American Horror Story and New England Folklore

This fall, Tony and I have been watching American Horror Story: Asylum on the FX channel. The show is lurid, violent and cheesy, but it shows me things I've never seen on TV before, and it's definitely not boring.

While watching the first episode I was surprised (and excited) to see that the show draws upon New England folklore. 

The series is set in and around Briarcliff Manor, a large insane asylum in Massachusetts. (The audience is reminded throughout the series of the Massachusetts setting by the Boston accents the actors attempt with varying success.) In the current day, a young newlywed couple played by Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan-Tatum are exploring Briarcliff, which has been abandoned for many years and is rumored to haunted. A system of tunnels run underneath the hospital out into the woods. Needless to say, bad things happen.

Briarcliff Manor

While I was watching I was immediately reminded of Danvers State Hospital, the notorious asylum in Massachusetts which was abandoned for many years. The similarities are too big just to be coincidence. The Massachusetts setting, the haunted abandoned insane asylum, the tunnels underneath - it all makes me wonder if the show's creators have some connection with Massachusetts, or maybe just really loved Session 9. Briarcliff even looks similar to Danvers.

Danver State Hospital before it was renovated

The main storyline in American Horror Story: Asylum is set not in 2012, however, but in 1964 when Briarcliff is a bustling asylum run by the Catholic church. In the first episode we're introduced to various residents, including Kit Walker, a white Massachusetts man suspected of murdering his African-American wife and other local women. Therapists claim that guilt over hiding their interracial marriage drove him to become a murderer.

Kit Walker (Evan Peters) and Alma Walker (Britne Olford)

But Kit tells the therapists what sounds like an unbelievable story. He and his wife were abducted by extra-terrestrial aliens who probed and experimented on them. His wife is not dead, but is still off somewhere with the aliens.

Betty and Barney Hill

I almost fell off the couch when I saw these scenes. This situation (an interracial couple abducted by aliens in the 1960s) is clearly a reference to Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple from New Hampshire who claimed they were abducted by aliens in 1961. The Hill's story is well known, and inspired the book The Interrupted Journey and the movie The UFO Incident. Some people have theorized that the stress of being an interracial couple in the early 60s led to their concocting the UFO abduction story.

Just to be very clear, neither of the Hills were murdered and they were never confined to an insane asylum. The theory about the stress of their interracial marriage also seems a little lacking, since thousands of people of many races have also claimed they were abducted. But the American Horror Story writers are clever to use the Hills as an inspiration for their show, which deals thematically with the conflicts between religion and science, and with the various civil rights movements (feminism, racial equality, gay rights) that were bubbling up in the early 1960s.

Just a final warning if you haven't watched American Horror story yet. If you are squeamish about violence, weird sexual situations, and poorly done Boston accents don't watch this show. But you should definitely watch if you want to see something crazy that is loosely inspired by some famous folklore from this area.

Danvers State Hospital Cemetery

Yesterday I went up to the North Shore to visit my friend Lori for the day. She said we could either go to the beach, or we could visit the cemetery of an abandoned insane asylum. We decided on the insane asylum.

If you grew up in northeastern Massachusetts you are probably familiar with Danvers State Hospital (which was located in Danvers, Mass.) When I was a kid it was synonymous with "insane asylum." For example my brother might say to me, "Stop acting like a weirdo or you'll get taken to Danvers!"

We used to pass by it on the highway sometimes driving into Boston or to my grandmother's house in Billerica. Danvers State was a big looming Gothic brick monstrosity that sat on top of a hill overlooking the surrounding area. It was really hard to miss.

Danvers State Hospital in its current incarnation as Avalon Danvers.

Danvers was built in the mid-1800s and operated until 1992. From 1992 until 2007 it was abandoned, and served as a beacon to thrill-seekers and ghost hunters. If you wanted to find ghosts, this would be the place. With its peaked towers, labyrinthine corridors, and network of underground tunnels, the abandoned hospital was as creepy as a movie set.

The hospital's history also contributed to the legends about it being haunted. Built initially to house 600 people, at its peak Danvers had 2,300 inmates living in overcrowded conditions, and lobotomies and electro-shock therapy were common treatments. Danvers saw a lot of misery and unhappiness in its time. Where better to find restless souls? Staff who worked there claimed it was haunted even while it was open, and paranormal researchers photographed glowing orbs on the hospital's grounds after it was closed.

In 2001, the horror film Session 9 was filmed inside the abandoned hospital buildings. The movie tells the story of an asbestos remediation crew hired to start renovating (you guessed it) an abandoned insane asylum. Needless to say, many bad things happen. I've seen Session 9 and it's creepy, so don't watch it if you scare easily.

In 2005 the state sold the hospital to real estate developers who wanted to make an apartment complex. Despite protests from local historic preservationists they tore down most of the original buildings and built several new ones. In 2007, a fire of unknown origin destroyed most of the newly constructed buildings. All the video cameras that had been set up to monitor the site shut down before the fire began. Creepy.

Real estate developers are even more persistent than ghosts, so eventually the Danvers site was successfully converted into an apartment complex called Avalon Danvers. I'm not sure if many people want to rent in a haunted insane asylum, so the management company plays down Danvers' history.

They did not remove the asylum's cemetery, however, which is located down the hill from the apartment complex. Lori and I initially were a little nervous about visiting due to Danvers' spooky reputation, but it was actually a peaceful place.

The entrance to the cemetery.

But it was a little odd.

Inmates who died in the asylum and whose corpses were unclaimed are buried here. The hospital staff marked their graves with numbered stones, rather than headstones bearing their names, which was a very institutional (and disrespectful) way of dealing with the dead. The numbered stone markers still exist. Some are small squares imbedded in the ground, while others are stone posts. There were hundreds of markers.

In recent years an advocacy group has tried to identify the deceased buried here, so some graves also have stones with names, and a large memorial lists the names of those who have been identified.

Overall the Danvers State Hospital cemetery felt sad rather than scary, and it's good to see that the site is not neglected. We did visit on a sunny summer day, though, so I'm sure if we had gone on gloomy day in November our experience would have been different.