Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA 2019

Photos from my quick stop in Milledgeville, GA, at the Central State Hospital. This institution was opened in 1842 as a Lunatic, Idiot and Epileptic Asylum. All photos are by me. Music, which I do not own the rights to, is by Arvo Pärt. Song is "Spiegel im Spiegel."

[@Yah-Chaser]

Thank you so much for sharing, my grandmother was institutionalized in this place for over 20 years. I never visited this place but I appreciate having a visual view of where she spent her last days.

[@kimberlycarder7730]

My granny was a patient at this hospital several times in her life and I'm just learning this now in my late 40's after dealing with a lifetime of mental health issues. Thanks for this retrospective on a place that had so much of an impact on my grandmother's life.

[@MGMA2023]

In 2015, I discovered that in June 1898, my then 35 year old great-grandmother was placed here where she later died in December 1898. Her cause of death was listed as "nervous exhaustion". She had three small children at home on the Georgia plantation where they lived. Speculatively, she very likely suffered from postpartum depression, and may have been impacted by food-insufficiency as well, as they were not wealthy. There is no record of a burial for her that I've been able to find, and I assume she was buried in one of the mass graves on this property. My heart breaks imagining how terrified she must have been those last few months of her life. Thank you for sharing this video.

[@briankirkman2891]

Thanks for sharing this video. That’s 10 full minutes of tugging at your heart strings. I can’t even begin to imagine what the people inside went through.

[@jessicastanfield8975]

I stayed there for 49 days when I was 14. Worst experience of my life all because my step dad lied. I was in foster care and my mom was granted to have me for her first weekend visit. Worst mistake ever. My step dad tried to rape and kill me I was just trying to defend myself and yes I was going to kill him. My mom didn't believe me any took up for him DFACS sent me there because I didn't deny I wanted to kill him as in self defense. I was cleared within 72 hours by doctors at central state hospital but I was forced to stay there because dfacs had no foster or group homes to put me in. Never had a problem in my just that one incident. Central State hospital is an evil place. Patients in there tried to kill me because they seen devils in thier bedrooms telling them to kill me. Staff was so terrible. Dogs ate better than I did at that place. Male staff messing with us underage females. The smell was awful. You could just feel all the bad spirits. I was not crazy before I went in that hospital but believe me I was so terrified and physically and mentally I felt so unclean I really had to find God when I got out and I begged DFACS to let me go to church and get baptized.

[@briankirkman2891]

It breaks my heart to read this. It’s numbing to know how bad humans treat each other. I hope you’re in a better place now than you were then.

[@FenrirRagnulf]

I spend 90 days there I thing around 98-99 it was really creepy and messes up. I remember the room they use to call "The Bubble room" where they put you when you freaked out.

[@jessicastanfield8975]

@@FenrirRagnulf I remember I would purposely freak out to go to the bubble room to get away from the really big girl obsessed with seeing the devil

[@amberleeannalee1999]

Just watched you on a ghost ruined my life. Good interview and video. Thanks for sharing your story

[@marciapruchinsky5897]

Great place for a ghost hunt......

[@FenrirRagnulf]

I use to be locked up there when i was a teenager and at the time it was called Milledgeville state hospital. Not sure if the "Bubble Room" is still the but it was the creepiest thing. I remember hearing about the unmarked graves about 25,000 of them. We use to tell ghost stories about them and hear stuff in the halls all night even when the guard was sleeping while the "wolf boy" ran down the halls trying to break into the other rooms and bite people, I even remember I group of teens blocking the door to their room and cutting their arms wide open and slinging the blood all over the walls before passing out and dying. I have a lot of messed up memories in that place.

[@thenightfly1602]

Very moving set of amazing photographs. Thank you for sharing.

[@nawlens6949]

Thanks so much for the kind words

[@sharonadams4424]

@@nawlens6949 if you get this message can you please respond....my mom recently passed& found one of my dad's old letters and this is the address it was from..I need to know what type of place this is & Why would he have been there he passed away when I was very young..so I have no pictures or anything of his but this letter....???

[@nawlens6949]

@@sharonadams4424 all I know is it was a state run facility for patients with psychological disorders

[@sharonadams4424]

@@nawlens6949 again Thanks

[@REAL2TRUTH]

My grandmother use to wash clothes for the state... when she stopped then they built the laundromat

[@v1m1nie54]

My grandma used to work there and still tells me stories of things that happened there Me an my family also ride past it an visit the place once in a while

[@Pepperanne50]

Thank you for this. My dad worked there in the 1950's. He was assigned to the Criminally Insane Negro Ward. The stories he used to tell me.

[@christylane5107]

Pepperanne50 can you share some stories?

[@OsoWhitt]

Story time?? 😂

[@CloroxBleach-nu8vo]

I kinda of want a story to 👀

[@AWESOMEvance]

I also am interested in a story. This place is fascinating.

[@justdamn66]

Good info.. sharing your link!!

