Danvers State Hospital Retelling

[SC1337]

hey there was a horror movie filmed here it's called ''session 9''.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@SC1337 Yes there was. Watch my newest video where I show you some locations used in the movie!

[kayllo15]

is that a pic of Frances Farmer on 3:15???

[Smile4theKillCam456]

I see that place often, I usually feel pity.

[pootsius]

I need you to wake up and open your eyes!

[toolpot462]

I live... in the weak... and the wounded... Doc.

[angrybirdsforever]

I bet those people living in the apartment have no idea that the place was a former asylum and execution place.

[nomatchforme]

We need a Serbian Nelly Bly.

[clintonearlwalker]

Last summer I visited the abandoned Weston State Hospital, it's just as horrible as this place, some of the lobotomy ice picks and an ECT machine are still there. It's the second largest hand cut stone building in the world after the Kremlin. It was started right around the Civil War and closed in about 1993 I think. There are vids of it on YouTube also.

[jeb5896]

I grew up in Saugus and later as an EMT would visit this facility... what a creepy place. After it closed my friends and I broke into it and I knew there was something or someone watching us.

[Rsteyn78]

Place looks like something out of a horror movie- guess who has 2 thumbs and won't be moving in ther... this guy =]

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@Rsteyn78 Interesting you said that. It was in a horror movie. Check out my latest video and see what I mean.

[pompom11]

Good hearing from you Doc. I was living there from February to May while I was waiting to move to Florida. While living there I talked to many people and asked where the ghosts or spirits were. Most everyone I talked to had a ghost encounter at the Cemetery.

SO, I went there at night several times at the childrens graves and not one grabbed my foot as I walked. That is what happend to the other people. On the 3rd floor I did feel ghosts though, up near the tower.

How about you? Anything?

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@pompom11 No I didn't experience anything strange or out of the ordinary. In fact, I've never had a paranormal experience, or anything I couldn't explain happen to me. That's probably what it's going to take to make me a believer. And you've seen from some of my videos, I've been to places that are considered haunted. It just hasn't happened.

[pompom11]

oh, you live in Maine, I thought you were local to Danvers when we talked.

.

I never felt any ghosts when I lived in Avalon for 4 months after I sold my house in Danvers.

.

I have the front door hinges a gift from one of the maintenance men who worked up there 30+ years.

.

So that's my souvenir of good 'ole Danvers State. Oh I worked there in 1974 and 1975 and a ghost hunter found my cancelled pay check in perfect condition and gave it to me with 100 others.

.

Avalon ruined the hill ~ terrible.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@pompom11 Thanks for leaving this comment. It's best to here from someone who actually lived up there. I'm curious, do you believe in ghost? Or did you just not experience anything during your time at Danvers State?

[genechick]

@DoctorColonelGonzo Yes, I was a septic, until I had spirits in my house, up here in Maine. My belief is (and many others) that some spirits never leave. But that's just my opinion..:)

[Miss65boo]

@genechick I totally agree and I also live in Maine! It's a shame about those beautiful buildings, torn down just for apartments and profit. I wonder if the tunnels still exist? Have you seen what was BMHI, now Dorothea Dix? She's probably rolling in her grave over her name being used on an institution. It has some creepy looking buildings.

[genechick]

By reading some of the complaints, some tenants say "the place is haunted by their restless spirits, and there does seem to be a sense of unease and foreboding about the place. You would catch me on the property, let alone living there!

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@genechick I was up there last weekend for my new video I'm working on, but didn't sense anything like that. And I was in the graveyard! Course, I don't actually live there, or believe in ghosts so I might be the wrong guy to ask. Honestly, I think a lot of the creepiness is gone know that they tore everything down.

[Carminaburana1000]

Ich bin entsetzt.Wenn diese Wände sprechen könnten.Mehr fällt mir dazu nicht ein.

[xxMrPilotxx]

I live in MA, not in Danvers though. But the highway passes right by that hill, and you used to be able to see the building sitting on top of that hill, creepily. Now when you pass by all you see is apartment buildings.... A good movie to watch that was filemed on location is Session 9. check it out

[xxMrPilotxx]

ww.imdb.com/title/tt0261983/

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@xxMrPilotxx I know exactly what you mean. The hospital used to scream to me driving up RT 1. My next video is about the cemetery up there and what's left for locations that were in the movie Session 9. I'm working on it now. Be sure to check it out.

[ThePhnx21]

@xxMrPilotxx I live in danvers...across the highway from the hopital but its only aprtments now but apparently its still haunted

[dahman511]

they said bonner hahahahaha 

[bedilisa]

Awesome....

