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The DARK STORY of Danvers State Hospital - Inside the Asylum That Inspired Every Horror Movie

Solitary Redemption

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In Danvers, Massachusetts, people pay $2,500 a month to live in luxury apartments built on top of 770 unmarked graves. The building beneath their feet was once Danvers State Hospital, a massive Gothic asylum that opened in 1878 on land owned by the judge who condemned innocent people to death during the Salem witch trials. This is the full story of how a Quaker doctor’s dream of healing through architecture became one of the darkest institutions in American history, how it inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and eventually Batman’s Arkham Asylum, and what happened when a developer bought the ruins and turned them into condos.

#DanversStateHospital #AbandonedPlaces #ArkhamAsylum #Kirkbride #AbandonedHospital #MentalHealth #TrueCrime #DarkHistory #SalemWitchTrials #HPLovecraft #Session9 #ForgottenHistory #AbandonedAmerica

20 Comments

@lilybug246 4 months ago (edited)

When they closed all the mental institutions in the 80’s it was horrible. People who could not care for themselves, some severely disabled were sent out to the streets. Many just died of neglect, exposure, violence and many committed crimes and became drug addicted. We have to do better and re-open facilities instead of leaving people to rot in the streets and prisons.

@I-VOTED-FOR-THIS 3 months ago

My mother had me locked up there when I was 13yo. She didn't want me. After 4 months there, a relative took me in.

@LyndaLabriolaMahtoSapa 3 months ago

My mom had me committed there by the court as she told the judge I was a stubborn child. It was in the 60s . It was the most horrific place I’ve ever seen in my life. I never even had a visit.

@Mark-qw4cw 3 months ago

Am from Danvers and I was told back in the real old days that Indians refused to hunt on that ground because it was cursed and have evil on the hill people used to say hunting was active up there but natives refused step on the area.

@spamfriedmice4800 3 months ago (edited)

As a Supervisor, I was sent to remove Asbestos there, 6 months after seeing the movie Session 9, without knowing that the movie had been filmed in Massachusetts.
If you've seen the movie you'd understand how freaky it was driving up that hill on a foggy morning as day broke, and realizing you're in the scene of a horror movie, doing the same thing as the characters.
This place was spooky as f*ck.

@izzysmom5 3 months ago

I have vivid memories driving up a hill with my dad bringing a carton of Marlboros to my grandfather, his dad, who was here at the end of his life. :(.
Times were so different and secretive back then. May he be sitting with Jesus.

@rob440six 3 months ago

I was a teen in the late 70's when a friend of mine was committed to Danvers State for "observation" after her cry-for-help suicide attempt landed her there for 90 days. I visited her several times, and each one was exactly the horror show this video portrays. The staff seemed to be as crazy as the inmates, and the only way to tell the difference between the two was that the staff had keys, usually on a brass snap swivel, just like I used to do back then. I was approached by inmates drawn to my keys attached to my belt loop, and each visit was touch-and-go.

@Mary_Beth_R 3 months ago

I have heard an EVP from a different asylum. It's a "conk" sound, like a hammer hitting a mallet, or an ice pick, and then a horrific scream.
That EVP is probably the scariest thing I have ever heard. 😳😳😳

@Decepticon123 3 months ago

We need asylums open again, there are many, many people living in the streets that need help and they are dangerous to themselves and others. They sometimes get addicted to drugs and now you have a whole other set of problems.

@Leonard-x9h1v 3 months ago

I was threatened to be sent to the house on the hill if I misbehaved as a child

@Decepticon123 3 months ago

We smoked weed and drank beer there back in the day. We were trespassing of course. It was creepy as hell.

@greysector1330 3 months ago

Haunted as all Hell , know 3 who sold their units because of this , you can insult but you can't erase ...

@dgillis8231 3 months ago

The Massachusetts legislature not listening to the needs…some things never change!

@JohnOhanasian 3 months ago

I grew up in Danvers, and the only time we weren't allowed outside by ourselves was when someone escaped. I've been inside when it was still open while working for the town of Danvers, it was incredibly creepy!

@ErrantRubicon 3 months ago

I spent over 8 hrs in here exploring in the early 2's. A group of 8 of us started, then 6 then 4 (they bailed) We've seen some disgusting stuff. It's all true. The tunnel system was insane, sub-sub-sub basements, boxes upon boxes of mail going out and coming in; never delivered, the chair in the bottom of the well, stainless steel rooms, cribs, claw marks on walls and floors.

@frankholt4325 3 months ago

My cousin worked as a counselor at the mental hospital where Andrea Yates is housed in Kerrville Texas. My cousin worked there while still attending college after receiving her doctorate in psychology. She kept working there until 2015.