Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Haunted Asylum








My Hubby is a dry waller. He works for different companies, and goes where the work is. It is probably the only advantage to being a sub- contractor.
In the spring of 2003, he took a job for my brothers uncle, working out of town. It was only about 45 minutes away by car, but Hubby didn't have a car. He decided to live on- site for the duration and come home only on weekends.
I didn't realize at the time that this job would be so different from the rest. I didn't realize that this summer job would have such a dramatic affect on him...and us.
The job was supposed to be simple. Take a former childrens residence, and turn it into a retirement home/hotel. This place sat on about 100 acres and included its own water treatment plant, and its own power generator system. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was more of a warehouse for unwanted kids. The home was built in the 50's, and eventually closed down in the 90's. What happened in those in between years is the stuff that horror movies are made of.
Children were placed there for a variety of reasons. If a child was deemed 'retarded' or suffered any kind of illness - epilepsy, physically handicapped, troublesome, or just unwanted. Rumors of staff abuse, rape, torture and even murder echoed throughout the near by town. Nobody cared. Infact, the home had a very interesting way of dealing with the town folk and the kids. You could sign out a kid for the day, and even get paid for it. Yup. They farmed out the able bodied kids. Most were overworked on farms and in private homes.
This place had its own morgue. Tres creepy. Then again, the whole damn thing was creepy. Girls were raped by staff members. kids were locked in the padded room to 'settle down', sometimes for hours. I was in the "quiet room." It freaked me out.
In one room , a cable man was killed by an agressive boy. He was in stalling cable in one one of the bedrooms and was stabbed with his own screwdriver.
The basement was probaly the worst. There were single rooms, with bare cement walls, little light, and one small window about 18 inches high- at the very top of the wall . It was so incredibly depressing and dismal. Apparently, the most violent kids were kept there.
The nightmare came to an end some time in the mid 90's with the closure of the facility. It remained empty for about 6 years, until a developer bought it lock,stock, and barrel for about 1 million dollars.
Hubby and another sub contractor agreed to stay on the premises. That way, they could work later, and completely eliminate travel time. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and Uncle Ned was happy to have his best guy on site 24/7.
It was the little things, at first. Hubby was in a room across the hall from the old gymnasium. At night he would hear what sounded like sneakers squeaking on the floor. The former cafeteria would come alive at night. The microwave that Hubby brought for his food would beep. His electric kettle would go missing. It always turned up later. Chairs could be heard being moved about. Not creepy? All of the chairs were gone. Then there were the mice.
One night after both men had been asleep, they were awakened by the sound of a thousand running feet. The room was invaded by probably 100 little mice. They ran around as if terrified of something, syncronized in their fear. Another night, hubbys air mattress jumped in the air, as if a wind had taken hold of it. It danced around the room like something out of Fantasia. The room had no windows.
The murdered cable guy must have been hanging out, too. Hubby had cable on his television. Strange, since the building had been abandoned for more than 5 years, and the only hydro was from extension cords criss-crossing the hallways.
Hubby thought that a night at the 'home' was just what I needed. I love everything paranormal, and had never met a ghost that I couldn't deal with. I packed up my keds and headed off with my man for a night of adventure.
I asked my guy not to tell anything when we got there. I often get a feeling for a place. Sometimes, it feels like I'm going to vomit, other times I have the urge to cry. Sometimes, I'm just creeped out.
I knew immeadiately that something was amiss. The whole property felt tainted, unclean, wrong. I knew where the morgue was, without being told. I felt overwhelming sadness in that room. I heard the ghostly children playing in the gym. I heard laughter and felt the fear. At the pool that night, I could feel unseen eyes watching our every move. Hubby had the joy of watching a 200 pound pool cover dance in the moonlight one evening during a solo swim. He even felt cold hands on his legs one night in the pool house change room. He still continued his midnight swims.

