter's population began to get out of control. Taunton was created to ease the overcrowding at Worcester, to treat various mental illnesses, and bring the patients a bit of peace. Before long, however, this asylum also filled itself nearly to capacity, with the criminally insane making up a healthy amount of the population.
This asylum seems to have been its own little world, as the land itself eventually accommodated up to 40 buildings. According to a few locals, all of the original Taunton buildings have since been demolished, but the hospital is still in operation today after a successful petition by locals when the city mentioned closing it down for good. In the early days of the hospital, rumor had it that staff members were part of local Satanic cults, and the patients became sacrifices/vessels to be used for rituals that would be held in the hospital's basement or in the woods nearby. The story I heard about first when I started finding information on this hospital was the murderous tale of "Jolly Jane," who was a late 1800s serial killer. I think what put the real twist in this story for me is that Jane was actually a nurse herself, rather than just someone running around killing folks. You'll be seeing her again in a future post but after being caught and admitting to over 31 murders, her trial resulted in a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict and she was sent to Taunton, where she spent her remaining years. If you watch the Investigation Discovery show Deadly Women, you might have seen her episode. I didn't remember her name, but I remembered the story when I read it again.
As for rumors that the place is haunted, there have been so many different accounts over the years from a number of people that it's probably not just speculation or idle rumor anymore. Staff members, residents, and visitors alike have mentioned that the ambiance, the general feel of the hospital, was just too eerie for words. The hospital itself, as well as the woods around it, were said to be haunted, as this too was supposedly a place for Satanic rituals. Historically speaking, Taunton was known to some as a Satanic-affiliated city, so the rumor mill probably would have gone nuts with that fact anyway. Evil is said to haunt the entire area and in addition to changing the atmosphere around the place, it manifests itself in the moaning and screaming that can be heard in the woods, in the nearby cemetery, and hovers so close to the basement that most stopped trying to enter it. Lights have been reported to be faulty, patients have reported an apparition watching them in their rooms, and some of those who did make it into the basement reported seeing strange markings on the floors and walls. If you want a full gallery and an account of someone's experience after visiting the hospital before it was demolished, check out Abandoned America.
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3
Danvers Lunatic Asylum
It is largely speculated that Danvers Lunatic Asylum was the real-life inspiration behind the creation of Arkham Asylum and I can definitely see the weight in that theory. This asylum opened in the late 1800s as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers with the goal to accommodate up to 450 of the state's mentally ill and cure them of their various disorders and illnesses. The initial goal of the asylum seemed helpful to the patients but not long after its creation, the criminally insane and substance abusers began to be admitted to Danvers as well, so the institution quickly became overcrowded. Now at first, the hospital was said to have been against the use of physical restraints for the inmates, as their focus was 'curing' them of their mental illnesses, not imprisoning the patients for being ill. This changed after the overcrowding combined with a lack of financial support and a very overworked staff and as a result, the patients paid the price, which is a gross understatement of the horrors they suffered.
Various measures were taken by the staff to calm the patients, the most inhumane of them (to me) being the lobotomy. By separating the gray matter from the white matter in the front area of the brain, patients' psychotic episodes were said to have been calmed, giving them a more subdued and pleasant personality.....if the patient survived the procedure, that is. Shock therapy was used more commonly back then, but Danvers was said to employ inhumane methods of administering it. Other, less physically invasive (but no less mentally damaging) practices used to 'calm' the patients were straitjackets, isolation, or sedation drugs. Over time, the facilities began to drastically deteriorate while the number of patients continued to increase, and the care continued to suffer. Patients continued to die while at the asylum, others were transferred to better facilities, and bit by bit the building's various wings were shut down. The early '90s closed the doors for good on Danvers.
After the place closed, it sat for over a decade before a couple of the buildings were renovated and reopened as apartments. Troubles plagued them periodically throughout; a fire destroyed a good portion of a building while it was being renovated, then residents complained of multiple issues with the building's construction. People have mentioned seeing ghosts roam the hallways, hearing screams throughout the night, and lights tend to flicker. Even though most of the hospital was torn down and the other portion was repurposed, the asylum's cemetery is still standing. In a stranger twist, the judge who oversaw many of the Salem Witch Trial cases lived on that very plot of land some two hundred years before Danvers was erected. Do with that what you will. If you want more pictures, check these galleries: Abandoned But Not Forgotten | Opacity | DSIA
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3
Ararat Lunatic Asylum
Ararat Lunatic Asylum, or Aradale Mental Hospital, as its known by today, was a mental hospital built in the mid-1800s meant to help quell the sudden overcrowding of Australian asylums. Ararat was one of three aligned asylums, the other two being Kew and Beechworth, and it was very much an all-encompassing institution. Nearly 70 buildings were erected on the asylum's lands, and the entire thing was surrounded by some sort of enclosure. This is where I learned about ha-ha walls, which the Australian asylums employed in earnest. From the outside looking in, the walls were meant to look low so that people wouldn't assume that the patients were being imprisoned. But from the inside looking out, the walls were actually very high because the inner grounds were sloped, which discouraged them from trying to escape the institution. Enclosing the entire property was also meant to hide these people away, as the Australian government deemed mental health institutions as well as their patients an embarrassment to their reputation back then.
