Abandoned Connecticut Valley State Hospital
May 25, 2020
With a packed Connecticut itinerary, a stop at Middletown’s Connecticut Valley State Hospital, formerly the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane. Though the campus contains a still-functioning psychiatric hospital, many of the old buildings sit unused on the well-manicured property. But these derelict parts are sufficiently boarded up with no easy entrance points… unfortunately. Further, they sit in the middle of the action: the Whiting Forensic Division, the state’s only maximum security psychiatric facility which recently branched off from Connecticut Valley Hospital after a scandal of patient abuse, and a fully operational psychiatric hospital with a General Psychiatry and Addiction Services divisions, also tainted with neglect issues (as indicated by a patient ingesting AAA batteries, a nail, a part of a razor, the top of a beer can, paper clips, and who had inserted pens into himself). So it would be exterior only for this stop. Time has tightened up security, no doubt. And repurposing and razing have taken care of the rest. As it is in many other instances, timing is everything.
Weathering takes the tones of the Earth
Plexiglass covers many of the windows. Ain’t no fun throwing rocks at plexiglass.
The sun doing its best
Great ironwork on the railings.
Is a door still a door if it does not open? Not trying to be profound, but really.
Two chunks of this buildings side missing. What happened?
That opened window up there was a killer. Who’s got a ladder?
Because someone cut the stairs…
This place could really use some overgrown landscaping. The trim green grass is out of place.
A little steam for an eerie mood. Again, the trim grass castrates the image.
More cut stairs…
That Window
Even an exterior stop is a worthy with my trusty fish eye. Vintage asylum buildings always have gorgeous detailing. And there will be plenty of interior shots at our next stops. So much that we were completely overwhelmed and thoroughly exhausted by the day’s end. Connecticut sure has a lot to offer!
[…] Connecticut’s state psychiatric facilities, the other two being Fairfield State Hospital and Connecticut Valley State Hospital. Norwich’s story is much like to same as other state-run psychiatric hospitals… bucolic […]