At the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, there have been reports of ghostly laughter, yelling, and strange music. Fairfield Hills Hospital: Newton, Connecticut. They knew the patientsâ names, they knew their idiosyncrasies, and by and large, the patients were cooperative. He remembered Fairfield State Hospital as being a place with buildings and grounds well-maintained. She was a character. Fairfield State Hospital, the third public mental institution to be established in Connecticut, had a stormy history from its inception. After all, it has gained a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in the state. Fairfield Hills State Hospital is a bucolic place but it has a dark and ugly past. Christina P. Carmel, NY. Hudson asylum with a bunch of needles all over the place. Rosemary Michalko was the operating room technician who often scrubbed with me. [2] The records from Fairfield Hills Hospital are located in RG 021, subgroup 7 at the Connecticut State Library & Archives in restricted files arranged into three series:[3], Due to deinstitutionalization in the 1960s and 1970s, there was less of a need for hospitals like Fairfield Hills. We had a group of 7, and did the Stolen Relic room. These tunnels were mostly used to move patients and equipment between the buildings, especially during the winter months and on bad weather days. I believe firearms should be regulated at the state level, so there is consistency across the 169 towns. There were initially fewer than 500 patients, and only 3 doctors. In December, 2012, the Society purchased an archive relating to Fairfield State Hospital, what we know as Fairfield Hills. It is great to see so many people involved and engaged with local governance. The Fairfield State Hospital (it was later renamed Fairfield Hills Hospital) opened in late June 1933 to great fanfare. Then again, they have allowed it to be used for several decidedly spooky shoots, including Sleepers and MTV's Fear. âInterestingly,â said Dr Grossman, âbecause they didnât know how sick they had been, I found that patients at Fairfield Hills also recovered more quickly than my patients in my private practice. Gary MacRae had no authority to speak for the Fairfield Hills Master Commission which has been disbanded. The family would have the person admitted. Now owned by the Town of Newtown and being re-created, the propertyâs past has been the subject of stories, some of which may be tainted with truth, some which may be purely fabrication. The patients lived in the 16 buildings … All patients that remained were moved to Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.[4]. Thankfully there has not been a documented need. Leak, its first superintendent, although on the staff of Connecticut State Hospital for more than fifteen years and its superintendent for more than ten years, did not apply the knowledge gained through thes… In December of 2012 the Newtown Historical Society purchased an archive relating to Fairfield State Hospital, what we know as Fairfield Hills. You must be logged in to post a comment. But she was a full time job,â he laughed. much love! To purchase photos visit http://photos.newtownbee.com, Tales From Fairfield Hills: A Doctor Remembers, (This is the tenth in a series of Tales of Fairfield Hills, stories shared by local residents who worked and lived there when the property was a functioning psychiatric institution. The hospital was designed not to have any dark corners or cubbyholes. 11/30/2019. It got them out of the hospital, and they had the satisfaction of doing a job well. As discussed, NPD has a good presence at the rallies and events in question, and there are existing laws to prevent brandishing, harassment and threatening behavior should it arise. âYouâd get to know each other. The tunnels provided an accessible path for a major portion of the underground water, telephone, heat and electric power grid. Patients, so far as Dr Grossman could tell, were well cared for. Newtown - Fairfield Hills Asylum - Haunted state mental hospital that opened in the early 1900's and recently closed due to state funding. Fairfield Hills State Hospital. Just like other mental hospitals of the time, the treatments, by today’s standards would be considered cruel and inhumane. Fairfield Hills state Hospital opened June 1, 1933. i appreciate all the support! I'm please to see some of the amendments language added to the referral. Working in a different environment than his private practice or Danbury Hospital and working with a different type of patient than he saw the rest of the week was a good experience, Dr Grossman said. Warning: Stay away from Fairfield Hills. The entire facility was owned and operated by the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health. âOr she would swallow spoons, or toothpicks. Some later constructed buildings were built during the 1940s and 1950s. Fairfield State Hospital was created due to overcrowding at the other two state hospitals. By the 1960s, the hospital had nearly 4,000 patients due to the common practice of over-diagnosing people. Doctors, nurses, and other various workers also used the tunnels, and when required, even corpses were transported through them to the on-campus morgue. They had no one supervising them or making sure they were taking their medications properly. An anesthesiologist from Bridgeport would come to Fairfield Hills Hospital to assist in the operating room. Walter P. Crabtree Sr., designed the campus-like facility. Fairfield Hills State Hospital, Newtown: The state hospital opened in 1931 to house criminally insane patients. I thought it was a very good thing. Not all of the patients admitted to the hospital were mentally ill, by modern standards. If you’d like to hear the Dark Discussions episode on the subject first, you can do that on Stitcher, iTunes, and here. âLobotomy was always considered a questionable practice. There were a lot of arrests for disorderly conduct,â he said. I think it was because I was a doctor, and they knew I was helping them.