Abandoned in Plain Sight, Part 1
DeJarnette Sanitarium, Staunton, VA
July 23, 2020
Of course I had a couple of abandoned spots on my recent itinerary, starting on day one as I drove through Baltimore. Though I devoted a good amount of my morning trying to access Forest Haven Asylum, all my efforts were in vain. It was actually quite humorous as I accidentally drove into the heavily armed and tremendous Fort Meade, “The Nation’s Platform for Intelligence, Information, and Cyber Operations.” Then there was the NSA campus I kept driving around thanks to the incorrect coordinates I had. Highly suspicious. When I finally arrived near Forest Haven, entrances into the old campus–which is partially in use by the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services and the Woodland Job Corps Center–were guarded by security. I tried my luck at the Job Corp site and asked if I could access the site. I was of course told no–and that it was government property and they prosecute trespassers. Those who do gain access undoubtably walk into the wooded area along Center Avenue as the path is well worn. However–as is the case with abandoned sites often–my car would alert interested parties of my trespassing. Parking somewhere and walking presents other issues… and the Job Corp guy… the experience at the Fort and the NSA campus made me a bit of a wuss. I tell you all of this to kind of set the stage for my visit to DeJarnette Sanitarium in Staunton, Virginia.
Determined to get some exploring in, I was very excited to discover the DeJarnette Sanitarium staring down upon me from the fairly standard interstate-side box store offerings. As I drove nearer I saw that the Quality Inn, up upon a hill, looked directly at the structures. In this moment I decided I would stay the night in that hotel, even though it would not allow me to do my night shoot at James River State Park–a good hour and a half away. I needed a bit more downtime on this evening anyway. The super cool guy at the hotel counter who was able to give me a brief history of the property across the way–along with that great rate. Staunton was treating me nicely so far!
Before my exploration, some history.
The history of the DeJarnette Sanitarium is twisted inside the history of Western State Hospital, previously Western State Lunatic Asylum [Est. 1828], which is down the block, mostly redeveloped, but whose power plant I explored briefly later in the day (more on that in another post). So let’s get this straight so you understand how creepy a place this is.
So yes–1828. Very early start to the Western State Lunatic Asylum! Remember where the first colony was. Though the hospital allowed early patients to stroll and commune with nature, by mid-1850’s it had become overcrowded as those disregarded by society were stored away there as inhumane conditions grew to be the norm. Enter Joseph DeJarnette–a fierce promotor of eugenics and Nazi Party admirer, as director of the hospital in 1906, as well as the passage of Virginia’s Eugenical Sterilization Act of 1924. Under the passage of this law 8,000 Virginian men and women deemed “unfit” were sterilized, many whom were Native Americans and African Americans. Thoroughly disturbed? If not, read DeJarnette’s poem “A Poem on Eugenics; Plea for a Better Race of Man”… Does he sound like someone who should be providing care to the mentally ill? [The Virginia elite sure thought so, though since the state has since publicly apologized and offered reparation settlements.]
“Oh, why are you men so foolish –
You breeders who breed our men
Let the fools, the weaklings and crazy
Keep breeding and breeding again?
The criminal, deformed, and the misfit,
dependent, diseased, and the rest –
As we breed the human family
The worst is as good as the best.
Go to the house of some farmer,
Look through his barns and sheds,
Look at his horses and cattle,
Even his hogs are thorough breds,
Then look at his stamp on his children,
Low browed with the monkey jaw,
Ape handed, and silly, and foolish –
Bred true to Mendel’s law.”
This DeJarnette psycho ordered construction of a sanitarium in 1932 named the DeJarnette Center. It would become exclusively for children and adolescents with severe emotional disorders in 1975, eventually receiving all the adolescent patients from Western State Hospital. The facility did not survive the stock market crash of 1987 and conditions and care became an issue. It closed officially in 1996 and has been decaying since then. It is now owned by Frontier Culture Museum, which operates a really neat living museum across the road (I went and that is yet another post!) That’s the short story, though I’m likely to fall in a further research hole after I post this. (Sources: 1, 2, 3)
Ok, so now it would be time to explore. I knew that I could easily walk down to DeJarnette Sanitarium at dawn, my car parked securely at the hotel. I was still a bit scared as I did not know anything about whether it was patrolled, if there’d be people there, etc. But I trudged on over and entered, throwing caution to the wind as it would be quite feasible for any hotel patron to become intrigued with the property and naively walk over. That’d be understandable, right?
Here is what I saw on my visit.
There was a lot of deer feeding about. Actually there was a ton of deer scat on the grounds.
Peep the entry point.
I keep eyeballing that entrance… mulling over what I would do.
A peek inside and then I walked away to explore the exterior of the adjacent building.
Ok, I’m back. I decided I would enter. 😨
It was really dark…
It was so dark and I got scared, so I didn’t venture in far.
Back to the other side of the buildings
Hills of asphalt
This is the Power Plant
I went in…
I love how colorfully the Power Plants are always painted. At least the Kings Park one was too. This is my fave picture of the exploration.
A successful visit all before 7am!
[…] most of the old Western State Hospital, whose history I summarized here in my DeJarnette post, has been repurposed or is in some phase of construction to be repurposed. But the old steam plant […]