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Jan. 09, 2010 - "Asylum"

I felt the need to get out of the house today in search of some images. We get in the car, and Holly turns to me and asks "Where to?"... and the only thing I could come up with was "someplace dilapidated".

We started off at the "Fine Arts Theater" in Brookfield... not far from our home. The movie theater has been closed for almost 15 years... maybe longer. The last film I remember seeing there was "Immortal Beloved" - and that was back in '94. I got a few interesting shots of the remnants of bird nests in light fixtures... but that was about it. Nothing really caught me.

Next we made our way into Newtown... and came across the old "Circle Dot Cafe"... an old hot dog stand/diner... closed at least a decade or more ago - and sort of "frozen in time". I snapped a dozen or so shots... interesting - but not too exciting for me.

It was cold... and the sun was sinking. Running out of options, we made our way to Fairfield Hills State Hospital & Asylum. THIS was what I was looking for!

For those not familiar with Fairfield Hills... it was a psychiatric hospital and asylum, built in the 1930s and closed in the 1996. It was one of the largest - at one time housing over 4,000 patients! The hospital was used as location for the film "Sleepers" with Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon and Dustin Hoffman. It was also the scene of an episode of MTV's "Fear" - where they referred to it as "St. Agnes Hospital" to hide the real location.

But I digress...

My son and I exited the car, and made our way toward Shelton House, while Holly stayed behind to enjoy the warmth of the car.

Shelton House is one of the largest buildings at Fairfield Hills - and my favorite by-far. It was built in 1933, and was primarily a residential and treatment building for hospital patients. Some people say it's one of the most "haunted" of the buildings there.

Brandon and I started snapping photos: The main entrance... the stairs leading up to the door... the amazing sun-rooms at the ends of the building. I felt drawn to the windows... the broken panes of glass... the rusted hinges and locks... the rotting woodwork.

I snapped away - as did Brandon. We peeked inside... seeing empty rooms... dust-covered fans... open doors... ceiling tiles long-since-dropped upon the floor. I found a broken window and stuck my camera through it to snap a few pictures. It was right at THAT moment that it happened: One of the heavy, open metal windows on the second floor SLAMMED shut! Brandon and I looked up toward the window... then he looked at me and I looked at him... and we RAN back toward the car!

We told Holly what happened... and she laughed at us. I just looked at her and said "Start heading home!".

It was a wonderful day!

* * *

We'd had tea and everything was washed up and tidied away. We were all considering whether we should start the packing up process as the boat had to be back at the base for 9am the next morning, when...

BANG!

A yob through a stone over the canal. It hit the window which, being safety glass, smashed into thousands of tiny pieces.

After a few minutes of feeling shocked, stunned and outraged, accompanied by many expletives*, we rang the base (which was only a few minutes away) and asked if we could bring the boat in.

On the way to the base we decided the best option was to not wait until the morning but drive home (only 2? hours away). So after some super fast packing we were soon on the way home.

* Frankly I was amazed that John knew so many swear words. Moo had to cover Colette's ears.