Apparently I didn’t get the email to renew my hosting service for this site and it went down for a bit.  I got the money together to get it back online for another year.

My apologies to anyone trying to access the site for however long it was offline.

Also, you can get here via mantenostatehospital.org as well.

We now have over 500 fans on facebook!

Thank you, fans!

I really appreciate all the facebook feedback, the comments, the contacts, the photos and information!

Who could ask for a better bunch of fans?!

~M

Blue Spoons Or: How I Learned to Love History

by Megan Reed

(Written for ENG W131 January 26, 2006)

I’ve been an “urban explorer” now for about 4 years. I discovered the hobby through an interview I caught on NPR about some guys in NYC who wore suits and explored the abandoned subway tunnels of New York. It piqued my interest, since I had always been the curious sort.

The urban explorer, is not different than the more common garden variety explorer, and in my opinion, is no more the different. The explorer is someone looking for adventure, an artist looking for inspiration, a photographer looking for the perfect shot, a thrill seeker looking for a rush, or, perhaps, a history buff. Sometimes, an explorer is just someone who is bored, with an abandoned factory in their backyard, and nothing better to do.

After moving to Chicago in 2000, I founded my own group of these urban explorer types who called ourselves “Chicago Urban Exploration” and we set forth on a mission to find the most interesting of abandoned places to explore. Once such place we came upon was Manteno State Hospital, an old abandoned state mental hospital just 50 miles south of Chicago and 12 miles north of Kankakee.

We started exploring the sprawling campus of over 30 buildings in about February of 2001. We had not come there searching for anything in particular, nor did we ever.  We were not conquistadors searching intently for the “Lost City of Gold”. The only thing we knew was that there was something abandoned, something forbidden, and we just had to go check it out. We had no noble goal. The is, I, at least did not, not until I found the spoons.

Each trip to the old state hospital proved to be more intriguing than the last. Each member of the group developed their own particular fascination with the place.  Some of our group went for the possible paranormal activity, some for the vast tunnel system, and some dug it for the fantastic photographic opportunity it afforded them.

Once, upon one of our many exploration into the basement of one of the larger two-story brick buildings, we found a room full of blue plastic spoons.  Something about them being there seemed quite strange to me. There must have been thousands of them just laying all over the floors pouring out of beat up old cardboard drums.

Something about the blue spoons stuck in my head and made me question their mere existence. Why were they there? What purpose did they serve? Did patients use them? Why should I care?

They stuck in the back of my head just gnawing at me, eventually taking my curiosity far beyond that of a typical urban explorer. I finally had to acute upon the questions they brought to mind and started what was to be my many years of research and writing on the history of Manteno State Hospital.

What I found out, in short, was that they hospital has, at one time, been one of the largest in the United States. It had reached a peak population of well over 8,000 patients (which did not include the employees, whom, at the time, also lived on the campus). The hospital was built in the late 1920s and closed its doors forever by 1985. After that, the northern third was converted into a Veteran’s home and the rest was bought up by a local man of notable wealth. Many of the buildings were left in a state of ruin, only to deteriorate further by way of mother nature, vandals, and eventually the wrecking ball.

The blue spoons egged me on and on to find their purpose in life. I had to know why and after several years found what I believe to be the answer and solution to the mystery of the blue plastic spoons.

The answer, seems to be that back in the day, before patient’s rights, states used patients to fill the positions of various unsavory sorts of jobs that most standard employs would not want to do, such as kitchen prep work, laundry and janitorial types of duties. These jobs were quite often assigned to patients as part of their “Occupational Therapy”. Later on, independent contractors and other “outside” organizations brought more work to the hospitals such as packaging postcards and, (as you might have guessed), plastic utensils.  I am fairly certain, that the blue plastic spoons were part of a job using patient labor.

For the longest time, I had absolutely loathed the subject of history. History, to me, was boring, full of useless facts, and for all I cared, dead. The blue plastic spoons changed all of that. They transformed my ideas of what I had thought history was all about and history itself gave some validity to my so-called “hobby” of “urban exploration”. I became very much aware of the history of the places I explored and the objects found inside of them. I never looked at these objects the same way again. They became archeological and anthropological objects, that needed to be preserved or recorded before they became part of the inevitable demolition dust and carted off to the dump…lost forever.

Perhaps age plays some part in a person’s view of history.  The older you get the more you have of your own history and the more you realize the importance of other’s histories. Even if you are drawn to the history of an old, abandoned mental institution by a room full of blue plastic spoons.

INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS (IN RED INK)

“Megan,

This is an excellent paper #1. Keep up the great work! I look forward to reading your other work this semester!”

…and at the bottom of the last page, “Excellent!” (underlined).This will eventually be the intro to the book.

The above map has been marked to show which buildings have been demolished since they were built.

The last semi-abandoned, graffited and vandalized cottage, Morgan, is now being demolished and probably won’t last through the winter.

Other properties shown are owned by companies and individuals.  On the lots where many buildings once stood are houses, businesses and apartments. The campus has become an odd mix of housing, banking, education, various businesses, and mental health/rehab services.

NOTE: If you plan on visiting the property that was once the old Manteno State Hospital campus please be law abiding and respectful of the current property owners. Over a 3rd of the northern part of the old main campus belongs to the federal government (Veterans Affairs) and is a retirement home for United States’ Military Veterans. The author of this web site maintains no ownership or authority and can not grant or condone any access to the former properties that once made up the campus of Manteno State Hostpial.

Staking University (and the Parilac family) have gone to tremendous lengths (and more than likely expense) to keep their building (old “Drake” cottage) in nearly original condition.  This year has brought about roof/ceiling, gutter repairs and tuck pointing.

The old Drake Cottage is home to Staking University (an adult education utility locator training program), the Planet Underground (products and services related to underground damage prevention), and the magazine “Underground Focus” (underground infrastructure damage prevention). (The current issue of Underground Focus is phenominal, by the way!)

I’ve just purchased the domain mantenostatehospital.org! So you can get here by the domain too!

I’ll be in Manteno tomorrow morning to tour the grounds with author Karen Masterson. We will be spending the day at the old MSH grounds then head to Gino’s East (Harlem & 159th Street) for dinner.  I will be heading home later Thursday afternoon, but hope to get some good photography in over the two days I’m there.

Also venturing out with me that day will be my husband Jerry, my good friend Robert Johnson (professional photographer and lead paranormal investigator) and his friend Erica Behringer.

I’ve agreed to help Karen Masterson, who is working on a book about Malaria projects conducted during WWII where knowning/unknowing patients and prisoners were used for breeding Malaria. Both Statesville and MSH were part of these projects.  It should prove to be an interesting few days!

…but I’m working on it!

I am slowly, but surely moving the old photo galleries over to the blog.

If you’d like to take a look, please click on the “Gallery” link to the left to brows the galleries.

More coming soon!

If you would just like to see what pages have been added (are available) on the mshwiki, please visit the following link…

http://mantenostatehospital.com/mshwiki/index.php/Special:AllPages