Danvers, Massachusetts is home to many historical horrors. The most famous of these, is of course, the Salem Witch Trials. Only 5 miles from Salem and having once been called Salem village itself, Danvers is home to Rebecca Nurse’s homestead and grave, the Salem Witch Trials memorial, and once upon a time, the home of John Hathorne, one of the most vocal and cruel of judges in the Salem Witch Trials. Hathorne Hill was home to another historical horror as well, though; the Danvers State Insane Asylum, or as it was known by many when it was first opened, the Danvers Lunatic Asylum.

Designed by Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee and opened in 1878, the hospital was meant to act a beacon of hope. The asylum had enough space for 500 patients, and those patients were to be treated with good care. There were many luxuries that the patients would be allowed to take advantage of, including a gymnasium and a large garden.

Although the asylum may have acted as a beacon of hope in the beginning, by the early 1880’s overcrowding was already an issue. By the 1920’s, the hospital had declined at a rapid rate. Instead of 500 patients, there were 2,000, and instead of adding more buildings and increasing the nurses and doctors to meet demand, beds were added to existing rooms and the number of staff stayed the same.

If this weren’t enough, a large influx of criminals and addicts flooded into the hospital as well, only helped marginally by the hospital for the criminally insane built in 1886. With the ratio of staff to patients being so poor, new methods of care were taken up. In the 1930’s, straight jackets were introduced. In 1946, Insulin Coma Therapy was taken up, which is the practice of inducing daily coma’s through large amounts of insulin.

Patients were beaten, and dying even more often, whether of illness or of injury. By 1939, 61 years after the opening of the hospital, 400 patients had died of unnatural causes, meaning an average of 6 people died each year. If all this wasn’t enough, the worst was yet to come.

Some say that the Danvers State Insane Asylum was the birthplace of the prefrontal lobotomy. In 1948, the prefrontal lobotomy was introduced to the asylum by Walter Freeman. This consisted of using a tool somewhere between a pickaxe and a metal rod, which was then inserted into the corner of the eye socket and used to ‘stir’ the brain, for lack of a better word. This horrifying practice was, of course, done without any anesthetic. The only form of relief was that the patient was knocked unconscious through electroshock therapy before the procedure was performed. Walter Freeman, the inventor of this method performed more than 2,500 lobotomies total, at least 19 of which were performed on minors.

This method caused an entirely new issue. While about ⅓ of the lobotomies were successful, ⅓ of them caused death, and the last ⅓ of the patients forgot basic things, such as how to eat, walk, and bathe themselves, which would then have to be retaught. 278 people died that year alone.

By 1950, electroshock therapy had made itself a home at Danvers State Hospital. This was done in hope that the patients behaviour would either be altered by the shocks, or would scare them into behaving. By this point, no one was being cured or treated. Patients wandered the halls covered in their own waste, sometimes completely naked.

The lobotomy started its decline in 1955, when Thorazine was invented, an antipsychotic pill meant to replace the lobotomy. By this point however, public opinion had turned against the Danvers State Insane Asylum. The infamous Arkham Asylum of the DC Comics was said to be based off of the asylum, as was the short story “The Thing on the Doorstep” by H.P. Lovecraft.

Investigations were run on the hospital, with patient deaths finally being investigated and complaints of abuse being looked at. By the 1970’s, the hospital started the deinstitutionalization process, and was officially closed in 1991. The last patients and employees were transferred out, and the hospital was abandoned until 2006, when Avalon Bay purchased the property.

Only the main building was kept standing, to the horror of historians everywhere, some of whom tried to sue to stop the demolition. Despite this, the buildings were brought down and an apartment complex made its home on Hathorne Hill. It has been sold once more since then. In 2014, the building was bought by DSF Group.

Although no longer a psychiatric hospital, ghosts still haunt the walls-both literally, and figuratively. There have been reports of hearing disembodied voices and wails, of apparitions of previous patients and of pleads for attention by those who have long since passed. With such a history of cruelty, the apartment complex that stands on the grounds now seems doomed to failure.

More Information

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/john-hathorne-the-salem-witch-judge/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/danvers-state-hospital
http://www.house-crazy.com/the-crazy-house-danvers-state-insane-asylum/
https://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com/downsizing-report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_State_Hospital
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cemetery-danvers-hospital-criminally-insane
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/history-of-danvers-state-hospital/
https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-surprising-history-of-the-lobotomy/
http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/?ch=two
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jackson_Freeman_II
http://myamericanodyssey.com/the-creepiest-town-in-america-danvers-ma/