I worked at tewksbury hospital during the 1992 closing of danvers. Much of the patient population was integrated....which was not going well in the beginning...also received med state population, which were dangerous.

[robkb1fjr]

It was Medfield State that was Shutter Island and State Budget Cuts closed it in 1992. With a "replacement unit" at Tewksbury State Publc Health Hospital

[SuzyScorp]

I worked at Danvers State from 1982-1984, in the kitchen as an IDA. Some of the patients would come wandering in the kitchen, doing the Thorazine shuffle.... Also, that place is so freaking haunted it's crazy!!!!!

[bedilisa]

@SuzyScorp

Thorazine shuffle and the mellaril twist....lol....haven't heard that one in years...



[SuzyScorp]

I worked at Danvers State from 1982-1984, in the kitchen as an IDA. Some of the patients would come wandering in the kitchen, doing the Thorazine shuffle....

[daleyander2468]

wow!

[ProviderMR]

do you know if the movie shutter island was based on this? partially at least I mean.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@ProviderMR I know Shutter Island was based on the book and the author is from the area. But I'm not sure if Danvers State was the inspiration. I've never seen it referenced anywhere. Hope that helps

[ProviderMR]

@DoctorColonelGonzo

Oh thanks, I didn't know that!

[tblackjacks1]

Damn. My grandmothers sister lived there. I feel bad now.

[shingoukenpo]

I BEEN THERE! 1 YEAR AGO! SCARRY

[TravellerFellow]

"We from the psychiatry profession are here to help you" monsters all of them. hopefully there IS a Hell. and they are suffering in it as I type these words on my K/B.

[sabMysterrr]

this is scary

[cgkeddington]

Hey look up forrest haven asylum if you live near MD or glenn dale hospital.

[CallMeMidnightAngel]

I wounder if the people living in thoughs apartments have any idea that they are sitting on the site of an insane asylum and execution spot...

[iluvchubbles]

@CallMeMidnightAngel Yeah that is something I would want to know

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@iluvchubbles I can say for sure most people absolutely know. There are grave sites on the grounds where the apartments stand and also a memorial for those buried on site. I've actually been thinking of doing a video about this.

[iluvchubbles]

@DoctorColonelGonzo Do you mean like a video on what people think about living on the grounds?? I would love to see a video like that!

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@iluvchubbles Unfortunately, I really don't have the resources to make a video like that. I basically do this for fun on my free time and I am limited to what I can actually do. I meant more of a video about the cemetery and grave markers that are up there. There's a story about the discovery of the the cemetery and the restoration that went on.

[dparnell89]

It's a shame to let such a Beautiful building with such vivid history be 'put away' like it was. So initially, did they destroy it?

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@dparnell89 No not initially. There were plans to renovate the gym and other areas in the early 90's after it shut down but it never happened. The building sat for over 10 years after that decaying away before it was decided to sell off the land. If they were ever going to do anything it should have been back then.

[SomebodyGlamorous]

Well what i think why this lawsuit didnt stop the demolution because there were some political stuff to built those houses, but it's still a ground of psychiatric hospital facilty so there is no doubt that there is some strange things happening in those houses sometimes

[taranchalafoot]

Masterfully done!

[cmpborat]

I read a book about Danvers State Hospital once . . .

[701bsm12]

Man, 1.5 million is so much money back in 1878!

Press F13

Thumbs up if you looked :)

[ducky3307]

ummm no mention of the fire (that was never solved) that burned down most of the newly built apartments?

[HAYDS510]

that place is scary as hell.. "witches" were trialled there and it was an old mental asylum "hey billy, you stay away from that old mental asylum" it just has that eeriness. i wouldn't go within 100 feet of it

[pompom11]

Colonel, another great video. I worked at the Kirkbride building in 1974 & 1975 and it was vibrant and busy and full of people and patients.

I believe the Kirkbride started to fold in the early 1990's when many patients were sent to "group homes" or out on their own in Lynn & Salem.

But as for Kirkbride moving everyone to the Medical Building, that's not true for the 1970's.

I'm feeling creeped-out watching these video's and living here on the third floor, looking out at the tower, very creepy.

[Blues353]

T.S. Kirkbride was a genius. When the IMF Rothschild Nazis came over in the 1930's they perverted his vision and turned these places into chemical/electro brain experiment facilities. FDR went right along and the Japanese heritage detention camps went up in a jiffy, while hideous Nazi type experiments flourished. FDR what a hero. Yeah right.

