Haunted Hospitals in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is known by paranormal lovers as a very spooky place to visit. It is home to the notorious Lizzie Borden house and is also the home of Salem; the site of the horrific Salem Witch Trials. Nonetheless, not many people are aware of the number of hospitals in Massachusetts that are supposedly haunted. There are dozens of them. The following three are among the most creepy of these hospitals. All three of them have been either partially or fully abandoned and were once home to either the terminally or mentally ill. It’s no wonder that people get a little spooked when they are in or near them.

Haunted Hospitals in Massachusetts: Danvers State Insane Asylum

The Danvers State Insane Asylum was designed by architect Nathaniel J. Bradlee. It was composed of 17 buildings. As such, it was a large and imposing institution, but judging by old pictures of it, it was also quite beautiful. The hospital was opened in 1878. For more than 100 years it was home to hundreds of mentally ill patients. The hospital was closed on June 24, 1992 due to lack of funding. In 2006, a development company tore down 14 of the 17 original buildings. Today, the only remaining buildings have been converted into apartment buildings. Though who would want to live in the shell of an old insane asylum is anybody’s guess.

Because of the Danvers State Insane Asylum’s history, it was frequently visited by vandals and ghost hunters alike during the years it that it was empty. It is not surprising that many of these people came back with tales of ghosts, voices, haunting presences and the like. It is unclear whether those presences are a complaint of the new tenants or if they ‘vanished’ when the building was desecrated.

Haunted Hospitals in Massachusetts: Taunton State Hospital

The Taunton State Hospital was once known as the State Lunatic Asylum in Taunton. (It would seem as if using the word lunatic in hospital names is no longer considered politically correct.) It was opened in 1854 and is still open to this day. However, most of the building has fallen into disrepair and is abandoned. The area which is still open is used to house juvenile offenders with mental illnesses and violent mentally-ill children who are in the care of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

There are rumors that, during the Taunton State Hospital’s heyday, former employees of the hospital conducted satanic rituals in the basement. They supposedly used the patients in some sinister way while they did this. To this day there are claims that some patients and employees are loathe to enter the basement. There are also rumors of a ‘shadow-man’ who torments the patients by standing in the corner of their rooms watching them or crawling on the walls.

Haunted Hospitals in Massachusetts: Plymouth County Hospital

Plymouth County Hospital is located far back in the woods on High St. in a very small town called Hanson, Massachusetts. When the hospital was built it was known as the Hanson Tuberculosis Hospital. It was specifically built to treat terminally ill tb patients. These ‘treatments’ included having patients stand outside shirtless in the middle of a bitter New England winter. Eventually, the disease was eradicated and so the hospital’s name was changed to Plymouth County Hospital. It was closed for good in 1992 when there was no longer any need for it.

Since the time of the hospital’s abandonment, it has fallen victim to vandals and time. The Spanish-style façade of the building is discolored and sad-looking. Multiple fires have destroyed parts of the roof and an adjacent building. Nonetheless, the hospital is still filled with old mattresses, medical equipment, kitchen utensils and more. There is an old walk-in refrigerator that is stinking and empty. On top of all that, there are reportedly ghosts.

Having grown up in Hanson, Massachusetts, I can tell you that there are a number of ghost stories surrounding that hospital. I assume that all of them are false. The home I grew up in was within three minutes walking distance of Plymouth County Hospital and the rear of the hospital was once all woods and cranberry bogs-a prime place for walking and bicycling. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the area (and in the hospital, but don’t tell) and I never once saw I ghost. I sure told a lot of my friends that I did, though. I will admit that there is a definitely eerie quality about the place, sinister even, but I have not been privy to the moans, the screams and the watchful eyes of the dead as so many others claim to have been.

Places like these ‘haunted’ hospitals listed above are numerous in the United States. During the outbreaks of tuberculosis, it was necessary to build a number of these hospitals, but the need for them waned as the disease was slowly eradicated. Also, before the advent of more advanced treatments for mental patients, it was commonplace for people to be hospitalized, who probably could’ve been treated in an outpatient capacity, as so many of them are now. So, as the need for these hospitals decreased, many of them were abandoned and abandoned hospitals are creepy, whether they are really haunted or not.

*None of these sites are public. If you try to enter any of these properties, you will be trespassing. In the case of the Taunton State Hospital and the Plymouth County Hospital, you may even be risking personal injury.