Hello all -
wonderful site here, very cool.
Northampton is for the most part still standing, but not for long. The original old Kirkbride section, known as Old Main, is all there, but slated for demo by June of this year. June '06. Some of the 1960s-era structures, which actually were architectural junk anyway, were the first to go.
It's a strange and piecemeal demolition. Many of the really magnificent big stands of old trees have been bulldozed to oblivion, and two of the newer buildings have just been rehabbed into apartments and newly occupied. So you've got toddlers with their tricycles not 100 yards from the hospital's old Morgue doors. Really weird.
We were just there on 3/12/06 trying to get some daytime exterior still shots and some film footage. Strange day. The overwhelming sense in the air isn't so much creepiness as huge sadness. Old Main retains some of its former grandeur but it's just shabby as all get-out now, it's a shame. Huge tall brand-spankin' new security fence all around and heavy security on the grounds - both foot cops and cruisers, real cops. We got our shots and footage but got summarily tossed off the grounds after about 3 hours there.
Lots of people spend time inside Old Main but I shan't say how they're getting in. Not to live there, they're just in there on weekends mostly. They really revere the place, nice people. We had no intention of going in but some the kids inside saw us, came out, and offered us a tour of the Morgue - that was terrifying, creepy, and immensely, immensely sad.
The grounds, once spectacular, are nothing but a jungle now, the parts they haven't bulldozed. The wildlife is fantastic, hawks and owls and birdlife are thriving there. They just cruise right near you if you stand still out there a few minutes. They will become homeless once Old Main is gone.
An outfit called Massachusetts Development Corporation bought the whole place for a dollar. The entire thing, grounds and all. They intend to put a whole little village thing there, shops and apartments and whatnot. All new buildings. People can contact them for permission to go and take exterior pictures but they're not very nice to deal with and they're getting very tough on security, prosecutng people, so if anyone goes, do use care and sense, and do expect to deal with a real live cop at some point. Interiors, I wouldn't, the place is collapsing inside. Only people who really know the inside of the place can deal with it without getting hurt.
If you google Smith College, whose campus abuts NSH, they do have some searchable archives and photos of the place in its heyday when it was once beautiful.