Taunton State Hospital, Massachusetts, USA
Built in 1854, Taunton State Hospital was as a psychiatric hospital located in Taunton, Massachusetts and it brags a horrible yet alarming history. You would understand the entire story if you are aware of the hospital’s most famous patient – Jane Toppan, a serial killer who confessed to having murdered at least 31 people while working as a “nurse.” However, the story involving the people who ran the hospital is even more terrifying than many of the criminally insane patients it housed.
Tales that are beyond our imagination has often been the subject of talk including satanic rituals that had been carried out in the basement by the doctors and nurses using the unwilling patients for the proceedings. Since then, it is believed that the basement area has long been consumed by a “shadowy figure” who would come out and crawl on to the walls to watch the patients in the hospital.
Unlike most other hospitals, Nocton Hall began life as a stately manor home until World War I, when it was taken over and used by American forces as a place for injured soldiers to rest and recuperate. It was used again during World War II as a military hospital and has been used in a similar manner ever since, including as an American military hospital during the Gulf War. The intimidating building was abandoned in 1995, and multiple cases of arson rendered it unusable again.
Stories abound of one ghost in particular haunting the grounds–a sobbing spirit of a young girl whose presence has been reported by various people who have stayed at the building. She is said to haunt one specific bedroom more than others, with numerous people claiming to have been awoken at exactly 4:30 in the morning to see the spectral girl standing at the foot of the bed, crying. The story continues that she is apparently the ghost of a servant girl who was raped and murdered by the son of the man who owned Nocton Hall before it became a military hospital.
Built in 1530, Nocton Hall’s background has much to tell if history is the target. It is a Grade II listed building in the village of Nocton, in Lincolnshire, England. From a manor house, the building was later used as a convalescence home for wounded American Officers during the First World War.
It was used again during the Second World War as a military hospital and has been used in a similar manner ever since. It reverted to private use in the 1980s until a major fire struck the building and left it in a derelict state.
In another tale, it says that a young girl was raped and murdered by the son of the owner of the place back when it was a manor house. Today, her presence has been reported by various people who have stayed at the building haunting one particular room with many a person claiming to have seen the ghostly image appear in the room exactly at 4:30 AM.
Finally, Taunton State Hospital in Massachusetts was built in the middle of the 19th century to house psychiatric patients. Besides the inherent disturbances such a facility must have seen, it was the home turf of nurse Honora Kelley (1857-1938), a.k.a. Jane Toppan, who killed 31 patients (some say the actual number was much higher, but she only confessed to the 31 murders) while working at Taunton State.
Like Royal Hope Hospital, Taunton State also features a legacy right out of a horror movie. Members of the hospital staff would allegedly use psychotic patients, who would most likely not be believed by outsiders, in devil worship centered in the basement of the facility. This has neither been confirmed nor denied in subsequent years. But there are tales of ghosts in the basement and human-shaped shadows without any apparent light source.
There are scores of other haunted hospitals with ghostly residents including Canada’s Tranquille Sanatorium (home to disembodied voices and unexplained temperature fluctuations), England’s Nocton Hall Hospital (featuring the ghost of a young girl who appears at the same time during the early mornings), and Australia’s Ararat Lunatic Asylum (displaying a full range of ghostly legends).
As long as hospitals remain a centerpiece for the end of life, there will be tales of people who never left the site of their deathbeds.
Today it is known as Aradale, but when it opened in 1867 it was called Ararat Lunatic Asylum, and it was the largest in all of Australia, featuring some bizarre and horrifying methods of treatment. Throughout its time as a functioning mental health “care” facility, Ararat housed tens of thousands of patients. It was also reportedly home to some of the most dangerous and violent psychotics in the world.
It remained open for 130 years, during which time a staggering 13,000 patients died there–probably why it is known as one of the most haunted places in all of Australia. The facility closed in 1998, but it was shockingly reopened three years later by the Northern Melbourne Institute of Technical and Further Education as a campus for the Australian College of Wine. Ghost sightings are still frequent, and haunted tours are given through various parts of the facility including the morgue. We’re sure that probably isn’t the slightest bit terrifying.
