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.
Well..maybe they did go into those buildings..and they just weren't interesting enough. Research is interesting to viewers because "it was a research facility where they experimented with monkeys and rats and the buildings also holds the morgue" Admin was used simply because it's got sexy architecture Salmon was used because "it held the criminally insane" While all of the quotations are factual..those were the reasons provided to the viewers as they did there walk through.
first if i were a ghost i would fuck with everbody you set foot on nsh ok i want know why t.a.p.s did not go in kettle or russle or ray or galt,or bell let me know
Yep, they didn't even seem to question sounds that are just clearly sounds of old buildings. I lulled when the door shut behind them because that's happened so many times to me in the lodge/ kettle- it's the closers, they're a lil sticky. Those guys in the lab were freaked at their own reflection down the hall, again, happens alot. I don't think I've ever been to a decent size abandonment and not a bunch of crazy old building sounds. That being said, I do have one crazy story from nsh that happened to me on a solo esplore. I'll write that up sometime tonight, gotta go back to work.
Like Santa Clause. Haha
Hey Chris. know you still read even though you don't post.... Started typing a bunch of stuff today. Text me.
I agree..Completely.. When GH first started it was waaayyy different. But you have to admit..those video's do kind of expose the bullshit that surrounds there whole deal with syfy..They are sellouts now..Even if they had credible evidence..it would not be touched by anyone simply because they have presented an audience with exactly what they want to see..not what is actually there. They got caught up in it..they went from a little tow behind trailer as an office to a building with they're faces on magazine covers.. It's like santa clause.. once you see your parents throwing shit under the tree..it's just not that believable anymore. ..sorry
Like JPT said, they are not the same since they first started ghost hunters. And I don't think they are "frauds". I think they honestly investigate places and sometimes find things. But as far as syfy goes, yeah there probably are a bunch of theatrics. That doesn't make TAPS a bunch of fakes. Just means they got caught up too much in the bullshit. I'm sure in the beginning before all the fame they were honest about finding evidence and things. Fame and money and other things can corrupt people. Happens all the time. Doesn't mean they were always that way.
And Donna was always a bitch. I never liked her much.
JPT- Just don't grab my ass otherwise I'll be seeing you when I die and it won't be pretty! lol. And dirty EVPs huh? That would be kind of cool. I'd be telling them ghosts to "talk dirty to me baby!" haha And Ghost Hunters Academy will be their second season. It was ok but the "students" never found anything on the first season. And I WILL find a truly haunted place one day and I'll be dragging your skeptical ass right there with me! (I'm still working on legal places.)
Right about there eh?
TAPS is interesting, and show some wonderful locales, but I never could fully embrace their methods or ideology. I was initially enthralled, when they would explain away ill feelings thru electrical "leakage", and find other more mundane reasons like a loose window, or faulty plumbing that would account for the "hauntings". But it seems now, virtually every place they visit is a Stephen King novel in the making! Ah, to grab the ratings! SyFy saw fit to put it up against American Idol, ostensably one of the more popular shows, and in a prime time slot. Of course they need to produce results of interest, to maintain that slot and the prime advertising revenue.
That said, I fully support Jason and Grant in their rise to cult icons! I love seeing the little guy make it, and these two are certainly makeing the most of their opportunity! They even have a reality show coming out, Ghost Hunter Academy, where they vote off one prospective candidate each week, to find "The Next Ghost Hunter!".
I would love to issue SyFy and GH a challenge: Prove me wrong, show me some irrefutable proof, and I will not only offer a sincere apology in whatever public forum you so choose, I will embrace the world of the paranormal with the same enthuesiasm that I now have for the skeptical approach.
I expect I shall remain as I ever am!