[@oshetrippin2976]

I looked up places to visit n this is where google wants to send me tf 🙂🙂🙂🙂

[@cherylmccullough4153]

My nursing student class went there in 1980 as part of our psych training. We were each assigned to a patient to spend time with and later we were to write about our experience and to try and guess the patient's diagnosis. We were taken to the criminally insane unit and watched as a patient was interviewed. We went to a day room to observe the patients. Some were pacing the room, some were just sitting and appeared out of it. One woman was pacing, chain smoking, and saying over and over, "ten thousand babies." We were told she had murdered her infant baby. We were taken to a unit that was for children and adults that were born with severe birth defects. Everywhere we went was locked including the elevators. I'm pretty sure they only took us to the areas that they wanted us to see. As a woman in my early 20's I was terrified and just wanted for that part of my training to be over with!

[@Impailer67]

at 7 min there is a steel pin, there are over 20,000 more to indicate where the forgotten dead were put in the clay. im an alumni ,it wasn't fun !

[@nawlens6949]

Wow i bet you have some great stories

[@Impailer67]

@@nawlens6949 `i was lucky , i was a front knot. this meant i was allowed to tie my own bed sheet around my waist while i sat in a chair .if you acted up or complained they would tie the sheet behind you so you couldn't move..i'll tell ya more when i can -Dano

[@AWESOMEvance]

@@Impailer67 Wow! Thank you, that is very interesting but sad to hear. I'd love to hear more.

[@Impailer67]

@@AWESOMEvance it's hard to pick subject matter at times,,let me tell you about longhead..he was about 19 or 20 and had somewhat of an elongated head,,i never knew his name. he only said one word ,with only one exception i'll elaborate on that exception later. he would walk the corridors yelling or whispering the word ,,mom. it was heart wrenching when he would wail at night. one night a staff member snapped him with a towel . i was basically living in a hallway close to his room .i quietly tried to strangle the orderly oops ! i had become a ''backtie'' patient for a while..i was given the opportunity to live in my own filth for a bit. so time ticked by. my mom had contacted me and informed me she and her lawyer would be there late the next day..i wanted to get cleaned up, i did the best i could. but when i went to use the backed up nasty toilet ,i slipped cracking my head on uneven tile and landing in excrement with my right arm going in to the elbow. buddy, i cried and cried loud,,here comes longhead ..with the perfectly reasonable question , can he get me anything ? my response was one word MOM,, you may ask .why am i so open about this? vigilance can only happen with communication between real people !

[@AWESOMEvance]

@@Impailer67 Wow, that's awful! So they couldn't keep the place clean for patients? I appreciate you sharing.

[@dianaprince9944]

People who were committed died there...I truly hope this has changed. But from my experience the mental health crisis still wants their patients there for life...truly sad.

[@maddisonbythesea3015]

There are no insane asylums now in the US. Now there are just psychiatric wards at regular hospitals.

[@valoguy]

How do you get in there? I wanna go on Halloween night

[@nawlens6949]

There are a couple of open windows on the ground you could probably get in. I have never been in. My pics are just through the windows.

[@valoguy]

@@nawlens6949 you happen to know the exact address?

[@nawlens6949]

@@valoguy 620 Broad St, Milledgeville, GA

[@kalethebeast2477]

Most mental hospitals were built and started on good intentions. It’s a shame to see what they could have been vs. what they became. There was real potential there.

[@CoasterMan13Official]

Eisenhower, that was why.

[@sharonadams4424]

Can someone..anyone tell me what type of place was this my dad died when I was very young ..found one of his letters later on and it came from this place

[@nawlens6949]

It was a state run asylum

[@sharonadams4424]

@@nawlens6949 Thank you for responding would that be for the mentally ill&/or other issues...in very interested because I never knew him.my Mom said he was killed when I was very young..no pictures.nothing just this letter I wonder do they have old photos the letter was from 1968

[@nawlens6949]

@@sharonadams4424 when I was there I spoke to a security guard. He said that they housed a range of different people. Some people murdered their entire families. Some people were just poor. Some people were dropped off when they became a burden on their families. So a lot of pwople ended up there who didn't necessarily need to be. I believe there is a group on Facebook called Friends of Central State Hospital (I think) who can tell you a lot more. Some people in that group worked there.

[@JahlenJohnson11]

How’d you get in?

[@nawlens6949]

I didn't get into any buildings. On some I was able to get pics through the windows.

[@JahlenJohnson11]

nawLENS oh okay! I’m going this weekend and I plan to get into at least a few somehow 😂 hopefully I can

[@TriangleCity]

@@JahlenJohnson11 Did you get in?

[@gator6764]

I can tell you how i live around ther and go in all the time

[@gator6764]

@John C all of them me and my homies hit all the abandoned buildings and the tunnles

[@denisedavis6513]

What a waste of these buildings. Some are impressive. I don't see the logic in just let them ruin