Athens Mental Hospital, Ohio, USA
The Athens Mental Hospital, located in Athens, Ohio, opened its doors in 1874 and over the years adopted a few different monikers, including the Athens Hospital for the Insane, and it stayed in operation until 1993. By the 1950’s, the hospital was treating more than 1,800 patients at once, and became famed for the infamous lobotomy procedure and housing violent criminals. Over time, the hospital became known as The Ridges, though its history has been somewhat shrouded in mystery.
The mystery is largely due to the fact that any information about patients is kept under tight wraps, with special permission needed from the state of Ohio to gain access. There are also more than 1,900 people buried on the grounds, with their headstones marked by number only, no names attached. Eventually, a large portion of the grounds was given to Ohio University.
One thing that gives this hospital an extra creep factor is the 1978 disappearance of a female patient. Her body was found a year later in an abandoned ward, and you can still see a stain on the floor where her corpse was found, more than three decades later.
Severalls Hospital-Colchester-Essex
There’s something especially terrifying about psychiatric hospitals, which is probably why so many are rolling in rumors and speculation about hauntings. Severalls Hospital in Colchester, England is no different, and it probably doesn’t hurt its haunted reputation that it was once known for conducting psychiatric experiments like full frontal lobotomies and substantial electroshock therapy.
In a rather terrifying twist, it has been suggested that these treatments, which were deemed cures, were used on people who exhibited moodiness or teenage defiance. Also as frightening is the fact that several of the female patients were committed by their families after birthing bastard children, often the result of being raped.
The hospital opened in 1913, with actual psychiatric treatments shutting down in the early 1990’s. It closed altogether in 1997, and it has since been subject to rampant vandalism but has remained otherwise largely untouched. Of course, it likely will not remain untouched for long, as current development plans could result in the hospital being torn down in order to repurpose the land. Still, ghost hunters frequent the facility and are particularly drawn to the mortuary (because why wouldn’t they be drawn to the mortuary?).
Severalls Hospital in Colchester, Essex, UK was a psychiatric hospital built in 1910 which first opened in May 1913. The 300-acre (1.2 km2) site housed some 2000 patients and was based on the "Echelon plan" - a specific arrangement of wards, offices and services within easy reach of each other by a network of interconnecting corridors.
This layout meant that staff were able to operate around the site without the need to go outside in bad weather. Unlike modern British hospitals, patients in Severalls were separated according to their gender. The architect of the asylum was Frank Whitmore.
Villas were constructed around the main hospital building as accommodation blocks between 1910 and 1935. Most of the buildings are in the Queen Anne style, with few architectural embellishments, typical to the Edwardian Period. The most ornate buildings are the Administration Building, Larch House & Severalls House (originally the Medical Superintendent's residence).
Administration Building:
The Admin building was for a long, long time completely inaccessible to explorers.
Severalls Hospital in England has a checkered history of alleged mistreatment of its mentally ill patients. Treatments passed into the realm of unnecessary procedures such as brain surgery and electric shock treatments.
Vacant since the late 1990s, vandals and squatters have reported otherworldly phenomena in various sections of the building, especially the old mortuary.
haunted hospitals
Psychiatric Experiments:
Psychiatrists were free to experiment with new treatments on patients seemingly at will using practices now considered unsuitable such as electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) and the use of frontal lobotomy. These practices reached their climax during the 1950s.
Hospital Closure:
The hospital closed as a psychiatric hospital in the early 1990s following the closure of other psychiatric institutions. However, a small section of it did remain open until 20 March 1997 for the treatment of elderly patients suffering from the effects of serious stroke, etc., as a temporary building for nearby Colchester General Hospital (which was in the process of building an entire new building for these patients).