We went on a tour of the facility. Hubby took me into the restricted area, accesible only by a key, 'borrowed' from the groundskeeper. ( the groundskeeper, by the way, had been there since long before the place closed. He told Hubby that he wouldn't even come onto the property after dusk) My guy had been living there for weeks. He knew that place like the back of hand. Somehow, in the early morning light, we got lost. My panic increased with every step, but I refused to give in to panic. We quickened our steps. I heard foot steps behind me, also going faster. I smelled fruity perfume, in a closed down hell hole. It didn't seem possible. I didn't say a word as we navigated those hallways. I was afraid to. We finally left out of an emergency exit. When I spilled my guts about the echoing footsteps, Hubby admitted that he had heard them, too.

I was ready to go home. Enough is enough. As we were packing the car for our ride home, I laughed aloud at my fear. Completley irrational. What a scaredy cat I had been . As I laughed at my silliness for letting myself be frightened, I heard a harsh SHH!.

I got into the car and let my brave guy finish the packing.

Hubby remained on site for about 2 more weeks. When I got home later that day, we noticed that one of my shoes had been left on the job. I found it 2 days later, while Hubby was still away. It was stained and smelly, while the other one was clean and new.

Boo.













27 comments:

Heidi the Hick said...

Yeesh! I knew this story and it still creeped me out. Although I DID NOT remember the part about your shoes. Holy crap. I think the scariest pic is the one of the little teeter totter critters out in the long grass. Not only creepy but sad. Any symbol of childhood left abandoned like that makes me want to weep.

I have to tell you, the one of Large Man with the happy face on actually made me jump! I thought a ghost landed on his face or something! See what your scary stories have done to me!

Biddie said...

It was such a sad place. I couldn't bear to stay any longer.
You liked the smiley face, huh? If you look at the 1st and the last photo, there is a sort of strange filmy discoloration. Very weird. When we scanned them on the computer, they were as clear as day. You can't see it on the photos that I have here. It's creepy, because those two rooms were two of the creepiest.

Marni said...

I LOVE these kinds of stories! Thank you for sharing.

CindyDianne said...

Ohhhh creepy!

*skin crawls*

ldbug said...

scary, scary, scary, I have goosebumps

I'm going to have nightmares...

Biddie said...

This post took so long to write because I tried to remember everything. I know that I forgot to mention so many little things. I had a photo of the play area of a shadow on a swing. It was spooky, you could see the outline of a figure sitting on the swing, even though when I took the photo no one was there.

dilling said...

I am so glad I did not read that last night!

Biddie said...

No the story isn't scary. Living it was scary. I don't know how Hubby did it for so long. He likes to pretend that nothing is happening...easier said than done as far as I'm concerned. We think that maybe our little girl ghost came from that place. Maybe...

dilling said...

yesterday, when I got home from dog walkies, my lilac and lavender lady was here...she stayed all afternoon, hanging out with me in the living room, which is not the normal routine...but was gone in the evening...hadn't smelled her in a while, maybe she was just checking in.

Biddie said...

I've had lots of visitors over the years. I had a little lady that smelled like lilacs,too. She was very friendly until my then boyfriend moved in. After that things got kinda scary. She didn't seem to like him much. I should have listened to her...We were divorced several years later.
How often does your girl come round?

Michael Colvin said...

Oh No! I just clicked over to here and saw the title, "Haunted Asylum." I'm scared. I'm clicking back to safety and when I've got a gin & tonic to steady my nerves I'll come back and read it.

Biddie said...

It's not that scary, I promise! A gin and tonic does sound good tho.

dilling said...

My lilac lady was around lots with someone else(hot dusty man) when we first moved in, now not so much...yesterday was the longest time she spent here...maybe she and her friend were quarrelling! I like her.
I was wondering if they finished the hotel/retirement residence and how the folks there like living there, or do you know?

Michael Colvin said...

