Story Archives of 'mental hospital'

Among the horror film formulas of gothic monsters, aliens, slashers and the undead is one that now stands out as unfeeling: the insane asylum.

Little wonder, given that these mysterious architectural giants loomed behind iron gates in dozens of American towns. Hollywood brought us inside, painting mental institutions as places of misery and despair. Think of Shock Corridor, The Snake Pit, or the more recent thriller Session 9.

Hollywood trumped up the terror of insane asylums, but they were originally built for healing, as places of safety as well as madness. Among the earliest of the mental hospitals was the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane in Concord.

An acute psychiatric care facility and a children’s unit still operate there. About half of the old buildings have been converted to state offices or storage units, while the rest sit empty. Word or Mouth producer Avishay Artsy went to unlock the history of this decaying institution.