Danvers Lunatic Asylum
Part prison, part asylum, all terror, this gothic monolith opened in 1878 to house mentally unstable criminals. Thanks to the addition of the mentally handicapped, alcoholics, and plain old felons, it became so severely understaffed by the 1930s that patients’ deaths were often not discovered until days later, when they were found rotting in some forgotten corner. Shock therapy and lobotomies were standard procedures -- in fact, some call Danvers the "birthplace of the prefrontal lobotomy". But a large cemetery on site, said to be haunted by evil spirits, suggests these were not always successful.
The sinister, castle-like building is said to have inspired H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium, and so also Batman's Arkham Asylum, and was the setting of demon-movieSession 9. And as if that weren't enough, Danvers used to be Salem Village – yup, of Salem Witch Trials fame. Regular ghosts are one thing. Witch ghosts are another altogether.
Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, Australia
Formerly the Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, now LaTrobe University's scenic Beechworth campus, this place saw 128 years of terror before closing in 1995. Apparently, 9,000 patients died here over the years, and people were so fast and loose with the term "lunatic" that few patients ever left the premises alive.
It comes as no surprise that a few people lingered after death. Faces floating in windows are a common sight, along with Matron Sharpe doing her rounds, and children laughing. Tommy Kennedy, who used to transport the dead out of the asylum and died there himself, still hangs around. There's also a woman who was thrown out of a window, and died in front of the hospital because she was Jewish and the only person allowed to move her, a Rabbi, couldn't make it to Beechworth sooner.
Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, originally known as the haunted Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, is a decommissioned hospital in Victoria, Australia. Both Beechworth and Ararat (#5) were opened in the same year after Victoria’s lone mental institution suffered became overcrowded. The facility lasted for 128 years and closed its doors in 1995.
Ghost tours now run in the building as visitors are regaled with terrifying tales, including the story of James Kelly – uncle of the notorious bushranger, Ned Kelly. Charged with attempted murder, he was originally sentenced to death in June 1868, but was downgraded to 10 years hard labour. He was released from jail to be sent to Ararat Lunatic Asylum and later transferred to the Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, where he died on August 26 1903.
More than 9,000 inmates lost their lives within the walls of the asylum, including a young girl who was mysteriously thrown from a high window, with the reason never being explained. No worries! She is either friendly or oblivious towards the living.
Originally known as Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, Beechworth was a sister hospital to Ararat (It is named after Mount Ararat, Mount Ararat is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the eastern extremity of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey and the Armenian plateau ) in Victoria, Australia, and was open for 128 years before shutting its doors for good in 1995. Both Beechworth and Ararat were opened in the same year after Victoria’s lone mental institution suffered became overcrowded. At its height, Beechworth housed roughly 1,200 patients, and it was remarkably easy to have someone committed, requiring only two signatures to do so.
There were reports of mysterious deaths and disappearances at Beechworth, and in the facility’s first laboratory for experimentation, operations and autopsies, jars filled with body parts adorned the shelves throughout the room. These jars have since vanished, as a fire took part of Beechworth in the 1950’s and the jars disappeared sometime around the restoration of the facility. Of course, when you consider that Beechworth’s first superintendent believed the moon caused insanity and therefore would never go out at night without an umbrella, some of these practices begin to make a big more sense. Overall, nearly 9,000 patients died at Beechworth, including a young girl who was mysteriously thrown from a window, her death going unsolved. Don’t worry–ghost and murder tours are still offered at the facility.
Sai Ying Pun Psychiatry Hospital, Hong Kong
Located in Hong Kong, Sai Ying Pun was a mental hospital built in 1892. It has come to be known as the High Street Ghost House due to the many tales of the supernatural that have emerged. It was initially used as living quarters for the nursing staff until World War II. At that time, it was rumored to have been seized by Japanese soldiers and used as an execution hall. Serving as a mental hospital from 1947 to 1961 (then the lone mental hospital in all of Hong Kong), it became a psychiatric out-patient facility until 1971.