That place looks really creepy. I wouldn't go there in a million years. That was a good post though and well worth the wait.

katy said...

cheers life think i will stay up tonight!!!!!!!!!!!
how sad for all those children.
and i agree that your little ghost girl is from there, she feels safe with you hope she starts behaving.

Biddie said...

dilling- the guy that bought the place ran out of money. I don't think that it was ever finished..a lot of contractors quit after they expirienced some odd happenings. I'll ask uncle Ned next time I see him if he knows what happened

her indoors- our ghost girl is mean. not a nice little girl at all. I don't know what to do with her. She targets my middle girl and is down right angry. she has been known to twist toes and even leave marks. I hope that she starts to behave, too.

todemesne- creepy as hell. Part of me would like to go back, just to see if it's still got the same awful feeling

Michael Colvin said...

that bit about the mice freaked me out...

Biddie said...

The mice freaked my Hubby out, too. There were so many strange happenings. There was a guard dog that lived there with the groundskeeper. He wouldn'tgo into certain rooms and would cry like a baby if you tried to make him...Honestly, that place is just BAD.

Camie Vog said...

This story was excellent!! I kept thinking that one went home with you (ie. ghost girl). Has your daughter tried talking to her directly, telling ghost girl to stop? Have you figured out what the link may be between your daughter and ghost girl? It is bugging the h**l out of me that she is so attatched to only one of your kids...
Your husband sounds a lot like mine. He tends to try to ignore the "spooks", and also does drywall and painting.

Biddie said...

The ghost girl bugs everyone, but at our last house, she mostly bothered #2 daughter,KK. My Hubby actually got hurt,but he does pretend that it's not happening.
I do think that maybe the ghost girl followed us from the asylum,although I have been haunted for most of my life.
KK has told the ghost to leave her alone, but it just seems to piss her off. The night that kk was in the tub and the lights went out,she actually saw someone in the bathroom with her. My oldest,KC, actually had a drawer fly out of a night stand and hit her head. It seems to have calmed down now, but it has calmed down before.
I don't know what to think anymore...
Your Hubby dry walls,too? It's such a hard job, but he is so good at it.

Gardenia said...

Ah, you are a sensitive one. Man, I can't believe this is being turned into an old folks place, can you imagine someone who is also sensitive having to LIVE there? Don't know how your hubby stood it - mine would have ran away. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm new to the blog but I found this post from the UrbEx blog. It's interesting because I used to know the man that owned the property and I stayed there with another contractor (George) and that place definitely gave me the creeps too. I heard all sorts of stories from the owner at the time. Anyways, I was just curious if your hubby still stayed in contact with the owner? I heard he ripped some people off, hopefully not your hubby.

Anonymous said...

Drive by here all the time. The front of the building definitely looks like a buddhist temple now.

Anonymous said...

i worked there too for quite some time did all the concrete and flooring there and had never seen or heard one thing this is all a crock made up stories yes lots of bad shit happen there like any place like it even old age homes have bad shit happen but haunted lol ya right all made up crap

Anonymous said...

First of all....you need an editor. Second...you should get your facts straight. As a lifelong resident of the community surrounding this place, a regular attender of the gym that was open to local youth groups etc at that time, a friend of someone who had a brother that lived there and was well taken care of, and person who knew dozens of loving, caring people who worked there (the type of people who were born to take care of the less fortunate in this world), I think that your blog is extremely insensitive, riddled with gossip and makes you look extremely ignorant of the social norms of the time period. Were there bad employees there? More than likely. But slanderous accusations without any proof could get you in a lot of trouble at worst...and undermine the loving dedication of the careers of many at least. Plus it was a different time...like so many other things..we do things differently now. Not necessarily better...just different. What a waste of your time posting such a ridiculous article. Take that time and do something nice for humanity instead.

anonymous said...

All you have to do to realize this is all a bunch of BS is ask your self why/how was he able to swim in the pool after all those years??

Unknown said...

I'd love to hear more stories from your hubby