Massachusetts is no stranger to spooky tales, but not all of them are terrifying enough to have made it to the silver screen. The story of Danvers State Hospital, however, is so horrifying that it inspired the Hollywood movie Session 9.
Danvers State Hospital first opened in 1878. It spanned several acres and was a massive institution originally intended to be a beacon of modernity and progress in the treatment of mental disorders. However, things didn’t go as planned.
Wikimedia Commons/John Phelan The hospital was equipped to house about 500 patients, with room for 100 more if needed. By the late 1930s, Danvers was home to over 2,000 patients. Overcrowding was so severe that some patients were sleeping in the hallways or two to a bed. Reports began to circulate that patients were being held in straightjackets and subjected to shock therapy, roaming property in the nude, and smearing the walls with feces.
Wikimedia Commons Danvers is also said to be the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy, a medical procedure that involves shoving a rod through the eye socket of a conscious patient in order to severe connections in the brain.
Flickr/Maria Elena 1969
The asylum eventually closed down in 1992 and the buildings were abandoned. Reports of spooky happenings such as disembodied footsteps, strange lights, screaming, and ghost sightings have been steadily circulated ever since, even though the property is closed to the public.
Wikimedia Commons/John Phelan
The hospital was equipped to house about 500 patients, with room for 100 more if needed. By the late 1930s, Danvers was home to over 2,000 patients. Overcrowding was so severe that some patients were sleeping in the hallways or two to a bed. Reports began to circulate that patients were being held in straightjackets and subjected to shock therapy, roaming property in the nude, and smearing the walls with feces.
Wikimedia Commons
Danvers is also said to be the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy, a medical procedure that involves shoving a rod through the eye socket of a conscious patient in order to severe connections in the brain.
Flickr/Maria Elena 1969
The dreadful history of Danvers State Hospital inspired the 2001 horror film Session 9. Incredibly, the movie was actually shot on location in the abandoned and crumbling asylum. Session 9 is about an asbestos abatement crew who begin to experience terrifying things while clearing the Danvers State Hospital. The hospital has also inspired other creative works such as H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep.”`
Today the hospital has been partially demolished and will be renovated in the coming years. No trespassing is allowed on the property.
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