Insane Asylums

[laura]

I watch a lot of shows about them, and people going into the old abandoned ones and I was just wondering if anyone has ever been inside one?  Or if you haven't been in one, would you stay the night in one?   To me they are just about the spookiest place a person could go.  With the lobotomy surgical areas, and old wheelchairs and beds....long dark hallways.  For example, that Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Kentucky would FREAK me out.  I wouldn't stay the night in there if you paid me.  It is supposedly quite haunted and looks very ominous.  I've just been googling some info about it and I remember seeing it on a few shows I've watched before.  It was actually a TB hospital originally, as many of them were.  I know in England my dad was in a TB hospital for quite a while and they'd make them sleep outside on beds, thinking that the fresh air was good for them.  And then of course it switched to a insane asylum once TB was under control.  But I'm getting off topic.  Would you or have you been in any?

[Tina]

That one I have heard about.
We have an old one in town but I can't find any info of hauntings there.
http://lang.sbsun.com/projects/lostamongus/displayarticle.asp?part=5&article=art03_patton
I used to live right across the street. And it used to have a working farm when I was a kid and all of the kids in public school spent a day at the farm learning how farms worked. First or second grade. Then we'd come back and get teased about being taken to an insane asylum.

[laura]

Wow, that one looks ominous too Tina.  At least the little picture of it does, it won't let me make it bigger or look at others.  Most of them were built so long ago that they look very grandiose and have some pretty intricate construction really.  It says from 1893 to the 1930's that over 2,022 people were buried there!    They fascinate, partly because I probably would've been put in one years and years ago because of my anxiety and such.   Back when lobotomies "fixed" people.  They creep me out though for the most part.  Just the words Insane Asylum creeps me out.     I mean just other than the unnatural deaths that occurred in them, you also have just the regular deaths and I suppose there were crematoriums.   Speaking of such I wonder if the concentration camps have ever had any haunting activity?  With so many violent deaths.....so terrible, sad, and needless.

[Tina]

Here is a link to a bigger picture.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/patton_ca/index.html
I used to have friends that were psych tech's there. They swore that although the above ground buildings were new, the underground rooms still had manacles and chains into the brick walls.
Those old build are all gone now and newer more modern ones have teken their places.

[laura]

Wow Tina that is GIGANTIC!!!!  Or was gigantic.  Wouldn't surprise me if there were manacles and chains down there.  The way the mentally ill were treated years ago was pretty deplorable.  Those old buildings, as creepy as they could look, were really something.  It's a shame so many were just left to crumble or be torn down.  My house was built about the same year that the asylum there opened. 

[Jim]

We talked about trying to schedule a trip to Waverly Hills as they provide guided tours or lock-ins.  I'll have to go look for that topic...oh here it is:

http://www.southernspirithunters.com/smf/index.php/topic,21.0.html

After the economy turned the way it did, we just stopped talking about it.  Maybe some day!  I think it would be interesting but scary too.  Sounds like fun to me!

[laura]

Thanks for digging that up Jim.  It was interesting to read that article in there.  It's a shame that none of you ever got to go.  My mother would LOVE to go to a place like that.  Not me.  I'm too wimpy.  But I love reading about it from the comfort of my own home.   

[Jayrod1972]

I think the t.v. shows that have shown the Aslyum where Ghost Hunters and the one that comes on Travel Channel with the guy named Zack. I am not sure if Paranormal State did a investigation there or not.

[Penny]

Great link Tina.

I would love to go to a place like that, but i do know that i wouldnt be carrying some little dinky flashlight though.

[Dianna]

I would love to visit the Waverly Hills Sanitarium. I don't know that I would want to stay all night there though for an investigation...

[Jim]

They have some 2 hour tours but that's a long way to drive for 2 hours.  I think the half-night or full-night would be fun though.  It is kind of expensive but would probably be worth it.

[Penny]

That does sound like a trip to take Jim, and if feasible, the all night would definetly be an experience!

[Jim]

The site shows all the half and full-night tours are booked up for 2009 and have been for some time.  The full-night is listed at $100 a person so it is a bit pricey.

[Penny]

Hmmm, ya i guess, but think of the fun it would be though.
Hopefully you's will get to go.......i would if i was closer.

[fallen]

I'd be up for the challenge - with a group of course... I have been locked in gallows and crypts before.