Radical news about Danvers State Hospital

[matt cardin]

I know that technically I should have posted this message beneath the already-existing Danvers State Hospital topic, but I was afraid it might get buried there.

To all those who are interested in this (in)famous piece of New England's shadowy past, I'm shocked or saddened, or actually I'm not sure how I feel about it, to announce to you that the place is currently in preparation to be converted to condominiums.

I received this piece of news from my sister, who is a journalist living in Salem. She writes for a couple of New England newspapers and sent me an email this evening to let me know that a colleague of hers is covering the asylum-to-condos story. This colleague apparently mentioned that she had heard something about H.P. Lovecraft being connected somehow with the hospital, and my sister, knowing of my long-running interest in Lovecraft, directed the other party to give me a call. So I suppose I may receive this call in the near future, at which point I'll have to reveal my limited knowledge: that Lovecraft mentioned the town of Danvers in a couple of his stories and the Danvers asylum itself in a couple of others, and that his fictional town of Arkham may or may not be based partly on Danvers. If anybody here knows anything more, please feel free to let me know.

But that, of course, isn't the real news here. As I said, I thought some TLOers might be interested to hear of the impending fate of this venerable landmark in America's gothic history.

And on an unrelated note, wow, what a movie it might make: Echo Boomers move into the new condos completely unaware of the site's past and soon find themselves haunted by the spirits of the angry dead insane. Hey, worse ideas have ended up being produced.

[matt cardin]

A kind of p.s.: I just did a brief moment of poking around online and discovered that the news is easily findable, as in the following story:

http://www.realestatejournal.com/buy...8-corkery.html

There are also a Boston Globe piece and some others.

[bendk]

I'd live there if Simon paid his fair share of the rent. $2,000 bucks a month? Ouch! On second thought, all of those multiple personalities can chip in.

[unknown]

haha. it'll be interesting if something Poltergiest-ish happens there

[The Silent One]

They're going to convert and destroy one of the creepiest buildings in North America? Great Ashurbapinal :x!

[DeathfareDevil]

Sigh. I'll have to watch Session 9 in mourning.