â. It was a good experience, although somewhat of an unusual experience for a young doctor, said Dr Robert Grossman, who spent more than three decades caring for patients from Fairfield State Hospital (later known as Fairfield Hills Hospital), beginning in 1960. âFairfield Hills hired outside doctors to do physicals each year on the patients, so I went up there about two to three times a week, at first,â recalled Dr Grossman. After all, it has gained a reputation as being one of the most haunted places in the state. âBefore the advent of psychotropic drugs, patients seemed unaware of themselves. Fairfield Hills State Hospital is a bucolic place but it has a dark and ugly past. Fairfield State Hosptial, or later known as Fairfield Hills Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital in Newtown, CT that operated from 1931 to 1995. The following are the main campus buildings of Fairfield Hills. I put a gallery at the bottom. Welcome to the Asylum. Weston, WV. Inside the abandoned state hospital where 'the ghost of a young girl haunts the corridors' Legend states the girl, dressed in a white gown, stares out of the window of the Fairfield Hills State Hospital; Hospital is in Newtown, Connecticut, and was once an established psychiatric asylum … Disgraceful to offer this letter on Dec 11th, your don't seem to have any empathy. The state closed down the hospital in 1995. Even until he retired from surgery in 2002, said Dr Grossman, he would occasionally find himself operating on a former State Hospital patient. The hospital was used as the location for the 1996 film Sleepers. He said, âIt was a common opinion among physicians that the closing of the mental institution was a mistake. We can't wait to try their new room "The Asylum at Fairfield Hills"! [7], The Town of Newtown selected Bridgeport Hall as the location for its new municipal offices. “A major portion of the land on the 185-acre Fairfield Hills campus has been reserved for municipal and cultural use, as well as passive and active recreational use. And yes, I know I promised pix of me when I “urban explored” Fairfield Hills—an infamous abandoned asylum just fifteen minutes from my home—back in 2002. This calls for reserving a major portion of the property for municipal and cultural use, as well as passive and active recreational use. There were many doctors with practices in the center of town, in his early days of practice, Dr Grossman said. During some shifts at Fairfield Hills, two guards not only … By Category: [archive-category-list] By Tag: [archive-tag-cloud] Search the Archives: 1 photo. âI like knowing I was able to give good care to people who needed it. Specifically requiring a separate and distinct commercial component. This is the first in a series of Tales of Fairfield Hills, stories shared by local residents who worked and lived there when the property was a functioning psychiatric institution. The hospital was a 100-acre, 16-building facility on a plot of over 700 acres of land. News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Eugene Driscoll THE NEWS-TIMES. Dr Grossman also remembered when Fairfield Hills had an operational farm. It opened on October 11, 2014. The hospital has been in many "haunted" shows such as MTV's FEAR. The nurses wouldnât find out until she started vomiting. It was a sad situation,â he said. 54 of 62 found this interesting Interesting? By the late 1960s Fairfield Hills housed more than 4,000 patients, 20 doctors, 50 nurses, and 100 assorted other employees. The Reed Intermediate School is also located on the property, as well as a youth academy and the new community center. 11 reviews. Subsequently, the number of homeless people in the area increased. That is insulting to hundreds of Newtown residents and stifles dialogue by forcing divisive national politics into local issues. John Rowland closed Fairfield Hills and its sister hospital, Norwich State Hospital. It was paid for by private funders and features an indoor turf field, basketball court, and full workout center. [5] In the first year that psychosurgery was performed at Fairfield Hills over 100 patients were treated. The most popular reason why people come to visit is the paranormal activity in the area. *For more info, check out my Yelp profile. âI enjoyed working there, and I enjoyed working with the staff. Dedicated to a common development theme, the institutional buildings were of a modified colonial style, built of red brick and attractively accented. Sometimes,â he said, âsomeone from administration would want to know what was going on, so they would just walk into the