Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I know the poor girl is converted into condos now, but I wanted to do a little expose on Danvers State Hospital for my favorite holiday of the year!  Amusmental and I went up there a few months ago (during the Summer) and took some photos.  So, along with a brief history of the Castle, I'll be showing some before and after pictures...  Come along, then!

Danvers State Hospital, originally Gallows Hill during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, was built beginning in 1874.  It opened for patients in 1878.  Over it's 114 years, the hospital housed thousands of patients, accommodating 2,000 heads at times.  The hospital was only built to accommodate 600 at the very most, so conditions were more than deplorable.  

By the time I was old enough to get to the Castle, a nickname given to the hospital because of it's ominous, Gothic style beauty, the building wasn't only condemned, it was well into the process of becoming the newest set of Avalon condominiums.  Thankfully, when the Avalon company bought the land, they decided to keep at least the facade of the main Kirkbride building.  They tore everything else down, and gutted the beautiful Kirkbride, leaving only the front shell.  Unfortunately, once people pass the front doors; restored to the original look, that's all that's left of Danvers State Hospital.  In my opinion, the new "modern" look that the condos have adopted is nothing short of pathetic.  They could have at least given some resemblance of the older beauty, but they didn't even try...

Something that made me smile was the fact that the covered stairs, supposedly leading down to the cemetery, wasn't destroyed, but rather, refurbished.  The photo on the left is of the original covered stairs, and the one on the right is a recent photo.  (I got a bit filter happy, and haven't found the original yet...) It was exciting to walk down the stairs, and follow the path to what was supposed to be the memorial dedicated to and by the patients.  The memorial was destroyed, however, and hadn't been fixed.  I'm sure some of you are looking for the ghost stories floating around Danvers, but that would make this already long post too much longer.  I'll leave you with one more image; the photo I wanted to take since I can remember; the clocktower of the Kirkbride building.  The clock itself was remodeled, and the windows have been added again, but this the last remaining piece of the Castle on the Hill:

 Happy Halloween everyone!!

Six