Picture Pages! Picture Pages!

Construction began on the Dixmont State Hospital on July 19, 1859 and its doors officially opened to 113 residents and their staff on November 11, 1861. A vision created by Dorothea Dix, the Dixmont State Hospital was a Kirkbride building, known for creating plans for asylums that promoted the mental healing of the residents.

Located on 406 acres, Dixmont was completely self-sufficient with its own power plant, water supply, postal office, butcher shop, gardens, and morgue—it required no contact with the world outside. At times housing over 1000 patients, the grand visions of better treatment for the mentally ill, soon decayed.

Dixmont closed its doors in 1984 and has since been the target of vandals, seekers of the paranormal and youth requiring a secluded place to be youth. More than 1,300 graves (marked and numbered on small stones) can be found in the woods surrounding the Dixmont hospital. The state of Pennsylvania plans to preserve the 1-acre cemetery where these former patients are buried.

As the buildings are being cleared of asbestos, they are being demolished to create way for the new Wal-Mart Supercenter (slated for opening in May of 2007). Demolition of Dixmont is expected to be completed early in 2006. Currently, only a handful of the old buildings still remain.

Pictures can be found in the links listed below--with the exception of the staff house. Perhaps Dixmont visitors did not think that it would have anything interesting to photograph? If anyone out there has photos or information on the staff house, I would be quite interested...

I received these photos on December 5th and thought that I would share them. It looks like they are pictures of a building that was torn down prior to our visit.


Our tours were of the main building that the patients resided in, the dining hall and of the building that housed the staff. Not to mention, an extensive tour of the grounds while searching for the cemetery...

Where to begin? Four of us went—two of us got sick (headaches, nausea); all five of the cameras that we took went berserk (orbs in several photos and what appears to be smoke or fog in several others).

The vehicle that we took (and it wasn’t mine, so that wasn’t the problem) didn’t start when we tried to leave; there were parts of the buildings that we all felt weird vibes in…
Photos that I took are in albums contained within the links (ones with the date in yellow are by Sara). I left all of the photos exactly as I received them. Photos showing in the blog are by Brittany.

The outer views of the asylum are incredible (but I am curious as to the need for the excessively large ice bin). The Kirkbride buildings were amazing and it is sad to see that so few of them are left.

I also awoke to a weird experience the morning before our Dixmont trip... Connected? You decide.

Vandals commandeered some of the construction equipment and took it upon themselves to do their own demolition, which cost thousands of dollars worth of damage to the machinery.

Some of the inside views at Dixmont are a bit haunting. I took a full-roll of pictures within this building--however, there was no trace of many of them.
Most sites tell of Dixmont as a happy place and that everyone was just part of “one big happy family.” Dixmont housed patients for 122 years. 122 years. This entire time was flowers and sunshine?
Dixmont housed thousands of mentally-ill patients, mentally and physically disabled individuals, and many individuals that would be considered “normal” by today’s standards.


Dixmont was also home to rapists, murders and other violent individuals that society wanted rid of and didn't know what else to do with.
They couldn't be watched and contained all of the time. What crimes did they commit against the other patients?

The imprints could still be clearly felt within the walls.
All of my photos taken within the shower rooms and bathrooms are gone.

There weren't even black negatives showing where the pictures should have been--they simply weren't there at all.

Go figure.

There was rusty wire throughout this room (walls, ceiling, floor).

Guesses are that this was a padded room and that the padding had long since rotted away...

This room freaked me out and I did not stop long enough to get a photo. This was the only attempt that any of us made to capture this room.

Clearer photos can be viewed on some of the links below--in particular, "the wire room."

It wasn't snowing on the day that we did our Dixmont tour and these pictures were taken inside of the building that housed the patients. Notice the star incorporated into the flooring. Brittany was standing on the star when she took these pictures. Pictures taken in other parts of the room came out normal. The orbs still appeared even after cleaning the lens.
Paranormal investigators go nuts over one of these spots in a picture--here we find an entire room full.

When Raw Fear visited Dixmont, they also discovered that their pictures had orbs in them. Decide for yourself...

The dining hall had some of the most beautiful architecture on the grounds. We unfortunately did not view much more than the main dining room.
Other Dixmont sites that I have visited show pictures of large cages in the lower parts of this building. Our tour through the dining hall was quite rushed and consisted only of this floor.
Some of my pictures taken in the dining hall were quite strange.

I can offer no logical explanation for any of them.
Sara captured this odd picture; which is quite similar to many of the ones I took.

Smoke? Light?

I'm not really sure.

Of all of the buildings, the staff house was the one that I was the most anxious to tour as we walked the grounds. We were told that it didn't house anything interesting. I beg to differ...

I can't even begin to tell you how creepy this building was... I got more bad vibes here than anywhere else on the tour. I haven't been able to find any information on it or other pictures of it.
There were huge drainage grates in the middle of each of the three floors, suggesting that this building was also hosed down. But it was the STAFF house. Why would they need to hose it down?


There was a gated and wired section that led to the attic. Surely patients wouldn’t have been in this building—why was the attic the equivalent of a large cage?
Each window in the attic had a chair in front of it, looking out. What purpose did this serve? Since the windows faced the back of the property, I’m guessing that looking out to monitor the asylum wasn't the plan.

Hidden on the hill...


A home fit for Norman...


"No hole in my soul"


I really, really, really did not like this building...

Perpatraitor...
Perp-A-Traitor...

Yet another glimpse of the staff house. 122 years. 1000s of patients. Rapes, beatings, and other traumas occurred in one form or another.

Creepy, creepy place. I am almost positive that the Wal-Mart slated to be built there will be haunted… ;)

We also (unintentionally) visited the reservoir during our search for the cemetery.

Despite a treacherous hike through snow, mud, ice and across frozen dirt mounds--we did not find the cemetery which is cited as having approximately 1300 numbered graves.

A future trip is planned.

A listing of links for those interested in locating additional history, photos and information related to the Dixmont State Hospital:

Dorothea Dix, Kirkbride Buildings, the Kirkbride Plan, and Dixmont as a Kirkbride building. 2003 Post-Gazette article reviewing the overall history of Dixmont (which includes a photograph from the cemetery), and "A self-sustaining city," a Post-Gazette article reviewing the nature of Dixmont's functional aspects.

Ohiotrespassers has interesting information and photographs of Dixmont. Gallery 3 contains morgue photos (already demolished at the time of our visit) and "the wire room." Their history section also includes wonderful old photos of Dixmont.

Ghoststudies Gallery presents 99 photos of Dixmont, including the mural that I searched for during our recent journey.

Opacity.us provides history and some fascinating photos.

Guerilla Tourism In Pittsburgh reflects upon the local legends regarding Dixmont.

The first episode of Raw Fear was shot at Dixmont. They also claim to have discovered orbs in the wire room and the same areas that we found them. They have pictures of the trip so that you can decide for yourself.

If you are truly interested, you can also purchase Raw Fear: The Haunted Asylum, the DVD that they filmed in the Dixmont Insane Asylum. It does have live footage of the morgue and really nice footage of the "wire room."