Donna V- Thanks for the info about sheet restraints. I never really looked into it too much. The only reason I assumed it to be llike our modern day straight jacket is because when we had found a set of sheets with a shackle of sorts through the end of it. The "unknown" building was 100% lodge..I know because I have been lost in that building at least 4 times myself..haha
Bomb- No your right NSH does not belong to any one person..but I would never suggest anyone who just saw this place on TV to just say screw it and start running around those buildings..if you can even make it to the buildings..and you make the wrong step..another explorer will be finding your body 3 feet down from a steam pipe or electrical conduit. It was advice.
And for TAPS... all I can say is that it was a weak explore. Sure whatever they covered some cool buildings..however one of the many "camera tricks" is the fact that they were there for 3 days..and all they came up with was headlights and "animal noises" ..Personally I think everyone HERE has heard or felt something on a much greater level than TAPS did in 3 days of full access to the buildings. And just for hahaha's here's a link to anyone believing all there B.S lately.. Sorry for this Sparkles---http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohfocjCX2sc also..donna lacroix exposes them here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH8FPaG8yQk
I would be the BIGGEST pain in the ass spirit ever! I wouldn't do any of that moving furniture or shadow foolishness, I'd be grabbing people. No one has the time to take a pic when they get their ass grabbed! You leave a recorder for EVPs, I'd leave XXX rated messages! And ANYONE acted like an a-hole, they would recieve a spiritual size 10 1/2 right in the g'nads! "Courtesy of the red, white and BOO!" (Sorry, Toby, hadda say it!)
Haha. You would haunt for the greater good. lol As far as stoned explorers, it would be pretty funny to be a ghost and watch paranoid pothots freaking out at everything you do. I would screw with them.
I want a spirit to follow me home. That would be awesome. There was a guy that haunted my work and when we moved to a new location I invited him along. I left not too too long after that though. Either way he liked me. (Don't laugh. I'm not crazy dammit!) He woke me up when I would fall asleep. Pretty cool guy. (And yes I did research and found out he died of a heart attack just outside the room I first met him in.) Anyways, seeing as he liked me I hope he haunts and fucks with everyone working there who ever gave me problems. Especially the maintenance manager and the douche bag president. Actually, I hope the presidents smoking indoors burns the fucking place down. (Sorry dad. You'll find work elsewhere if that were to ever happen)
Publish me- Saying stay away. haha. JPT- I love ya. You are always great for a comic relief. They have had episodes where they found nothing. I do however agree that TAPS has changed since the show first started.
Donna V- I don't know if you would be willing or not, but a friend and I are doing some research about NSH and plan on writing a book. Would it be possible for you to contact me? If you would maybe do an interview with us it would be great. We would not use your name unless you wanted us to. Anyways, my email is sparkles_believes@yahoo.com Please respond!
Paul is right in that we definitely had more happen to us in lodge. I heard voices (which he didn't) but soon after we were sitting there in the complete dark and we heard banging. It started getting closer. I turned on my flashlight only to find nothing there. At first I thought the voices were a friend who was supposed to be going that night only I found out the next day that he hadn't gone. My heart rate went up a little bit but it was a really exciting experience. I plan on going back in the near future. I am seriously going to cry when all is said and done and it's not there anymore. I originally was intrigued by NSH because it was supposedly haunted but after going there and researching it's history I soon found out that it is much more to me. I have fallen completely in love with everything about it. The history, the architecture. Everything. I just can't believe that so many people have driven by it over the years and not given it a second thought. I drive by it all the time and it still excites me every time. Hell there have been times when I've just about driven my pretty little car off the road because I was so preoccupied by the place. It's like it goes on forever and never ends. All in all it will be a tremendous loss to me once it is no longer there.
Well, just to be a pain in the ass, if I was a spirit bound to NSh, I would haunt Admin- the alternative would be to spend eternity with a bunch of insane spirits! Bad enough to be stuck in a crumbling asylum with a bunch of stoned explorers thinking my cool glowing eyes were a damned raccon, but to have my peers be the wraiths of crazy people....I would jump the river and go haunt the Sun! I'd make every slot machine hit a jackpot at the same time! The dice would always roll hard 8! The ball would hit green 00 on the roulette wheel 20 times in a row! HAHAHAHAHA...oh, wait, I dont believe in ghosts, crap...I guess I'll just go to my stupid meeting.