Nowadays, you would never know of its ghostly rumors by looking at it, as it is a community center housing several charity organizations. When it was abandoned in the 1970’s, rumors started to circulate of the sounds of a woman crying, or a loud, thunderous sound emanating from the building. Mysterious footsteps, visions of a devilish man appearing on the second floor before bursting into flames and decapitated spirits wandering the halls at night have all been reported
Built in 1892, Sai Ying Pun was also a Japanese World War II structure. The Victorian complex is rumored to have served as an execution hall by the Japanese troops. It was later transformed into a psychiatric institution following the war, then fell into disrepair and was badly ruined by two fires, which were believed to be inadvertently started by trespassers.
Tales of ghostly sightings were spread since it was abandoned in the 1970s. It has come to be known as the High Street Ghost House due to the many tales of the supernatural that have emerged. Visitors have confessed the sounds of a woman crying, or a loud, thunderous sound emanating from the building, mysterious footsteps, to recurring sightings of a “devilish figure in traditional Chinese costume bursting into flames,” specifically on the building’s second floor.
Whittingham Hospital / Lancashire
Whittingham Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in the parish of Whittingham, near Preston, Lancashire, England. It opened in 1873 as the Fourth Lancashire County Asylum and grew to be the largest mental hospital in Britain. However in 1967, the hospital faced a controversy involving complaints of mistreatment in two male and two female wards in the St Luke’s division, with the worst being in “Ward 16” for women.
Complaints were reported such as patients being locked in small rooms under staircases, in washrooms, and outside in the airing courts regardless of weather. Others include patients being dragged by their hair, a “wet towel treatment” where a damp towel would be wrapped around the patient’s neck to induce unconsciousness, nurses setting fire to a patients clothing while worn, beatings and vermin infestations.
An investigation took place and as a result, both the Head Male Nurse and the Matron took ‘early retirement’. Two male nurses were convicted of theft and in a separate incident another nurse was jailed for manslaughter after an elderly patient he had assaulted later died
The negative imagery of this hospital exists for a reason, it offers the kind of hauntings you most likely would never want to encounter.
Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital
Gonjiam Gwangju-Si, South Korea
Believed to be one of the most haunted spots in South Korea, this abandoned psych hospital could be the basis for the next Stephen King novel, based on its checkered history. According to local lore, patients here began dying mysterious deaths, one after the other, forcing the facility to shut down. Many believe the murderous owner of the place was to blame, claiming he kept patients as hostages, only to flee to the States when families of the deceased demanded explanations. There are also rumors of doctors going insane, rivaling their patients in madness…
Clark Air Base Hospital, Philippines
The Clark Air Base hospital, which served as the air base from early 1900s until 1991 and is now currently abandoned, and was cited by Ghost Hunters International as one of the most haunted places in the world.
Clark Airbase has a long, violent, and often bloody history in the Philippines, and is considered one of the most haunted places in the archipelago. The base also was the dwelling place to which many wounded American soldiers evacuated during the Vietnam war, and the traumas and deaths from that conflict have also left their mark on the spirit presence in the hospital.
Paranormal activities are reported in the abandoned Clark Air Base Hospital, where headless apparitions and mysterious voices are simply common occurrences for the Filipinos nearby. Violent spirits observed and attested by the residents have rendered the area off limits to everyone. And in the Clark Museum nearby, the ghost of a serviceman who committed suicide still haunts the place where he hanged himself. It is remarkable that the hospital is one of the few places that Ghost Hunters ever examined that was actually deemed haunted.
Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital
was built as Jersey's state mental institution in 1876 because of the lobbying of Dorthea Dix, advocate to the mentally ill. Overcrowded and a wee bit shady through most of its history, crazily, Greystone didn't actually close until 2003. The bulk of the original buildings have been torn down and there's a new hospital with the same name on the site now, but the eerie main building is still there.
Norwich State Hospital.
here's nothing creepy about Norwich State Hospital. JK, there totally is! When it was opened in 1904, it was intended to house people convicted of a crime by way of insanity; it totally did... until, eventually, they made room for geriatrics, TB patients, and anyone else you'd rather not sit next to at Thanksgiving. Almost all of the buildings are still standing and full of bizarro medical refuse, and you can still tour them,
Pennhurst State School and Hospital,
In 1908, Spring City, PA became the proud new parents of Pennhurst State School and Hospital, or, at that time, the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic... seriously. Pretty much a questionable place from the get-go, Pennhurst -- not a super good place to be a kid with disabilities -- closed in '87, and since it was on the National Register of Historic places, largely repurposed. But fear not, brave explorer of formerly nefarious places, the administration building's actually been turned into a haunted house.
