captain spaulding
08-04-2010, 02:25 PM
Captain Spaulding here, just back from a tour of a old asylum. Big building, with many rooms, and some in the basement as well. The place was built in the early 1900's, and was in use till about 1976, when a facility was built, in the town. One part of the asylum, was still used as a appartment buikding, and was all fixed up nice, actually. However, the roof was in very bad shape, and the building was deemed no longer safe. So, it became empty, and sat for sometime. Because of the bad roof, each floor had a very bad spot in the center. So, the roof did finally cave in, and took the center of each floor down with it. However, you could still walk on each floor, but nowhere near the center. Kinda hug the wall, till you were just so far away, then you could move to the center again. I got real brave once, and carefully made mu way to the center of the floor. I peered down through, and it was a LONG WAYS DOWN. There where also elevators for each floor, as well as stairs. I did get a chance to peek into one of the elevator shafts. The cables were still intact, and looked as though they could still go up and down. The best place was the basement... This must have been where they kept the worst ones, as there were shackles and chins right into the cement floor. (Both for the arms and legs, as it appeared). I also got a look at the restraint tools as well. There were some mean looking things down there, indeed. I also saw the EST...( Electro Shock Therapy Machine and the headband, that sent so many volts through the body. Back up stairs, was one huge room that must have been the nurse's station, as it had real thick glass. Another item was the underground tunnel that went from the asylum to the farm, across the road. The asylum owned the farm as well, and some of the better ones worked on the farm. They cut wood, milked cows, butchered animals, and so on. The tunnel was still able to be walked through, carefully. It was a interesting day, indeed. The name of the place was The Wood County Asylum. In 1938, the name was changed to Wood County Hospital. This sounded nicer, so they said, anyway. Sadly, the entire works is going to be torn down. I suppose, it is for safty reasons. Well, I did take pictures, and ran a video camera through out the entire place. At least I'll have something to remember it by, once it is all gone. Will never get a chance to do this again, I am sure.