There is a lunatic asylum in Danvers, Massachusetts, also known as The Danvers State Hospital.
As a psychiatric hospital founded in 1874, it opened its doors in 1878. Danvers State Hospital was built on many acres, meant to be autonomous and isolated from its surroundings.
Despite the high cost of the building, the mega-hospital cost approximately $1.5 million US dollars.
The original layout consisted of two main center buildings used to house the administrative wing of the hospital, along with four outward wings on each side of the administration block. The laundry, chapel, kitchen and living spaces(dormitories) for the attendants connected the building in the rear. Danvers had a dedicated water supply coming from Middleton Pond. On each side of the main building were the wings for male and female patients, respectively. The furthest wards of Danvers reserved for the most hostile patients.
At first, Danvers was a success. It had treated over 9,500 patients since opening in 1900 and employed 125 people. However, the fact that Danvers had an excellent reputation turned out to be its downfall. Despite its official capacity of 450 beds, the hospital’s population swelled to more than 2,000 patients over the next two decades.
Danvers was a maze of passages associated with the more significant part of the structures nearby. A considerable amount of the Danvers Commonwealth foundations for the formatively deferred and the intellectually sick were planned with burrow frameworks to act naturally adequate in wintertime. In contrast there are even more stories of ghostly encounters at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
There was a passage that ran from a steam/power creating plant (which despite everything exists to offer support to the Hogan Regional Center) situated at the base of the slope approaching the emergency clinic, alongside burrows that associated the male and female attendants homes, the “Dim Gables”, Bonner Medical Building, machine shops, siphon house, and a couple of others.
In 2001, Danvers State Hospital was used to film the horror movie Session 9.
Despite its abandoned state, Danvers State Hospital was still fairly popular with movie lovers and urban explorers. 150 trespassers were arrested for doing so.
The crowded Danvers State hospital kept their patients under control by using straitjackets, frontal lobotomies, mind-bending drugs, and shock therapies. This sparked a huge controversy.
It was common for patients to walk naked through hallways. The patients had resorted to slumming their filth; basic hygiene was not provided for those who had to endure living in Danvers State. There were no cures for patients. They developed worse symptoms.
At Danvers State Hospital, 770 patients died and were buried in numbered lots. Neither the hospital nor its counterparts were the only ones to replace traditional gravestones with dehumanizing numbers.
In some cases, volunteers were able to identify the remains after an outcry from the community. Local citizen advisory boards for the Department of Mental Health organized another ceremony for these patients in 2015 after a memorial service was held in 2002.
H.P. Lovecraft, renowned author of horror fiction, drew inspiration from Danvers State Hospital‘s Gothic architecture and tragic history. The hospital’s eerie atmosphere and dark past influenced Lovecraft’s creation of the fictional Arkham Sanitarium, a central setting in his works.
Lovecraft’s fascination with Danvers State Hospital was likely sparked by his familiarity with the area. He spent time in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, and was known to have visited Danvers. The hospital’s imposing structure and reputation for mistreating patients resonated with Lovecraft’s affinity for the macabre and unknown.
The fictional Arkham Sanitarium was heavily influenced by Danvers State Hospital’s Gothic architecture, history of patient mistreatment and experimentation, and atmosphere of isolation and confinement. Lovecraft’s Arkham Sanitarium has become an iconic symbol of horror, inspiring countless adaptations and interpretations. The connection to Danvers State Hospital serves as a testament to the hospital’s enduring impact on popular culture and the horror genre.
What do you think about the Danvers State Hospital was it a nightmare? we think so and we are happy to provide you the best horror facts about this hell on earth.
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Last Updated on September 27, 2024 by Horror Facts