[CABLETHRASH]

1.5 mil is CHEAP!

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@CABLETHRASH Not in 1878. 1.5 mill was a big chunk a change.

[CABLETHRASH]

@DoctorColonelGonzo oh wait was that before inflation ever happened in the U.S 

damn nvm so was it about 200mil in our current money? just a guess anyway cool vid

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@CABLETHRASH Thanks. Glad you enjoyed!

[JugashvilliOnline]

Incredible shame, such a wonderful building replaced by pre-fab fuck-ugly suburban boxes. Shame.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@JugashvilliOnline lol awesome comment!

[zachs555]

@JugashvilliOnline That's incorrect, it was replaced by an apartment complex in the same style of the hospital, and the Kirkbride building was left intact.

[RougeRoseKatMarie]

I just hate that the beautiful building is gone. What is now in its place is ugly and it doesnt fit. Avalon screwed it up so fucking bad.

[nitewolf199333]

My dad used to be a security guard for Danvers State and my mom was a switchboard operator there as well. I also had a brother and a sister that worked there for a short period of time there.

[SlowUrRoll212]

lol the boner building.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@SlowUrRoll212 Lol It's Bonner building but close enough

[Adammartini]

wow what a shame. wonder if any of the tunnels are still underground

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@Adammartini That's a good question. I would think yes. Maybe someone who lives out there can answer that question if they see your comment.

[silentkingdom]

@Adammartini If I remember correctly, they're now sealed up with cement blocks and concrete. (the entrances I mean)

[vortex1114]

@Adammartini to answer your question, yes, some of the tunnels do still exist and if you know where to look can still be accessed to a point. Some of the tunnels are still in use as the power station still supplies steam to the Hogan center a short distance away. Most of the tunnels are bricked off from the main "wheel" of tunnels at the top of the hill.

[moremoxi]

OMG...what an amazing vid you have here. Was just watching Session 9 ( again, recently). Man, you all ain't kiddin', this must have been a tripped out place. It's amazing what the medical world can put over on us. Yes, we need them, but, lordy, if you look at the track record...ok, it get's scary, I'm just sayin'...

[johnnecron]

@moremoxi Hey Bro you aint shitten dude!!!

Don't ever forget the SRA scare back in the 80's

Satanic ritual abuse bullshit

bunch of Prosecuters and quack therapists putting the intimidation down on impressionable kids and making them think a whole bunch of shit happened that never did. And why ? So these media hungry power whores could get their names in the paper and their faces on the boob tube.

NEVER FORGET!!!!

[ElectricShark]

My late best friend's great grandfather was the janitor at the place.

One night, the doctors performed electro-shock therapy on an old woman and she died.

Very sad.

For a long time, the cemetery had only numbers on the tombs there in the graveyard but now there is a organization demanding to put names instead of numbers.

I can send you the link for the website.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@ElectricShark If you want to send me the link I'd like to check it out. Thanks

[atfatw]

@ElectricShark

I am surprised they had a cemetary instead of just dumping the bodies in an incinerator or giving them to a teaching hospital aka killer hospital

[RikDaPrik]

So is this where Session 9 was filmed?

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@RikDaPrik Yes it was. The director was inspired to use the Danvers State Hospital for Session 9 because he drove past it every day. That film crew was probably some of the last people allowed in. There really was asbestos and the floors were collapsing inside.

[sylviepete]

Sad to see such a beautiful building demolished, but why was she tore down, was it too expensive to restore (Michigan did)? I'm sure someone could have moved in, offices maybe or a public school...ANYTHING! I'm sick of americans shitting on history that's 128 years old? Let's tear it down! Great history anyway, thanks for sharing!

[xwinkwinko]

i love this sonnggg

[Gecko1265]

yes they had numbers for thier patients not names just like a prison they where on little metal stakes all around the property and thier where so many alot of times they buried them standing up to conserve room. its an awful place and they have now turned it into apartments! wich I think discusting those poor poor people =(

[PawSoxMom]

One very important fact was omitted from this video. Approximately 15 years ago, shortly after the facility closed its doors, a man walking his dog on the property unearthed some bones which appeared to be human. He called authorities who eventually confirmed the bones as being human remains. Subsequently the bones of over 200 patients were found in a mass grave.

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@PawSoxMom Great Point. Overcrowding must have lead to that mass grave. Such a shame that people would put their family members in an asylum and never follow up with them even after they died. We've come a long way with mental health in such a short time.

