The hospital first opened its doors in 1904 in Norwich, Connecticut. It was built in an idyllic location chosen for its therapeutic properties overlooking the River Thames.
The Norwich Insane Asylum was built isolated from civilization, which worked to its benefit as it began to grow during its early years sprouting new buildings that accompanied the original construction (see aerial view of the hospital here). These new construction projects included patient wards, staff cottages, laboratories and workshops. All of the structures were interconnected by a large network of underground utility tunnels. These tunnels transported electricity, hot water, and patients to various areas on the grounds. The hospital remained self-sufficient, almost like a small town, with its own power plant, pump house, working farm, kitchen, theater and church.
Over 3,000 patients and 1,000 employees were residents on the asylum grounds in the 1950’s.
Slowly patients began to leave Norwich State Hospital due to deinstitutionalization and it permanently closed its doors in 1996. Since then time has basically stood still on the property with a few exceptions. Currently there is talk about converting the grounds into a theme park, but nothing has been set in stone.
After a long tedious drive we leave the car in a commuter parking lot close to the buildings. Ever the vigilant group of explorers we notice a State Trooper making his rounds and dive into the forest for cover. Luckily we outsmarted the police yet again and after regrouping walk along the Thames River for a few hundred feet. We finally see the abandoned pump house looming in the distance and decide to make this our entryway into the campus.
This site has a reputation for being well guarded, well patrolled, and does not take kindly to trespassers. I am always on edge when exploring across the Atlantic and the numerous “State Property – No Trespassing” signs that litter the grounds did not bode well for my paranoia. Instead of exposing ourselves above ground to security and prying eyes, we decided to take the underground route through the utility tunnels.
Using the tunnels we explored many buildings without ever being forced to go outside. This method of travel was soon confirmed to be the safest. On our first attempt to venture outside we were only a few feet away from a security officer in a black uniform. Fortunately he didn’t look our way and we quickly receded back into the tunnel network. For a while we hid in the abandoned theater so we could look around the campus without being seen.
This encounter with security dampened our spirits and made our visit a whole lot shorter than we would have liked. We made our grande exit through the empty chapel, this allowed us to avoid walking back through the forest. As we were walking back to the commuter lot to pickup our car we noticed the State Trooper had been watching us as we suspiciously walked down the road. I wonder where we went to and were coming back from?!
Archive document introducing a new therapy (click to enlarge):
Special thanks to Dr. Bob for sharing the old postcards.
www.norwichbulletin.com
eerrr.. Awfully quiet.
Today marks the 5 year anniversary of Jeff Chapman (ninjalicious) passing. For people who don't know of Ninja he is the founder of Infiltration magazine as well as the book "Access all areas"..Ninja was able to connect explorers all over the world. He's an amazing inspiration for explorers of all kinds.
Just figured I would mention him..In remembrance? If you want to get a feel for the kind of explorer he was.. Here's an interesting/funny radio show he had done with UER's Av Radio show..U.E
Brewster's Neck didn't have anything to do with patients..I believe it's some sort of history that goes along with the town..I've never looked into it too deeply. There's no other cemeteries on the grounds for the purpose of disposing of the patients at NSH..Patient file's and DC's that I have looked into (about 20+) have all been buried in their hometowns and usually in a family plot.. Otherwise, I assume that the bodies in which are (unaccounted) for and had no family to claim them..were more than likely incinerated.. Other facilities similar to NSH used massive cemeteries with numbers..The purpose of the number was strictly for identification purposes..But it's obvious that no family was involved at the time of the burial.
While near the chapel at Norwich State Hospital, did you happen to notice whether the hospital had a cemetery? Most such facilities did, but we can find no mention of one here. Brewster Neck cemetery is so close as to appear to be on the grounds, and I wonder whether that was used for patients who died while under care... Any insight much appreciated.
Oops, "they I wasn't " I'm a retread...
No, I was agreeing with you on there being some in much better shape, just that they I wasn't gonna name names-so they don't end up like the popular spots. Yeah, there's some amazing places out there!