Ararat's main way of treating the patients for a time was through various restraint methods. Lacking the advancements of either the European or American asylums, they had isolation cages and restrictive bags that the patients were enclosed in if they got out of hand. It was a few years (or decades, I'm unsure which) after its creation that they began to use the inhumane methods of other asylums in operation during that time. Shock therapy, lobotomies and something called bleeding therapy (where the patient's 'bad blood' was drained from them in an effort to cure their illness) were all employed at Ararat to handle the patients. Disease and malnutrition also plagued the asylum, and as a result patients died steadily while in their care. More than 10,000 residents died at the asylum in its hundred years, which is a ridiculously high number. The hospital was finally closed in the late '90s after getting all patients transferred to other nearby facilities. For a rundown of events at Ararat's sister asylum Kew, please give their Wikipedia a read. Apparently, if someone deemed you to be an 'idiot' back then, you were fit for institutionalization in their eyes. Ghost Tours of this asylum are also offered; you can find out more information about them here.
Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Lier Sykehus
It was incredibly difficult to find a thorough history of this asylum, and with good reason--a lot of bad things took place here as well. This was a mental asylum in Norway, and much like the other asylums on this list, quickly became known for its usage of inhumane practices on its patients. What sticks out about this asylum to me is that many of the patients were used as guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical industry as they discovered, developed and needed to test new drugs.
Lobotomies and electroshock were used here as well; both procedures were sadly quite common for the time period and it was widely believed that lobotomies were genuinely one of the best ways to sedate a patient on a more long-term basis. The asylum opened shortly after the turn of the century and was closed by the mid-1980s. It's said that some of the buildings are still open and inhabited by patients today, but the abandoned quarters are haunted by former residents. If you want a full gallery of the asylum, LiveJournal's Camsen got some pretty spooky shots.
Research resources: 1 | 2
Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital
First things first, how creepy does this place look, right? Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital was an asylum in South Korea that closed very suddenly in the mid '90s after the owner fled Korea following an investigation into the hospital's operations. It is speculated that the owner fled to the States, but nobody has been able to prove that as of yet. The investigation is said to have been about a number of patients mysteriously dying while at the hospital with no official explanation to the patients' families about the deaths. The owner promptly disappeared and to my knowledge hasn't been seen since, but this caused the hospital to shut down just as rapidly. There really isn't too much information on this hospital, its operations or the investigation that ultimately led to its closure. It definitely isn't a Danvers level of notoriety.
From the plethora of photos from various visitors over the years, I'm sure that is where some of the damage comes from, another portion of it being left to nature for the past 2 decades, but it's also not hard to see that the hospital just wasn't very well kept while it was in operation. Papers, mattresses, doctor's coats, machines, and even puzzles/board games were still out, as if everyone had merely stepped away for a minute, which adds weight to the theory that the hospital was shut down hastily. I can only assume the patients were released back to their families or arrangements to have them transferred to other facilities were made. There have been no attempts to reopen the hospital and the local government hasn't mentioned wanting to do anything to it either; it seemed from the articles I read that they'd rather just forget it was there. Nature seems to be doing double duty by helping them accomplish that goal as well as helping this remain one of the creepiest places in the world. Locals don't take kindly to tourists trying to see the place and therefore aren't too helpful with directions on how to get there, and there is the ever-looming threat of being arrested for trespassing, but people still visit routinely. If you want to read about someone's account of their visit to the hospital (and see some pretty creepy photos), check out My So-Called Creative Life. Rather than the apparitions and various noises that accompany stories from visiting some of the other asylums, just the overall feel of this place is enough to give you the creeps. If you want another full gallery of photos, check out BangBangAttack!
Research resources: 1 | 2
The first time I did this post, it ended up taking a pretty dark turn, both in terms of the direction of the post and on a more personal level. This portion of the post was initially me on my soapbox, ranting about the mental health industry and its institutions. I had to tone it way down (and delete a lot) because it didn't fit the feel of Octoberfest anymore, which is why there are more photos than anything else. I figured I'd leave the more in-depth reports to the research resources I learned about these asylums from. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post even though you're getting it super late (I'm still catching up; it'll be current soon, I promise!) and I'll see you soon!
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