IrishRose
Abandoned Americanothing ever dies
Photograph taken at Taunton State Hospital
Gallery/info: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/taunton-state-hospital
AyeTheresTheRob@AbandonedAmerica nothing ever dies NED
Francis RiveraNow... this is my kind of thing.
Noreen Dalton
John Dal@AbandonedAmerica bet those windows could let some stories out
Diana Boles@AbandonedAmerica there is such beauty here, especially as we celebrate Yule and Solstice
@quadyod thank you!
Crichton Royal Heritage@AbandonedAmerica thank you for this image. Are you aware of any plans for future use of these buildings? Reading your account (thanks for the link) I'm aware of the fire. Interested as I work at the former Crichton Royal asylum in Dumfries, Scotland. Our 19th century buildings and 85 acre landscaped estate, have new and productive lives. I'm heritage officer, honouring and sharing the stories of those who were patients and worked here. Is anything similar happening at Taunton State? Thank you.
@Crichton_Royal oh boy, I wish we had gone the route you had. The majority of the old section of this building is gone now, demolished around a decade ago. It still makes me angry
@AbandonedAmerica sorry to hear that; your photos give a sense of what the buildings were. I know there will be important stories to be remembered.
FOr information -- the last patient left the Crichton (f.1838) in 2013; long before that, a Trust was formed for the future, remembering the past.. Currently we have two university campuses and over 100 businesses including a hotel that supports our busy events venues. We are setting up a new Centre for Memory & Wellbeing: https://www.crichton.co.uk/
@Crichton_Royal *sigh* you have no idea how much I wish that this was what we did over here. I'm glad you are, though
@Crichton_Royal hey there, I lost this thread a while back. If you'd be willing to drop me an email at [email protected] I'd like to talk about maybe interviewing you about what you talked about here sometime!
Bobby Range@AbandonedAmerica an entire HOSPITAL of Tauntons?
Luke Skywalker would always be warm!
Mollys Daily Kiss@AbandonedAmerica If I won the lottery one of things I would do is take a road trip in America to visit some of the abandoned buildings there. We really don't have much like this in the UK as everything is always knocked down so quickly or well boarded up so can't get in
Miss Givings@AbandonedAmerica Hauntingly beautiful. Have you also visited the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV? It's under the care of a local preservation/restoration group now, but is a lot like this. Worth a tour or three.
@CakesOfPan Not yet but it's been on my to do list for years 🥰
letoII@AbandonedAmerica love this picture so much!
@letoII thank you!
paul@AbandonedAmerica wow, straight out of a #StephenKing. Fascinating.
@paulpap thank you!
Celaritas@AbandonedAmerica that's beautiful
@Celaritas thank you!
John Clark@AbandonedAmerica the curvature is so beautiful! Great shot!
@getrealjc thank you!
PJSpyro@AbandonedAmerica Awesome image.
@PJSpyro thank you!
Bob Stepno@AbandonedAmerica This reminds me of something I read long ago, possibly a film review, that talked about how design could increase feelings of uncertainty and paranoia by using curving hallways where you could not see whether anyone was coming. The glass walls and continual view of the world outside literally add another dimension. But I wish I could remember where I read that reflection on curved hallways, & what film it was about. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"? "2001"? "Shock Corridor"?
@BobStep interesting - I'm sure they were not intending it for this reason when it was built, though! I hope not. It was an asylum so that would be pretty cruel.
Jaci@AbandonedAmerica astonishingly beautiful
This must fulfill all of the principles of building design
So much elegance, harmony, balance
Light, space, fluidity
To think the society that built this believed that the mentally ill would benefit from the beauty!
This must fulfill all of the principles of building design
So much elegance, harmony, balance
Light, space, fluidity
To think the society that built this believed that the mentally ill would benefit from the beauty!
@jaci that legitimately was one of the curative aspects that asylums were meant to have when they were built, which swiftly got lost in bureaucracy, overcrowding, and underfunding
@AbandonedAmerica
It's powers are still clear, despite the abandonment. And bureaucracy and penny punching and no doubt the moral judgement of the ill as less worthy.
It's powers are still clear, despite the abandonment. And bureaucracy and penny punching and no doubt the moral judgement of the ill as less worthy.
Meg H@AbandonedAmerica The overgrowth, natural lighting, and decay remind me of the quiet moments in the first part of The Last of Us.
@chilleh2084 great game series. Looking forward to the show
Debby Ryan@AbandonedAmerica The photos are great but they make me sad. I think of all the people who are homeless or being financially suffocated by rent/mortgage payments. And here are spaces that could help. I wish there was a way to use these spaces to help people!
StarkRG@AbandonedAmerica Curved hallways need to be more of a thing, particularly curved skybridges between buildings.
Curves are cool. I dunno if Frank Lloyd Wright ever said that, but he certainly thought it at some point.
@StarkRG curved elevated walkways like this are pretty rare from what I know, which makes it even more sad this one was destroyed
abananabag@AbandonedAmerica @StarkRG Well, thank you for catching the embers of it before it disappeared completely. Perhaps your photos of what was will inspire the next generation to build anew.
@abananabag I hope so. I know that's how Gothic Revival architecture started, IIRC. Loads of it was destroyed, someone documented it, it became popular again
@AbandonedAmerica Oh no, I didn't know it was torn down. That's so sad.
@StarkRG Yes it is. It joins a long line of asylums that should have been saved but were not.
AndThisIsMrsPeacock 🏳️🌈@AbandonedAmerica this is where my paternal grandfather spent the final years of his life. #dementia #DementiaCare #institution
@andthisismrspeacock I'm so sorry - I hope you're able to find records if you want them
@AbandonedAmerica yeah, we got all the genealogy stuff out of there we could, I think.
Marta Kvande@AbandonedAmerica
"everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back"
(Bruce Springsteen, "Atlantic City")
"everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back"
(Bruce Springsteen, "Atlantic City")
MelodicBlushingLizard 
PS 🍉🍉🍉@AbandonedAmerica Your photos capture the beauty and gracefulness of these buildings (the curved walkway🥰). Then juxtapose it to part of your story, about the treatment of some the patients and the horror of what they went through. I'm glad you and your friend were able to sneak in for these photos before the buildings were lost entirely.
@LivingUnderARock thanks so much. This place seems like a dream I once had by now
Tina Richardson