Zoe- Yes indeed. My email is around.
Stab- I'm not asking you to throw those sites out of your agenda..Just saying that as far as a more pristine and interesting site would be concerned..There are many others in the area that are in better shape..and (haven't) yet been turned into a theme park of sorts.
publish - you're doing a project on mental institutions too .. can you tell me more? maybe i should email you..
Oh, phantom and mustang sally... Familiar?
That's what I get out of it, besides I have a medical condition which prohibits me from seeing the word "no" when directly next to the word "trespassing"...
Nsh is bigger, really, building wise-yes! And the entire site-much bigger! Done...
Tru dat on some lesser known-far more intact institutions around! I'm not outing them, for obvious reasons- sorry...
Zoe- I'm not sure what you mean by trespassing.. There's clearly a sign at Norwich that says "State Property" ..doesn't that mean everyone in the State is welcome to come and explore? .. I hope I'm not mistaken here.
Pennhurst and NSH are similar in the size of the campus.. NSH takes longer due to the massive amounts of rooms etc. The blocked area's also add quite a bit of time on your explore.. Some buildings are blocked up from the tunnel or have a locked door somewhere requiring you to walk completely back around to the other side of the buildings to gain access to the upper floors etc..It can really take a toll on your feet trying to constantly backtrack just to gain access to the other side.
Pennhurst is much more empty and is quite frequently traveled by UE and others..Graffiti,Beer bottles etc litter most of the buildings. It's actually in much worse shape than NSH by far..Every roof to the buildings are rotted and exposed down to the rafters..It's seen better days. Don't get me wrong..I'm not saying I dislike Pennhurst..But there are FAR better hospital's in New England..Within 4-5 hours of CT..depending on where your located. It's the same way people talk about Hudson River State hospital.. It's totally a bunk explore as of now..But people still show an interest in the sites.
Zoe- I was aware of your freelance gig..I just didn't realize you too were working on a project dealing with institutions. For some reason my mind is pretty stuck on the whole theme park aspect of things since reading up on the current attraction that Pennhurst is being made into. Not to gloat..But I think your project would have been much more successful had you visited a few years back..When it was still a pristine explore. I wonder what the numbers CT through your way when you had requested access to the site for your project.. LoL I could tell you in 3 words or less what Borner told me to do with my proposal.. But this is a family forum here I suppose.
People told me it was as big as nsh- it's close, but the wich is definitely bigger man. Time wise nsh takes far longer to explore as well.
but no publish. not a ghost hunt although that is interesting but not the main point. i hear they do that a lot though.
ah publish me, you'll find some old posts from me here from about june time if you look back but in a nutshell im a freelance photo journolist in the Uk. a media group i work for and i are afflliatng on a series of articles and hopefully a book on the history of mental health care in society in the US and UK in the last 100years. Originally my bosses on this project approached CT state about a permitting us to visit the NSH site for an article. they agreed in principal but costs of insurance and the fee turned out to be prohibitive so Pennhurst state school was chosen as an alternative. im abit too old for trespassing and knowing my luck would probably fall down a ruddy whole on the property and break my neck. From what i can gather Pennhurst is just as huge as NSH and we only have 2 days on site.
FYI- about Pennhurst. A large section of it has been converted to a Mulch farm..The admin is full of garbage for this Haunting thing.. And most of the site as of right now looks like a construction site.. It's a moderately busy place to be right now. Pretty soon there will be nothing to explore. People just can't leave well enough alone I suppose..
(Information was provided by a UE in the Spring City area)
I assume with the statement your talking about a "legal" Ghost hunt of some sort? .. to each his own.
Zoe..What was this statement regarding?