room and look over your shoulder. These reports date back to the 1880s. Mercy Health - We offer a full range of health care services at nearly 600 locations across Ohio and Kentucky with a team of highly skilled specialists and state-of-the-art technology. Patients were usually very cooperative,â he said. Abandoned Places. All surgeries after that were performed at Danbury Hospital, he said, where he continued to see Fairfield Hillsâ patients, until the state hospital closed in 1995. âI would operate on them there, and then they would stay at Danbury. A dedication ceremony was held June 10, 1931.. Embed review. Like most mental hospitals of the time, the way that the patients were treated would today be considered barbaric and inhumane. The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps. She always swore to me afterward that she wouldnât do it again. Members of the community actively resisted its location in the vicinity of Newtown and, for more than a decade, their attitudes had a negative Impact on its development. I would be called in to do surgery, and the patient would be really sick. Share review. Thank you again. Thank you all! All access ways leading to the tunnels were welded and / or boarded shut. Surgery for burst appendixes was fairly common, for instance. The acreage consisted of large farm meadows and a forest. Security from Fairfield Hills staff had to stay with those patients constantly [during recovery],â he said. See more ideas about Asylum, Lunatic asylum, Abandoned asylums. And yes, I know I promised pix of me when I “urban explored” Fairfield Hills—an infamous abandoned asylum just fifteen minutes from my home—back in 2002. Fairfield Hills State Hospital. Fairfield State Hospital (AKA Fairfield Hills) (Image credit: Flickr user G F) Despite their best efforts, the city of Newtown, Connecticut has been unable to squelch Fairfield State Hospital's eerie reputation. Dr Grossman never had to use it. Lobotomies were being performed when Dr Grossman first started working for the state hospital, but it is one surgery he did not perform. A lot of them returned to the cities they had come from, but they couldnât hold jobs or take care of themselves,â Dr Grossman said. Fairfield Hills State Hospital, Newtown, Connecticut; This hospital opened in 1933 in order to ease the overcrowding of the state’s other two mental hospitals. -Ryan Knapp, Absolutely absurd......."Most Trump supporter do not give the true reason they voted for him because they are ashamed to say, or do not realize themselves, it is about race.". News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Eugene Driscoll THE NEWS-TIMES. Inside the abandoned state hospital where 'the ghost of a young girl haunts the corridors' Legend states the girl, dressed in a white gown, stares out of the window of the Fairfield Hills State Hospital; Hospital is in Newtown, Connecticut, and was once an established psychiatric asylum which is now derelict It was dedicated on November 21, 2009, and is now called the Newtown Municipal Center.[8]. During its operation, treatments at Fairfield Hills included hydrotherapy, insulin shock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and frontal lobotomy. A frequent surgery candidate was one woman who swallowed bobby pins. Thatâs why I continued to do it.â. Some, were not,â he said. The morae specificity the more assured voters will be of what is ultimately approved. Additionally, the tunnels were used to convey food from the central cafeteria (Bridgeport Hall) for patients confined to their residence buildings. The most popular reason why people come to visit is the paranormal activity in the area. Iâd open up her stomach, take it all out. Fairfield State Hospital (as it was known from 1929 to 1963) or Fairfield Hills Hospital (as it was known after 1963) was a psychiatric hospital in Newtown, Connecticut, which operated from 1931 until 1995.At its peak, the hospital housed over 4,000 patients. 19 friends. If you do not have an account, please register here. The tunnels were also used to transport corpses to the on-campus morgue. We were all disappointed when the farm was shut down by the state. Designed by architect Walter P. Crabtree, the hospital sprawled over 770 acres including 16 buildings with a series of underground interconnected tunnels. Read more. The hospital contained 16 buildings on 100 acres (40 ha), plus another 670 acres (270 ha) of land around them. âWe saw people like that,â Dr Grossman said. The statement above relating to Gun Free Zones was, as I understood it, that they do not prevent those intent on breaking the law from doing so, and only serve to deny permitted, legal carry under as otherwise allowed state statutes. Fairfield Hills State Hospital. Published 1:00 am EDT, Tuesday, September 28, 2004 These tales, though, come from the hearts of those who knew it best.). With the high cost of running underused hospitals, state hospitals around the country shut their doors. âI liked working for Fairfield Hills Hospital,â Dr Grossman said. Fairfield Hills State Hospital. It was a mistake, closing Fairfield Hills Hospital, Dr Grossman said, with many patients unable to care for themselves. We would take blood pressures, check a patientâs heart, lungs, throat, eyes, and ears. 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