[moremoxi]

@DoctorColonelGonzo You already said everything else I would have wanted to say. It's so true, one could only wonder in retrospect of this. How could people subject their own family members to this sort of savagery? Nijinsky's wife was duped into never seeing her husband a free man again, Francis Farmer's family...duped...it's very freakin; scary...and, now, we still have the ol' 'war on drugs', instigated ages ago by Nancy Reagan, and, the like....family members notwithstanding!!...

[TheGmcFilms]

For fucks sake the music is inappropriate for the visual subject matter, surely a sensitive classical piece would suffice...G...

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@TheGmcFilms Really? Your the first person to say that out of two pages of comments. I think the music fits perfectly with the video. Lines like "You rearrange me till I'm sane", seem perfectly in place with the visuals and story lines. Our ideas differ on what's appropriate and what's not. And that's ok. But honestly, the video is in my vision, and my style. So, a classical piece really would have not fit into that. Hope you were sill able to enjoy the video and get some information from it.

[KimmiKo12]

I first heard of Dancers in a book called "Project 17" which had 6 teens break into the hospital the night before it was torn down. Most of it is a ghost story but the parts that described treatment. I'm glad they closed it. Though it is a shame that they tore it down. I found the building itself intresting and so wanted to see it up close. how ever close they would have let me at least.

[sun7port]

faked up. psychiatrist are bastards

[sun7port]

faked up. psychiatrist are bastards

[redsox1122331]

Is there any good abandoned asylums still left in Massachusetts... i was pissed when i found out they took these ones down, and North Hampton....i wanted to go into both of them

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

@redsox1122331 The only other two I know of are in Worcester and Taunton. What current state the buildings are in I'm not sure.

[moonknightify]

@redsox1122331 Actually, both have changed dramatically. I was a regular at the Old Worcester State Hospital, but now most has been knocked down save for the front Adm buildings and some of the round buildings. They are building a new psych center around it and will then demo the building built in 1955, another classic lost. Taunton is in bad shape may be torn down and Westboro is closing most of the Kirkbride style buildings, only DYS and cottages will remain. A sad day for history and UE.

[crescentraeder]

Bravo, wonderful piece.

[HORRORSHOWINC]

Worms dugg out the tunnels...or thats what I remember ppl telling me when me and my friends used to visit it

[bikr1975]

hahhaha.....well, my great freind harry lives in these new apartments called avalon apartments and is already seeing ghosts. he said he saw someone sitting on his couch while he then saw something faint wizz right by him.

someone on youtube or google showed the birds eye veiw of the property before construction then the blue prints of the new buildings and they built right over it without any respect for the graves. they were marked by square marble stones with #s on them. no graves found.

[megabadass30]

i know the graves you're talking about dude, my brother used to work near there and he showed me them, the ones with just #'s. he also showed me a few buildings including the incinerator building, they were pretty much fallen in, so we couldn't go in

[hellsmaw84]

its still shit that the hospital was shut down by the governor. from what one of the old maintenance said is that the hospital was in perfect and operational condition before it had main utilities shut down, which in fact lead to a water main bust on an upper room and resulted in that room falling onto successive rooms below. Danvers was one of the most beautiful asylums ever built and no one will ever forget what it used to look like

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

Great point! I didn't know about that. Just one more reason we should have kept this landmark up. Thanks for choosing to share that here man.

[hellsmaw84]

that poor man has seen a lot working at the place in the 60's. youll have to visit some of yarg667's videos for the link to the DSH website. it has all the information, pictures and the interview with the maintenance man who worked there mentioning the things i pointed out.

[megabadass30]

one of the most beautiful, yes. but have you ever seen the worcester state hospital? look it up, it's like edgar allen poe's dream house

[Vidboy2oo9]

I thought we started building asylums in the 1700s?

[DoctorColonelGonzo]

While it is true that the first asylum was the Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1772, the video makes reference to the widespread of mental hospitals in the 1800's, after Dorothea Dix's testimony, leading to mental asylums really starting to establish themselves through out the United States in that time period. Up in till that time, most places in America really had nowhere to put these people.

[chunghoe]

wat's the name of this song?

[enterthafatass]

Brain Damage -Pink Floyd

You might as well listen to all of Dark Side of the Moon, it's freaking amazing.

[headybud]

Great job. I went to school right down the hill from the hospital and almost every night my friends and I would wander through the tunnels and then go into the main building and scare the hell out of eachother.

[thEannoyingE]

what was it like inside? did you take any pictures?