"we're doing the visit to pennhurst state school in october since they blocked us at NSH. i dont knowe what we paid but it surely wasnt as much as CT were asking"
I'm kind of lost with this statement..
and Pennhurst wasnt an Asylum as they insist on calling it either..
grrrr
sod it. publish me posted the link anyway.
im honestly amazed this has been authorised. is there any feedback in local press to this. looks like i'll be walking right into that being there about the same time then. that should be fun. not.
for god's sake
http://www.pennhurstasylum.com/
we're doing the visit to pennhurst state school in october since they blocked us at NSH. i dont knowe what we paid but it surely wasnt as much as CT were asking! hugely excited about this project. there's a lot more amount of info in the public domain to reseach from than NSH which is surprising. (Corey Sipe was right on this if not much else)
agree with publish me on the 'institution of fear' thing at ~Pennhurst ... hugely disrespectful , but then people will do anything to earn a few bucks sadly.
Here's the link to the attraction's trailer.. It's supposed to open October of this year.. Don't waste your time/money.. It's going to be lame.. They're all hyping it up to be some sort of TERROR thrill b/s. I think it's just a complete joke..and being that 90% of the tragic happenings there involved children..these people should be slapped in the face. ..Most of the items were brought in from Christopher's hospital.. Here's the link Stupid.
I've seen titicut follies..That's a good flick to show the types of people/treatment that was available at that time. The lobotomist is actually another good one..And it just so happens to be centered in our area (ie. New England..Danvers mostly) The lobotomist also explains that in the early stages of frontal lobotomies patients often died during the procedure since it was still in it's very "raw" stages.. awesome documentary tho.
Pennhurst actually has a group called (Pennhurst Preservation) which removed a lot of the items from the site and I believe has them on display explaining and respectfully remembering the site's history..it's probably located somewhere in Spring City. The whole "institution of fear" thing is a really stupid idea..It's really disrespectful. Places with the type of history these buildings have don't need to be put through anything like that. That place has seen enough pain and suffering for it's lifetime. Security doesn't really exist at Pennhurst..There's been a TON of reports of SAR popping up during explores..They routinely do mock extraction exercises at Pennhurst..usually with dogs..It's definitely enough to scare the shit out of you.
Oh, and pub yeah, exactly! it's amazing seeing videos from when these places were operating, then actually being there. I really feel for the people that lived and died in them, and have great respect for the people and places. It's hard to even explain, but I'm sure some of you know what I mean, it's much more than some morbid curiosity.
And you guys need to watch titicut follies!
They're just opening the one building up to people, as a "haunted house" and they're gonna demo a lot of it I hear-I think one or two little ones are already gone. They have tightened things up there a bit too, mobility wise, nothing to fancy though.Didn't see much security-but they were there. I guess Friday and Saturday nights is when you'll run into more intense security, and lots of people! I just think it's very weak that they're using the suffering of so many as a form of cheap entertainment. If they were just going to let people in as-is without the bullshit stories they'll make up, and just tell the actual history, I think that would be better than this. They are picking things to set up for the attraction, we talked to someone closely involved in all of this... There are lights strung up and on in some of the tunnels for workers to move around in. It was really strange to see lights on down there!
Nsh shirt is awesome! I have some exterior shots I wanna get screened onto shirts... Yeah, the locals there know what's up, and why you're in town! Hahaha!
Also, I think it's cool that Pennhurst is opening its doors for people to go in and check it out, but I have three problems with this 1. they might have moved thing for the sake of opening up the asylum. 2. Just knowing that many people have been in, and seen the place in it's current state before and after you kind of draws away from it. 3. You are allowed to go in, no security, you barely have to do anything to get in and that takes away from some of the fear, and takes away a helluvah lot of fun.
No way! You guys are talking about Pennhurst school in PA. I remember when I was camping up there not too long ago with some friends we were eating breakfast at a diner and I was wearing my homemade Norwich State Hospital shirt, and the waiter came over and said "Oh cool Im guessing you are interested in abandoned hospitals and whatnot", so I responded with a Hell Yeah and he proceeded to tell us about this amazing campus called Pennhurst, and that he was there with some friends. We figured we go check the place out not expecting much, but once we got in (a little difficult for some I might add) it was amazing. I wanted to stay but we were forced to leave because my friend sprained his ankle on the way. Not as amazing as Norwich but cool nonetheless. I dont know if this was interesting but I figured I'd share.
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