There had to be ghosts in Lodge! why else would an open door move slightly in a building with open and broken windows?? oh...wind. that show really was awful...Sparkles heard more scary shit in Lodge when we were up on 3rd floor... the whole place is full of animals! I saw eyes 3-4 feet off the ground in the tunnel under Theatre...I was alone at 3am and stoned as hell and I knew it was a raccon or possum ...that place makes noise all the time wind,animals,buildings falling apart etc...always noise...and light reflects off windows all the time when I started working there I thought I saw lights everywhere... and figured out branches moving and street lights were to blame. and who would haunt Admin??? the ghost of incomplete paper work? just awful....
Damn JPT, you're taking all the fun out of it. There is no other explanation for a door moving then a formal mental patients disembodied spirit. Why would a TV show that continues its success by finding more and more haunted places falsely claim something to be haunted? Let’s see, frequently fabricate evidence to prove hauntings or go back to un-clogging toilets for roto-rooter? I know what path I would take.
Well, wasnt that special? After all that, they heard an animal yelp, a chainfall , and saw a door move. Along with all the requisite "What the hell was THAT??!!" crap, and the movement and shadows JUST beyond the camera view!
So, we'll just ignore all the stuff that they didnt get recorded, as its not provable.
lets start with the chainfall- several times they said they 'knew' there was no one else in there. How? You got a goddam FILM CREW following you around too! And with all the hiding spots and such, which dovetails nicely with the U.E. that actually KNOW those hallowed halls like the back of their hands, well, golly gee Andy, if you hear a noise, its gotta be a ghost! Couldnt be some kid who heard of the well publisized TAPS visit, and went there to screw with them?
And the animal yelp. Same as above. Probably the kid from the chainfall above stubbed his toe on some rubble or a doorjamb!
Which brings us to the creepy moving door, WITH NOBODY THERE!!! Oooh, I'm really convinced now! Watch it again, the shot is taken from the waist up of the girls. You never see the bottom of the door. Is it possable someone was hiding out of shot and moved the door? One of the film crew, who after two days of walking around breathing mold, mildew and asbestos, was told they needed something more exciting than a couple of "Wuzzat?" sound effects.
Okay, now just a few general statements: 1) the footage was edited and cut, obviously, needs to fit in the 1 hour time frame. So that makes me wonder what was cut. 2) I 'm not saying it wasnt something supernatural (or paranormal, to be PC), but if there is a mundane way to explain it or recreate it, it has to be equally considered. 3) I wasnt there to personally experience what they did, so I cant say if it was 'real' or a stage production- remember, this is a big production show for SyFy, and if they never found anything, it would quickly get boring, and be cancelled. SyFy is in this to make money, as is TAPS.
All in all, not a real impressive presentation. And for Jason to up and say its Haunted after showing a couple noises, and a door moving about 6 inches? Not like the old Jason, in the first season, where you pretty much had to have something slide into him for him to use the "H" word!
Anyway, I didnt run and pull the covers over my head after that!
Oh, and Aaron was voted off American Idol last night. Next week we'll see the end of Big Mike, then Casey, and it'll come down to Lee and Crystal. Crystal has started to falter near the end, while Lee is coming into his own. If Crystal gets back in her groove, she'll win it, but if she stumbles and Lee keeps improving thats what people will remember, not what was in the past. Never thot Lee had a chance, now he's a front runner! Of course, the cynical skeptic in me says since we dont really know how the voting went, and if its really considered at all anyway, this could all be pre determined by Simon anyway!
If TAPS took Simon into NSH, that would be GREAT!!
It was the lodge though, btw.
