Southern Spirit Hunters

Spirited Places => Other Places => Topic started by: laura on Sep 18, 2009, 12:46:17 PM

Title: Insane Asylums
Post by: laura on Sep 18, 2009, 12:46:17 PM
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?
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Tina on Sep 18, 2009, 01:20:53 PM
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 (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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: laura on Sep 18, 2009, 01:31:22 PM
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.   :scaredy:  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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Tina on Sep 18, 2009, 01:38:47 PM
Here is a link to a bigger picture.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/patton_ca/index.html (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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: laura on Sep 18, 2009, 01:48:13 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jim on Sep 18, 2009, 07:16:36 PM
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 (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!
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: laura on Sep 19, 2009, 08:20:33 AM
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.   :smile:
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jayrod1972 on Sep 19, 2009, 06:01:13 PM
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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Penny on Sep 21, 2009, 08:24:45 AM
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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Dianna on Sep 23, 2009, 07:49:50 PM
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... :giggle:
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jim on Sep 23, 2009, 08:11:07 PM
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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Penny on Sep 24, 2009, 07:53:53 AM
That does sound like a trip to take Jim, and if feasible, the all night would definetly be an experience!
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jim on Sep 24, 2009, 01:17:33 PM
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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Penny on Sep 24, 2009, 02:57:04 PM
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.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: fallen on Sep 25, 2009, 11:35:59 PM
I'd be up for the challenge - with a group of course... I have been locked in gallows and crypts before.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: ProfJayRob on Jun 24, 2012, 10:13:51 AM
The old asylum at the South Carolina State Hospital was one of the first in the US built with public funds. I am not familiar with any stories surrounding the place, unlike the asylum in Greenville. Now that the campus has been purchased by a private developer most of the more recent pictures make it look like a resort.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Nov 30, 2012, 11:26:49 AM
I hate to call it an insane asylum but Milledge, where Ginger lives, has a hospital for people with mental issues, The Haunted Jones Building at Milledgeville's Lunatic Asylum (aka Central State Hospital) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE6cmcE4350.#)  It was terrible before autism, ADD, ADHD, bipolar disease, and so on were actually seen as medical issues.  Those poor people.  Now I think people are over medicated.  Instead of trying to work through an issue let's give them a pill.  No happy medium.  When it opened it was "Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum".  How sad is that.  If the hospital is for idiots, I know a lot of people who should be committed.  Even today the mentally ill are clumped together with people who have developmental disabilities.  Totally different situations.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: sunsoaker on Nov 30, 2012, 06:38:39 PM
They have one in Salem Oregon that looks a lot like that one right down to the bars on the windows. And it's right down in town. It's simply called the Oregon State Hospital - or it was when I lived there. Not sure it's even still open, they've closed so many state run facilities there.

Is that one still operational?
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Dec 02, 2012, 10:40:31 PM
Yes, it's open.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bayou girl on Dec 07, 2012, 12:52:16 PM
We have one in Savannah called "Georgia regional". But it is a mental hospital. They tried to close it but the residents, families, and community pitched a fit and they found money to keep it open.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Dec 12, 2012, 10:20:57 AM
Jenn, maybe you can take a vacation there - away from the family. :devgel:
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bayou girl on Dec 12, 2012, 07:58:57 PM
Jenn, maybe you can take a vacation there - away from the family. :devgel:
:giggle: i've tried, they won't take me... :giggle:
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Jan 28, 2013, 01:17:33 PM
If I'm able I'm going to Ginger's the 15th and I'm going to do a ride by.  This fascinates me.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jim on Jan 28, 2013, 04:45:38 PM
The lady that posted the YouTube video says it is not operational any more but that it is patrolled heavily by law enforcement as it is private property.  She says she has pictures on her FaceBook page.  She even mentions that she knows of several paranormal groups that have got into trouble there.  I guess they went in without permission.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Bonnie on Jan 28, 2013, 04:53:11 PM
Don't go getting in trouble with the PoPo, Sheri.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Dianna on Jan 28, 2013, 06:25:17 PM
And I was worrying that they would keep her... :giggle:
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Jan 29, 2013, 04:37:46 PM
May daughter says that some of the buildings are operational.  She's not sure as what but says people work in a section of the campus.

Bonnie, keep your phone close in case I call for bail money.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: Jim on Jan 29, 2013, 08:24:51 PM
According to this it closed in 2010.

http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/01/20/central-state-closing-to-mental-health-patients (http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/01/20/central-state-closing-to-mental-health-patients)

Or at least they decided to close it.  Maybe taking longer than they anticipated.
Title: Re: Insane Asylums
Post by: bestofour on Jan 31, 2013, 02:56:39 PM
Doesn't look like I'll be making it to GA any time soon anyway.  I'm too exhausted to make that drive.
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