MacGyver, Jennifer Eight, Kingdom Hospital, and HAPPY GILMORE are just a few of the Hollywood dozens to use Riverview Hospital, a mental health facility in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The place had a solid run from 1913-2012, and it's on Canada's register of historic places,
Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital
Back in 1856, the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island (Blackwell's Island back in the day) was all the rage with ailing immigrants looking for a good quarantine back in the 1800s. In 1875 the place became a training center for nurses, and has been abandoned and rotting since the 1950s. The ruins are actually being stabilized just for the sake of explorers
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum / Weston, West Virginia
This impressive structure – allegedly the world's second-largest hand-cut stone masonry building after the Kremlin – looks like it was designed as the set of a blockbuster thriller. Built around the Civil War era, the asylum was designed to house around 250 patients, but ended up holding more than 2,400, including, for a brief period, the infamous Charles Manson. That's the opposite of a celebrity endorsement.
Along with severe overcrowding, profound abuse abounded – people were locked in cages, lobotomized with icepicks, chained to things – and the combination led to hundreds of deaths and a palpable air of suffering. Apparitions are aplenty, like the still-deranged patient Ruth, who likes to attack visitors. And, since the asylum was also briefly a Civil War military base, uniformed soldier-ghosts roam the halls. Thousands have claimed to hear voices telling them to get out. Civil War-themed ghost tours, tours of the Medical Center, Forensics building and Geriatrics building, and zombie events and balls fully play up the twisted history on the campus grounds.
Lier Sykehus
Lier, Norway
About a half hour from Oslo, this asylum was opened in 1926, and today is considered one of the most haunted hot spots in the country. Despite its reputation, and the fact that most of the place has been abandoned since 1985, parts of it still house psychiatric patients, who share their space with ghosts, shadows, and odd noises. Between 1945 and 1974, the hospital was notorious for conducting experiments on its patients, especially the testing of new drugs that even the pharmaceutical industry was hesitant to try on humans.
Tranquille Sanatorium
Canada
Located on Kamloops Lake in British Columbia, Canada, Tranquille Sanatorium began its life as a ranch before the owners began caring for tuberculosis patients. It was converted to a full hospital in 1907, specifically meant to treat victims of TB. After treating more than 4,000 patients over the years, it closed in the 1950’s and wild rumors began to surface that, at the time of its closing, there was no sign of patients or staff, though that has been more or less proven to be false.
It would eventually reopen, primarily serving as a hospital and training facility, but then shut its doors for good in 1985. You may actually recognize it from several movies, including the recent version of The A-Team, as well as several television shows. Over the years, there have been reports of mysterious floating orbs throughout the facility, inexplicable feelings of sadness, unease and sudden drops in temperature. There have also been reports of mysterious voices and spectral figures, including that of a nurse who was allegedly murdered by a patient.
Haunted St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States. With deep historical roots, it is not surprising that there are more than 85 historic sites and attractions located here. A visit to the Spanish Quarter Village unveils many of the most famous historic attractions in a concentrated area. While the colonial atmosphere of this city remains intact, there are also many modern sites and amenities that add to its popularity as a travel destination.
Located on the northern Atlantic Coast of Florida, the 43 miles of sandy beaches attracted explorers to this region centuries ago, and continue to draw in visitors today. The golfing opportunities offered in and around St. Augustine are also enticing. Several world-class golf courses that accommodate varying levels of play are open to the public. The cobblestone streets and hanging Spanish moss add to the city's romantic atmosphere, making it also ideal for intimate getaways. No matter what reason brings travelers to St. Augustine, it is certain to have something of interest for everyone. Including many, many ghost and haunting's.
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