Noho's Abandoned Asylum
These are images from Northampton's abandoned insane asylum. Abandoned buildings always hold a certain charm, particularly those with a flavorful past. An insane asylum must have more atmosphere than a dozen abandoned factories. But this place also has gorgeous archicteture, one reason it was never torn down. From afar, it looks much like a faerie castle. The building itself is a study in contrasts. Its sagging neo-gothic facade, complete with vine-covered towers and fountain would have shown a gorgeous exterior to visitors, but walking around the building reveals flat and sterile walls pockmarked with barred and broken windows. This side is the one the patients saw, if they were ever let out from their rooms into the now-overgrown yards. In the back, a forlorn crab apple tree stands watch over what must have been an outdoor area. The remains of a chain link fence guard a courtyard, complete with toilet.
Ever since I first saw this place, I could think of nothing but to enter it, to penetrate it. I peered into windows, examined all the doors. My desire to enter this place neared a feeling of lust. Finally, after a year of such yearning, I was able to go inside. How much more beautiful it is within? Peeling plaster walls in pastels, empty bathtubs and moth-eaten mattresses. Long stygian hallways, punctuated by the occassional caved-in floor. A whiskey bottle left behind by some vagrant reminds me I am not the only visitor to this place.
You must, if you can, visit Ian's site to see pictures of the theater. I had heard there was a theater inside, and was overjoyed to find it. We entered it on a balcony which overlooked the huge auditorium. Tattered curtains fluttered from huge lancet windows, looming much larger inside than they appear on the outside. Choir books, their pages ripped out and chaotically strewn across the floor. A stage. What plays were performed here? What musicals? Who sang, who danced, who feigned laughter and tears? Did happiness dwell here, or was it some sadistic parody of that emotion?
Strangely, nothing is more frightening than the kitchens. As I look into closets, I wonder if these are solitary cells or meat lockers. They are meat lockers, of course, although it is rumored this place holds solitary cells no wider than a large man's shoulders, with a door that would shut upon the tip of one's nose. Also, it is said that lobotomies were performed in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath this place. Who can believe these stories? Surely, however, atrocities did happen here, for who would believe the insane? You can feel these atrocities in the air. The screams are capsulized and held through time, echoing in the regions of your mind.
I encourage you to visit, look at least upon the exterior of this unusual place. You can look upon these pictures, but you will not know the asylum, feel its unique character, unless you have seen it with your own eyes, and felt it with your own beating heart.
Okay, enough of that pretentious crap now -- on to the images!
Other pics of the asylum are available Ian Herrick's homepage.
Some of these pictures are of the outbuildings, the machine shop, the collapsing barn, the doctor's dwelling, the nurse's stations, the "bowling alley". The asylum is not one, but many buildings, supposedly connected by tunnels. I personally know people who have been in these tunnels.
The towers you see in many of these pictures may have been guard towers? Now, cats live in them. On the close-set wrought iron stairs leading up to these towers, ages-old feline fecal matter is everywhere. I'm told that if you were to actually enter the tower, cats will surround your head. I'm surprised these cats still live, but I know someone who actually owns a cat she got from the asylum. They were originally bred and raised at the asylum to combat the rat problem. I believe that someone still feeds the cats, as I saw a hubcap filled with catfood near the doctor's house.
The oblong shaped building which you will see if you walk from the Smith athletic fields to the asylum is the bowling alley. An old and forgetful guard informed me of this fact.
Update 2001 - The Northampton State Hospital aka the asylum is scheduled for demolition. The land will be used to build low-income housing. Last time I was there, it was very accessible and not very well-guarded. You may not have much time left to see this beautiful and historic building.
You may be interested in other asylums, and general Urban Exploration. See my Urban Exploration links.