Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded, Belchertown, Mass

dugmar

A little series from my ongoing project.

Skippy

dugmar wrote:

A little series from my ongoing project.

It's such a shame to see these places just go to ruin.
Your project looks very interesting.

I like both versions of the shot you took with the stage,
both the colour and the black & white... I'm sure it was fun to explore.

Was a new school built, or the place just become a bit of a ghost town?

Very nice series Dugmar .... Skippy
.

dugmar

Skippy wrote:

It's such a shame to see these places just go to ruin.
Your project looks very interesting.

I like both versions of the shot you took with the stage,
both the colour and the black & white... I'm sure it was fun to explore.

Was a new school built, or the place just become a bit of a ghost town?

Very nice series Dugmar .... Skippy
.

All 800+ acres is a ghost town. Very spooky.

More on this place here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchertown_State_School

DaddyO

Very interesting set of images. Nice. 800 acres of spooky. Wow!
Would love to see the place.

Thanks for sharing the link to Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded. Heck of a read. To think of all the places where this
very thing happened to people. Tragic indeed.

Pezpix

Cool series! Can you imagine walking through that area in a heavy fog? Heebie Jeebies!

Quzol1

Interesting series, I particularly like the way in 8 & 9 I see different things first.

kdog

Interesting thread and poignant images. It brings back memories of when I used to go there. That was right around 1970, in the era where that article says it was the worst. No, I wasn't there as a patient. My sister used to intern there when she was studying social working at U-Mass. I visited her there several times. It was her job to take severely retarded people out for recreation around the grounds. Picture a young gal, with 20 or 30 zombies stumbling along behind her. They of course absolutely adored her; it was the highlight of their week when she'd come. They all wanted to hold her hands, to have any sort of physical contact with a normal human. When I would come along, they'd want to touch me as well. I give her a huge amount of credit as it creeped me out so bad I could never stay long. The image still haunts me.

After seeing that article posted above, I shot an email to my sister to ask her if it was really as bad as they say. She said "yeah, it was pretty bad". Caring for people like this is incredibly challenging work.

DaddyO

Kdog. Thanks for sharing your experience. Nudges at the Ol'heart strings
to imagine the procession of patients walking behind your sister out
on the grounds. Plus knowing the joy they experienced being with her.

I find myself wondering if she managed to take any photos during her
internship there. Heck, now I wonder if the net has anything from
someone. A quick peek finds nothing in the way of people pictures only
of the dilapidated structures and such.

ISpiceItUp

Just Found This Place Today!
Hello there!

I just found this place today by accident while dropping off the kids at Soccer practice! We walked around a bit before practice but as far as we could see every building was "no trespassing" and of course "caution for asbestos." May I ask how you entered these buildings?

Also, your photographs are amazing. I love the black and white. It makes it soo much more spooky than the color. And the colored ones make it soo much LESS spooky. I'd love to see the inside in person, as the outside is verrrry sketchy.

Nice work!

dugmar

ISpiceItUp wrote:

Hello there!

I just found this place today by accident while dropping off the kids at Soccer practice! We walked around a bit before practice but as far as we could see every building was "no trespassing" and of course "caution for asbestos." May I ask how you entered these buildings?

Also, your photographs are amazing. I love the black and white. It makes it soo much more spooky than the color. And the colored ones make it soo much LESS spooky. I'd love to see the inside in person, as the outside is verrrry sketchy.

Nice work!

Hi.

I trespassed. I just found an open door and went in. Luckily, I encountered no problems. It was sketchy for sure.

Thanks for the compliments!

Doug

majesticmoves

belchertown
Hello, I have just discovered this forum this evening. I was very intrigued by your story of how your sister used to work at BSS. Do you, by chance, have any pics of those days when the school was active? I've seen some on 1856.org, but other than that, the supply seems to be very limited. Thank you for your time. Mike

kdog wrote: »

Interesting thread and poignant images. It brings back memories of when I used to go there. That was right around 1970, in the era where that article says it was the worst. No, I wasn't there as a patient. My sister used to intern there when she was studying social working at U-Mass. I visited her there several times. It was her job to take severely retarded people out for recreation around the grounds. Picture a young gal, with 20 or 30 zombies stumbling along behind her. They of course absolutely adored her; it was the highlight of their week when she'd come. They all wanted to hold her hands, to have any sort of physical contact with a normal human. When I would come along, they'd want to touch me as well. I give her a huge amount of credit as it creeped me out so bad I could never stay long. The image still haunts me.

After seeing that article posted above, I shot an email to my sister to ask her if it was really as bad as they say. She said "yeah, it was pretty bad". Caring for people like this is incredibly challenging work.

cheryllee

I grew up in a house behind (what we called it back then) The State School. My mother worked there for a time and would bring some of the people home with her for a weekend. I loved going there. I have since moved away and it is sad to see it all fallen apart like that. I remember a patient named Mary-ann. She was always nice and knitted with pencils instead of kitting needles.

torags

Nice stuff all

I'm not a fan of HDR, but an HDR of the color auditorium would add a surreal feel to the image (not that it not surreal now.. )

Good work & good luck with the rest of your project