Haunted Places: Buffalo State Asylum

December 14, 2021

Hello Everyone,

Well this is the last haunted hospital or asylum for a while. Got a different list of Haunted Places to cover plus some other stuff. Still, what a better way to wrap up the segment than with talking about Buffalo State Asylum. Yes, another one located in New York.

A Little History:

The construction for Buffalo State Asylum started in 1870. The asylum is also known as, and is the official name, is the Richardson Olmsted Complex and sometimes the Henry Hobson Richardson Olmsted Hospital. To me the “Buffalo State Asylum” sounds a little more eerie so I am going to stick with that name.

Now it is considered a historical landmark where it resides in Buffalo, New York. Although it stopped housing inmates in the 1970s it was used as an office until 1994. Nowadays the building is in need of restoration and talk of turning one part of it into a hotel has been mentioned.

Can you imagine that?

Why is Buffalo State Asylum Haunted?

Like many of the previous posts it is the obvious.  A place of tortured souls that saw their final days in the confines of the asylum walls. Not all of them might I mention but a good deal of the inmates at all the earlier asylums ended this way.

This hospital, or asylum, was set up like many of its time. Separating the more insane from the less or by the nature of insanity was common. This asylum was set up to provide plenty of fresh air and sunlight to the patients because it was believed to help with their symptoms. However, even with its superb design to allow these things the building could not always function properly to provide these measures of treatments.

The complex would reach such high levels of overcrowding at times that some patients would resort to sharing beds, sleeping in piles on one another to stay warm and often in unsanitary conditions. Dirty quarters were common and some reports say that patients were even taken places where they were eventually forgotten about.

I can only imagine the cruelty that went on among the inmates while the caretakers struggled to keep up as best they could with underfunding and overcrowding. I am sure many starved to death or died from other causes such as dehydration or exposure because they were simply forgotten about in a cell somewhere or holding.

My Thoughts:

As unfortunate as it is many people do require these places in order to stop harming themselves or prevent the harm of others. However, if you can avoid going to one I would strongly recommend it. Although treatments have come a long way, a very long way, since the turn of the last century it is still a place that can torture the mind.

As for the haunting, well maybe those poor souls that were forgotten about back in the functioning days of the asylum just want a little attention. Maybe if it opens into a hotel they will finally get that attention because they will have plenty of living souls to play with. You know? Someone to play their little games with and keep them busy.

Forever.

And ever.

And ever.

 

Thanks for Reading,

Joshua Crane Dowidat

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