Largely-Demolished 1874 Kirkbride, Now Avalon Danvers Apartments
1101 Kirkbride Drive, Danvers, MA 01923
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; surviving exterior of the partially-rebuilt Kirkbride can be viewed from public roads only.
Access
Limited Access
Drive-by viewing along public access roads adjacent to the apartment complex
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1878 · Kirkbride Plan Asylum · Demolished Historic Building · Massachusetts Psychiatric History · H.P. Lovecraft Reference
Danvers State Hospital opened in 1878 on Hathorne Hill in Danvers, Massachusetts, to a design by Boston architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee. Construction began in 1874. The hospital followed the Kirkbride Plan formulated by Philadelphia physician Thomas Story Kirkbride: a long, staggered series of ward wings stepping back from a central administrative block, designed to admit light and ventilation to every ward. The Danvers Kirkbride was among the largest in New England and was used as a visual reference for the H.P. Lovecraft story "The Thing on the Doorstep" and for the film Session 9.
The facility experienced significant overcrowding through the twentieth century, with peak populations far above its design capacity. The state closed Danvers State Hospital permanently in 1992. The property sat largely vacant for over a decade.
In 2003, AvalonBay Communities signed a purchase agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the 75-77 acre site. The redevelopment plan called for partial retention of the Kirkbride administration block and adjacent wards. Demolition of most of the buildings began in January 2006; by June 2006, all structures slated for removal had been torn down. The administration block and immediate G and D ward wings were retained as an outermost brick shell while an entirely new apartment structure was built behind and inside the historic facade. On April 7, 2007, four of the partially-completed apartment buildings and four AvalonBay construction trailers burned down in a fire visible from Boston, nearly seventeen miles away; damage was largely confined to buildings under construction. AvalonBay completed construction in 2008 and residents began moving in shortly afterward.
The surviving brick facade of the administration tower remains the most visible reminder of the 1874 Kirkbride. The interior is now private apartments.
Sources
Danvers State Hospital was, during its years of full abandonment from 1992 to 2006, one of the most heavily-documented Kirkbride paranormal sites in the United States. The hospital served as a visual inspiration for the 2001 film Session 9, which used the actual abandoned interior as its filming location, and the building's reputation drew urban-exploration photographers and paranormal investigators from across the country. Reports from that period included extensive accounts of footsteps in empty corridors, voices, doors closing on their own, figures glimpsed at upper windows from the grounds, and the persistent sense of presence in the patient wards.
The 2006 demolition removed nearly all of the interior fabric of the original Kirkbride. Only the outermost brick shell of the administration tower and the immediately adjacent G and D ward exteriors were retained as a heritage facade for the new Avalon Danvers apartment complex behind. The 2007 construction fire that destroyed four partially-built apartment buildings and damaged the propped-up historic shell added to the contemporary lore around the site, though it occurred during active construction.
Current paranormal claims at the site are largely confined to former-resident anecdote and to drive-by viewing of the surviving administration facade. The dense pre-2006 archive of investigation accounts circulates in Kirkbride-preservation and asylum-history communities online.
Media Appearances
View the partially-reconstructed brick shell of the Kirkbride administration building from public roads adjacent to the Avalon Danvers apartment complex. The interior is private residential property; the surviving brick facade represents the outermost shell of the original 1874 administration block and adjacent G and D wards.
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