Friends and family gather at the Holidays to share stories, exchange
gifts, and to check out overly explored haunted sites. Am I right, or am I
right?
Meet the Saratoga County Homestead. This little darling sits
in Providence, NY. From what I learned online it was built around 1912 and
opened in 1914 as a treatment facility for tuberculosis. It closed in 1960
after medical science had nearly eradicated the illness in the U.S. thanks to
advancements in antibiotics. In 1961 it reopened as the Saratoga County
Infirmary. The facility remained open until 1979 serving as the county nursing
home. The brick structures in my photos were built about 1932 to replace the
original wood buildings. (Many of the sites I found while researching the place
basically had cut-n-pastes of the Wiki page, just FYI[i].)
The drive was uneventful as we passed through small
Adirondack town who have seen better days. The narrow roads were populated by
homes built well apart from each other. The town centers that still exist consisted
largely of either a church or a convenience store at a crossroads. This is the
first glimpse of the structure we saw and it came as quite a shock given the
dense pine forests we just drove through.
Looking to the left greets you with this little fixer-upper.
The old caretaker’s home. We learned this from a very friendly local woman who
arrived with equally shocking speed after we parked. Within no more than five
minutes (perhaps shorter) we had neighbors down the road checking us out, we
had the aforementioned female motorist accompanied by a quiet passenger and a
cute Shih Tzu stop to chat, and a black SUV with very impressive flashing
lights mounted on its dash pacing up and down the road. The SUV driver never
approached us, but he did park very sternly from time to time -at a safe
distance- with his headlights pointed at us. Incidentally, the woman claimed
her father died in the facility in the early sixties from a non-TB lung ailment
brought on by industrial population where he worked. She said she remembers climbing
the grand staircase located just inside the main doorway as a little girl. She
also said the faculty staff were not…caring. I’ll just leave it at that.
The place is quite large and quite rundown. I am all for exploring
but I believe the signs adorning the fence warning of poison inside the
building. We did not go in for that and other reasons. I’ve seen photos of its rooms.
They are covered with thick dust from the crumbling walls and ceilings. A good
amount of that dust is likely to be asbestos given the age of facility.
Asbestos was used in everything from wiring to insulation to sounds proofing
until the 1980’s. So yeah, a building built to treat a disease of the lungs
could potentially give you lung cancer. I’m just saying.
Looking at the windows tells you the people around here: A.
Hate windows. And B. Come and go with regularity. Yet, the only death I could
find linked to exploring the facility was from a car crash. A group of high
schoolers from a nearby town were reportedly passing another vehicle at high
speeds when the driver lost control tragically killing a passenger. Authorities made it known they suspected the
teens were in the area due to the Homestead, but it was never concretely proven[ii]. I did however find an independent horror film
from 2008 called The Expedition on
IMDB[iii].
I can’t find a scrap of primary evidence
on this “based on a true story” thriller about a missing Canadian paranormal
investigator. The reviews on Amazon are worth reading[iv].
Here a link to the trailer on Youtube. It was narrated by Batman, if that
helps.
And we transition…
To the children’s wing. Sights like this make me sad.
Anyway, the symbol over the doorway adorning the shield is the Cross of
Lorraine. You may recognize it as the symbol of the American Lung Association. The
ALA originated from the fight against tuberculosis in 1904[v].
Here’s the same building in 1941 sometime before the road we
used was made[vi].
Finally, here’s a peek inside the building found on YouTube.
Note the staircase at 1:30. I believe that is the same staircase our friendly
motorist remembers climbing to visit her father before he died. There are a
number of similar vids uploaded to the site, of course.
Would you do everyone a kindness and please DO NOT
trespass to explore the place. I genuinely don’t think it is safe (Remember the
asbestos, not to mention all the glass and debris.) and I genuinely think you
will get arrested. Exploring the unknown safely while respecting legal
boundaries is the best way to stay an explorer and not add to the ghostly or
prison populations.
Now you know and knowing is half the battle!
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