Don't mind him, that was just my dumbass friend phonejacking me. He's full o shite! Your a dik Jes, Thanks
Oh it was the lodge Donna, trust me, and yea they were being followed... haaahaaaa!
hey donne v-md an yes that was lodge t.a.p.s was in lol mold city
All editing tricks aside, how are you sure it was Lodge? They said they took a turn off of the tunnels to get to this other building. If you look at the tunnel map, they would have had to walk QUITE a long way for a LONG TIME to get there from the powerhouse and part of the tunnel was purposfully caved in. I am not asking to be a PIA but more so because I sat there tonight reliving some pretty scary memories of that joint and Lodge specifically and I was saying out loud to my husband I knew that was Lodge. I am just looking for some validation. The doors were the same used in the Lodge building, and no not all the buildings had the same doors, and that view where they were looking down the hall where there was a counter/desk area to the right and straight on was a row of 3 windows and a door with a larger window than what was in the other doors was to the left of the set of windows was identical to where I had the most f-ed up experience in a mental institution in my career as a paramedic, and that was in Lodge. So I am hoping that you know for sure, it would make me happy
Nah, get to a construction site the night before they pour the foundation.
hey PUBLISH ME i am no mule for anybody an led zep go to nsh anytime you what this place does not belong to one person it's here for everebody to have fun.
i think t.a.p.s was getting fuck with myself
Great stuff on this site about NSH. I worked for the local ambulance service in Norwich for several years while the hospital was in operation and I lived in Eastern CT for the 8 years or so I was in the ambulance business on that side of CT. While you may have laughed at GH's filming there, my guess is they were not allowed to show or talk about the "unknown" building by the state, if you notice aside from the powerhouse and the research building they all were in the original buildings of the complex. Yeah it obviously was Russell or Lodge and I can tell you Lodge was no picnic while it was in operation let alone empty. I am sure they were being followed because when ever I went there the patients were in your face and at your heels the whole time. It was one of the schitzophrenic wards for sure, folks that really should not be in a group home. Kettle was the nice modern day face of the hospital and had the only slightly off kilter folks there, nothing too serious. As you moved further back off Rte 12, the worse you got.
PublishMe--Sheet restraints are not straight jackets, they are what they say they are. We'd make restraints from sheets and pillowcases and tape all the time. Generally you would take a pillow case and fold it legthwise, tie it around the extremity of choice and take the two tail ends and tie them around the railing of the bed (or stretcher in an ambulance) and take adhesive tape and wrap the tape around the knots in between the person and the railing and then around the knot that was done at the railing and they are SOLID. You did that for all 4 extremities If the patient was prone to wanting to sit up while restrained you used a sheet folded lengthwise, placed across the chest and tied on either side of the bed, when that wasn't fool proof (cuz it wasn't) you used the pillow case restraint mentioned above on the arms but you did one arm above the head and one arm to the side bed rail. And yes, before someone goes off on me, it was all legal. We did it for our own safety while in an enclosed space with orders on the committal papers from the referring hospital and I am sure if they also did it to patients while at NSH it was legal there as well. Sad, but legal and true.
Across the river and up Rte 32 is Uncas on Thames another wonderfully sick facility that ought to be investigated as well. As I was telling one of my friends I used to work with on the ambulance in the good old Rose City, between these two places Eastern CT had the creep-ass factor well covered.
I bet we get a lot of traffic through the forum now also. The "unknown" building was lodge..The screams thing is dead on in my opinion. Everything else was just stupid. It was cool to see norwich just sitting in front of my tv tho..
Led zep- Don't go to Norwich. You've been warned.
Bomb- You've been full of good information lately..spelling still sucks..but you've been quite a good little mule for us. Cookies for you.
Paul- I've told sparkles about the scream heard in Kettle. That's the most terrifying thing I have heard at the wich..However after the scream things started banging behind us when we walked back through the site. Also when we were talking both me and a friend of mine remember feeling interrupted almost by whispers.. that's about it.
Bomb...whos takin over? was that you makin noise? you were there a while too...you seen/heard more than they did right? I know I did...
hey paul by may 23/24 ssc will not be at nsh
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