hillcrest sanitarium
- 1. Hillcrest Sanatorium A true story by Jason Shiffman BEGIN...
- 2. As a kid, I’d heard many stories of this place, an abandoned insane asylum with a creepy history-supposed tortures, a supp- ository for the ill and unwanted, and also severely haunted. I’ve always been fascinated by such places-those full of rich and unsavory histories, the kind not easily forgotten. Maybe the stories told by imaginative teenagers were just mere em- bellishments meant to scare other kids, yet every story of such has a small element of truth in it. My brother and I once went joyriding through its convoluted ruins, the buildings long since leveled and only remnants of this monstrous compound remained. We tore through the area in my Delta 88, neither of us willing to admit that we suffered from an unexplainable feeling of dread. I could swear I kept seeing peripheral visions of wandering spirits. Of course, they were psychosomatic manifestations brought on by an overactive imagination, right? Foreword
- 3. Background: Michigan State Sanatorium was established at Howell for the treatment of tuberculosis, 1907; served both tuberculosis and mental patients, 1955-1961; transferred to the Department of Mental Health, 1961 and served as Howell State Hospital until 1978; renamed Hillcrest; closed in 1982 and buildings razed. Site of Hillcrest Sanatorium Rd. County Farm Rd .
- 4. Several miles outside of city limits, there are the remnants of what used to be an asylum, and later housed patients with TB. Various sightings, usually of children occur. February 2004 Update : The actual hospital has been torn down, but tunnels, and various outbuildings are still there. Strange noises are heard and lights are seen sometimes. As of 2005: All the tunnels have been removed and now they are putting up homes there.
- 5. Although the complex has been torn down and most of its patients (if not all) have long since been deceased, the area is still not settled and there is still a dark cloud of unresolved pain and anguish that seems to surround the area once known as Hillcrest. I can tell you firsthand how its foreboding and unsettling auras seem to permeate to your very bones, and I feel that something still remains and is waiting to make contact with the corporeal world. I feel somewhat sorry for those unfortunate enough to settle on that particular piece of real estate just off County Farm road. I can’t help but think that if there are unsettled spirits wandering about that land, that they may not share the same visions as the real estate developers and future home owners in that area.
- 6. What happened at Hillcrest?
Editor's Notes
- #2: This photo was taken before Hillcrest received its name.