spooksinmass

[spooksinmass]

THE TAUNTON STATE HOSPITAL

Address: 60 Hodges Ave, Taunton, MA 02780

Taunton State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital opened in 1854. It was notorious for its overcrowded conditions and criminally insane patients, including some serial killers. the most terrifying resident in this Massachusetts asylum may have been Jane Toppan, a serial killer who admitted to killing over 31 people while working as a nurse. Many also reported a "shadow man" who would crawl on walls and observe the patients. The main part of the hospital closed in 1975, and there are rumors that ghosts now roam the halls. Most of the original buildings were demolished in 2009. However, many of the newer buildings remain standing and abandoned.

[spooksinmass]

THE PONYHENGE

Address: 48 Old Sudbury Road, Lincoln, MA 01773

This bizarre arrangement of broken-down rocking horses, horse figurines and hobby horses is one of the strangest roadside attractions in the state. The horses first started appearing in 2010, and no one knows who is leaving them or why. The often change formation, and the herd is growing all the time. Some residents believe it was originally the site of a lemonade stand, and the rocking horses were a part of the draw. Others say that the first horse was part of a Halloween attraction, and was originally paired with a Headless Horseman. Other reports suggest that it may even have been an art installation. The first horses were joined by more and more over the years. The curious site is now home to around 30 abandoned rocking horses. Locals will see that they’ve been arranged in a circle or other pattern, sometimes resembling carousel horses waiting patiently for riders that will never return. The holidays sees them wrapped in lights, but no one knows who’s carrying out the moving and the decorating.

[spooksinmass]

THE MIDFIELD STATE HOSPITAL 

Address: 1-, 25 Stonegate Dr, Medfield, MA 02052

Medfield State Hospital was founded in 1892, and for over 100 years served as a self-sustaining institution and community for thousands of mentally ill patients until closing its doors in 2003. Unlike other abandoned asylums this empty institution welcomes visitors, just don't go in the buildings. Since closing, the hospital also served as filming locations for motion pictures such as Shutter Island and The Box.

[spooksinmass]

THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOME

Address: 230 2nd St, Fall River, MA 02721

"Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." This macabre rhyme will be familiar to anyone who has grown up in the Massachusetts area. In 1892, Lizzie Borden of Fall River was tried and acquitted for the gory murders of her father and mother. Her guilt has long been debated, with many believing that she did indeed carry out the killings. The story of Lizzie Borden and a visit to the scene of the murders is just the kind of grisly thing to fascinate and terrify thrill-seekers. Many visitors have reported feeling ill upon staying in the home, citing an oppressive feeling and a sense that they are being watched. The very brave can rent a room for the night in the infamous Borden house and test their courage.

[spooksinmass]

THE FREETOWN FALL RIVER STATE FOREST

Address: 110 Slab Bridge Rd, Assonet, MA 02702

Also called "The Cursed Forest of Massachusetts," this place is truly creepy. The list of things reported to go on here is dizzying: blood sacrifices, UFOs, ghosts, black helicopters,mysterious orbs of light, strange disappearances, giant snakes, poltergeist activity, murders, and on and on. Ronald Reagan reported seeing strange lights in the sky here and there have been an inordinate amount of documented suicides in these woods. Also interesting are the reports of sightings of Pukwedgies, humanoid creatures from Wampanoag native tradition.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & STORIES:

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/06/the-cursed-forest-of-massachusetts/

[spooksinmass]

DOGTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS

Dogtown is an abandoned inland settlement on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. What began in 1693 as a respectable Massachusetts settlement eventually became a town with an extremely bad reputation. After much of the town was abandoned in the early 1800s, vagabonds and seedy sorts began to move into the abandoned buildings. Originally known as the Common Settlement, Dogtown got its name from the roving population of feral dogs that were known to inhabit the town. Many of the widows of lost sailors and soldiers kept dogs for protection and companionship. Whether it was the death of their owners or some more unexplainable force, these pets became feral and took to wandering over the nearby moors and howling. As time progressed, there were rumors that residents of Dogtown had also begun to practice witchcraft and that curses were being placed on traders venturing near the town by Thomazine "Tammy" Younger, also known as "Queen of the Witches." Strange booming sounds began to be heard coming from the town and travelers reported flickering lights and figures in the surrounding forest. To top it off, there are odd words and phrases carved into boulders surrounding the town. Today, the remains of Dogtown are held in trust by neighboring towns and are open to hikers and wanderers. The rumored witches may be gone, but who knows what they may have left behind in the woods. The last resident of Dogtown was a freedman named Cornelius "Black Neil" Finson. Horrifically, he was discovered half-dead in a cellar-hole during the harsh winter. Sometime in the past few years, old dolls and stuffed animals have begun appearing in a section of Dogtown. Tied-up baby dolls and grim looking animals feature prominently in the collection.

[spooksinmass]

THE DANVERS STATE HOSPITAL

Address: 450 Maple St, Danvers, MA 01923 

Danvers State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital built in 1874 on Hathorne Hill. They had created the structure of the building in a way that would adequate ventilation and views of the surrounding land with the belief that it would help cure more patients and eliminate “the darkest, most cheerless and worst ventilated parts” of the hospital. However, that didn’t happen. Similarly to the Metropolitan State Hospital, the quality of care at the hospital began to deteriorate. This was due to severe overcrowding and a lack of funding. Situations worsened, and as the staff became overwhelmed, they looked for different and often brutal ways to care for the patients. Patients were soon subjected to lobotomies, shock therapy and “special garments,” presumably straitjackets, as a means of control. Danvers is sometimes considered the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy due to the extent to which it was practiced and refined there. On numerous documented occasions, patients would die in their rooms and would not be discovered until days later. The state closed Danvers State Hospital down in 1992.

ADDITIONAL LINKS & STORIES:

https://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com/patient-abuse-report

https://www.ghostlyactivities.com/danvers-state-hospital-hauntings/

[spooksinmass]

THE BELCHERTOWN STATE SCHOOL

Address: 6 Berkshire Ave, Belchertown, MA 01007

The Belchertown State School was built in 1922 for the purpose of sheltering and teaching those with severe mental disabilities or psychological conditions, to serve the mentally ill. However, it slowly became known for its inhumane conditions. Patients were sometimes left strapped to their beds for days at a time and staff sometimes removed patients' healthy teeth to make feeding them easier. The school was also infested with vermin, which were reported to crawl all over residents while they sat or ate. A father had wrote about the living conditions he had seen at the school when he went to go visit his son, saying that their were naked patients smeared with urine, feces, and food, vomit-encrusted sheets, and "maggots wriggling inside or crawling out of the infected ears of several helpless, profoundly retarded persons while they lay in their crib-beds.” In an upper floor, a note was scrawled on the floor, on top of which were human feces. “We were here. Now we’re gone,” it read. “Clean this place up. It’s a mess!” The School then closed in the mid 1970s after decades of reported human rights violations.