"You wait all that time to see a padded cell and then three come along at once..."
State Schools or to give them their more accurate and modern name Developmental Centers are peculiar things. They are kind of placed halfway between a fully fledged Asylum and a standard school, that is they are charged with housing, educating and treating developmentally disabled and mentally unwell children and adults that perhaps are unsuited to being committed to a full-on psychiatric facility.
Most of the Developmental Centers dotted around the USA are old institutions housed in historic complexes of buildings however this one is different. It was built in the early 1960s to relieve overcrowding at other facilities nearby and it's stark clinical architecture is worlds away from the beauty of other institutions. The buildings sprawl across a huge 400 acre site, mostly low rise or single storey with the exception of the main hospital building which towers above them all - and is the only building still in active use today. Long winding corridors linked buildings together in sections adding to the overall feel of a sprawl laid out before you.
The facility closed in 2011 and had remained sealed ever since. However an explorer friend of mine who lives practically next door to it one day said it had been opened up...at least partially. All the doors into the corridors that connect different buildings together were securely locked but he assured me that the most interesting building was accessible and there was a chance other parts would be too, it was just a matter of luck as security were pretty on it according to him. Once inside it became apparent just how untouched this place was, by far the cleanest location I've been to anywhere in the USA. The power is still on across much of the site and although it's largely stripped of everything that wasn't bolted down there is enough left to make it interesting. We managed to get into a couple of buildings - the main one of interest which was the former recreation centre and housed a mint bowling alley, swimming pool and a strange combined gymnasium-theatre-chapel combo complete with the nicest projectors I've seen for ages, and we also found a way into one of the more generic buildings on site. Oh and there were three padded cells and numerous padded rooms in just the two buildings we got into, so lord knows how many there are in total.
Thanks for looking
State Schools or to give them their more accurate and modern name Developmental Centers are peculiar things. They are kind of placed halfway between a fully fledged Asylum and a standard school, that is they are charged with housing, educating and treating developmentally disabled and mentally unwell children and adults that perhaps are unsuited to being committed to a full-on psychiatric facility.
Most of the Developmental Centers dotted around the USA are old institutions housed in historic complexes of buildings however this one is different. It was built in the early 1960s to relieve overcrowding at other facilities nearby and it's stark clinical architecture is worlds away from the beauty of other institutions. The buildings sprawl across a huge 400 acre site, mostly low rise or single storey with the exception of the main hospital building which towers above them all - and is the only building still in active use today. Long winding corridors linked buildings together in sections adding to the overall feel of a sprawl laid out before you.
The facility closed in 2011 and had remained sealed ever since. However an explorer friend of mine who lives practically next door to it one day said it had been opened up...at least partially. All the doors into the corridors that connect different buildings together were securely locked but he assured me that the most interesting building was accessible and there was a chance other parts would be too, it was just a matter of luck as security were pretty on it according to him. Once inside it became apparent just how untouched this place was, by far the cleanest location I've been to anywhere in the USA. The power is still on across much of the site and although it's largely stripped of everything that wasn't bolted down there is enough left to make it interesting. We managed to get into a couple of buildings - the main one of interest which was the former recreation centre and housed a mint bowling alley, swimming pool and a strange combined gymnasium-theatre-chapel combo complete with the nicest projectors I've seen for ages, and we also found a way into one of the more generic buildings on site. Oh and there were three padded cells and numerous padded rooms in just the two buildings we got into, so lord knows how many there are in total.
Thanks for looking
