Abandoned places have always attracted teens’ curiosity.  The hint of mystery and possible hauntings, combined with a sense of danger from the “No Trespassing” signs create the perfect opportunity for anyone looking for a good scare.  Even in broad daylight.

Crumbling walls, overgrown walkways, and history of mistreatment and death made the now-abandoned Forest Haven Insane Asylum a perfect candidate for a group of Watkins Mill High School students searching for the paranormal on February 27.    

Forest Haven opened as an asylum in 1925 and was finally closed in 1991. For years, the institution suffered from overcrowding, understaffing, underfunding and malpractice. As a result, many patients  died on the campus; due to the pain and torture that these poor souls experienced, many believe their spirits to still be there, haunting the grounds.

After driving around to find the asylum, the group of students finally arrived and started exploring. They visited a total of four buildings out of 22. Each came with its own story of chaos.

“[The asylum] felt uncomfortable at some points,” junior Matthew Hartwell said. “[The church] had a better vibe than the rest of the place because it was less destroyed than everything else.”

The buildings had dirt all over the floors, ruined classrooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Pieces of patients’ lives strewn around the floor, their presence still felt all around. A wheelchair that waited  in the main building caught the group’s interest. “I touched the wheelchair,” senior Kyle Britt said. “No one else would touch it.”

Each of the buildings had its own creepy features–one had a classroom perfectly set up, the church had warnings of Satan watching, the infirmary had metal beds throughout. While each building had the ability to terrify on its own, the main building was unanimously the scariest.  Right in the entrance, “There was a sign that said get out,” junior Riveldo Burgess said.   

The scariest part was when the group found themselves ending at the same building they began with. After walking up the hill,  the group thought they had found a new building surrounded by walls. However, after walking through the building they found that it was the exact one they had started in. As if the asylum put them in a circle to keep them from seeing the true horror of Forest Haven.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Jonathan Trejo-Perez

A look down one of the ominous hallways in the infirmary