A few Haunts

The following content is reincarnated from a street racing site that unwittingly ignited intense interest in all things paranormal.

Glenn Dale Hospital

Only a crow's mile from DC's infamous "Metro-plex" street racing hub, just beyond the capital beltway that surrounds Washington, DC sits to the northeast a dilapidated Tuberculosis sanitarium that you just must see to believe.

Here's a map

Built in the 1930's. Closed by 1982. A Tuberculosis sanitarium, dozens of buildings, underground tunnels. Abandoned. Condemned. Medically dangerous. Totally off-limits. Cops patrol premises. Motion sensors. Night Vision Goggles. Spooky. Dangerous. Deadly. Taboo. Haunted? Right in Prince Georges county, Maryland, near Electric Ave., off Rt. 450, NE of I-495 capitol beltway. Unforgettable. Irresistable. Perfect.

"After the patients have been evacuated, the hospital is free to succumb to its own mortality. In the throes of its disintegration it makes a mockery of the order and hygiene formerly attempted within. The buildings themselves give in to their contamination. Behind closed curtains, the hospital changes into its own funeral parlor."

san·a·to·ri·um // n. pl. san·a·to·ri·ums or san·a·to·ri·a
  1. An institution for the treatment of chronic diseases or for medically supervised recuperation.
  2. A resort for improvement or maintenance of health, especially for convalescents. Also called sanitarium.

"...maybe the scariest place on earth, but not why you'd think..."

"...mad girls don't say...Jesus doesn't love us..."

"...an experience I will never forget..."

"You will want to avoid the room with the beds. Do not go in there.

"...In a smaller building I found a sealed room behind a metal door. The hinges were rusted, and I could open the door only slightly. It was quiet and smelled like holding a sweaty paperclip in your hand. The entire room was rusted, or burnt. Metal rings were welded onto the walls. I took one step in but felt an enormous apprehension or hatred, like I disturbed someone evil. My flashlight flickered, or else I blinked. The chills were on me instantly, and I plowed that door wide open on my way out! Two nights later I dreamt I was lying in bed and suddenly (in the dream) awoke. A little boy stood in my room. He was a standard-issue 10-year-old: black pants, red shirt, trousled blonde hair. I couldn't move or speak. He just looked at me and said, "I avoid your house, avoid mine." All I could do was nod, and he walked away into darkness. Then I woke up in a cold sweat with my bedroom door open and what felt like burnt palms..."

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A Prince Georges county native contributed some footage to our upcoming street racing DVD. It included a fantastic midnight soirée at Glenn Dale Hospital.We crushed it down to a 10-minute flashlight exploration and applied our hypereal process to improve visbility. It's about 20 megs in mpeg4 format; view it with Apple's excellent free Quicktime.

Download it once from gdh10.mp4. It's only partly related to street racing, but we put it up because it's cool. Please don't abuse us by streaming or downloading bunches of times. The final, full-quality footage will appear on our upcoming street racing DVD. Thanks, enjoy & happy hunting.

--safetyorange / carantics.com

RSW's excellent site | another | another

Tidbits from the snippet:

In 2004, four daring street racers held a midnight soirée in rainy Prince Georges county, Maryland at the spooky Glenn Dale Hospital.

Now government owned and consuming 210 contaminated acres plus smokestack and water tower at the odd confluence of Old Pond Dr., Electric Ave., & Glenn Dale Rd. near the infamous Metro-plex just northeast of capital Beltway, this former welfare sanitarium for chronic tuberculosis victims (then called consumption or White Plague) closed in 1982 for asbestos, cost to meet updated firecode, age, and who knows what else.

It appeals because it's off-limits, secluded, condemned, dangerous, possibly haunted, and probably a deadly biological hazard.

Comprised of 23 total buildings, 2 of which were for treatment, the facility is condemned to be demolished once decontaminated.

At least one partly flooded tunnel connects both medical buildings.

Upper floors are precarious and partly caved in.

A live-in police trailer is present between the large adults and smaller childrens wards.

If caught trespassing, expect arrest class 3 misdemeanor civil offense. However, police will not enter the buildings. There have now been several reports of motion sensors, K-9 unit dogs and police wearing night vision goggles.

Breathing apparatus is mandatory: asbestos, tuberculosis, virii, etc. Insulation and tiles are predominantly asbestos, a dangerous and known carcinogen. If you breathe enough of it you will die. Death by asphyxiation from tuberculosis and lung cancer are hauntingly similar. "Tuberculosis is the most common major infectious disease today, infecting two billion people or one-third of the world's population." --wikipedia.org

Beware nails, broken glass, thugs.

Assaults and muggings by rogue vagabonds have been reported.

All buildings appear vandalized and dangerously unstable. Broken glass and decaying wallboard, insulation, and ceiling tiles are everywhere, strewn about and building up along the stairs and hallway edges. Uncertain footings and slippery surfaces abound.

Enter at your own risk and peril. If you lose your way, follow the red and blue painted arrows on the walls to the viable exits, as most doors are bolted and chained closed.

This footage was anonymously contributed via our website and enhanced by our HypeReal film process. Source unavailable. The final, full-quality footage will appear on our upcoming street racing DVD.

For more info, maps & links, visit online carantics.com/glenndale

Current Status:

Jan 2005, word has it that Maryland planning commission will split the 210 acre site into two parcels (150 acres undeveloped and 60 acres developed as Glenn Dale hospital) and "trade" Toll Brothers developers for the Glenn Dale golf course land. Exsting structures purportedly will be gutted and refitted as some sort of continuing elderly care hospice. Benefit to Toll Bros? Maybe a phat tax break.

Other Comments:

Nonexistent Maryland Route 953 -- was this Old Pond Rd.?
adapted from forums about ghost towns and Glenn Dale hospital exploration

It's a small community split in two by a road. On one side, the hospital itself lays. It, in my opinion, is about the size of the Whitehouse if not bigger. In the front of the hospital lays one resident [cop trailer]. On the other side of the street lays other buildings the size of very large department stores. There are a few old run down houses along the road. There is a separate building at the far end. It is a very large building. It was the boiler room or the building that created the power for this community. Connected to this building is a large smoke stack about the height of a football field if not more. About 50 yards away is the old water tower for the community. The water tower to my knowledge is not used anymore. Across the road, about 30 feet away is a store room. In front of this store room is one gas pump which is not in use anymore. The whole layout of the property may be about 4 square miles. There is no tresspassing. Submitted by: Richard F. III

Glenn Dale hospital is strictly illegal to enter, as well as dangerous to enter due to the age of the buildings, and the condition they're in. That having been said, let's get to the lowdown on Glenn Dale Hospital. If you can find Glenn Dale, you can find the old Glenn Dale hospital. You should think of parking on Electric Avenue. While it is illegal to go onto the hospital grounds or into the buildings, some people have been known to do it. Parking well away from the building, you can sneak up to a building and find a way in. Different buildings have different states of accessibility, you'll need to find a good way in. After you've gained access, you'll really be amazed. Bring a flashlight and extra batteries, but don't shine them out of the windows! You can go from most of the buildings to each other through underground tunnels. These tunnels go as far as stretching from one side of the hospital, across fields, and the main road to the building on the other side. Running around in just one building can be fun enough. A Lot of stuff got left here folks. Go to the chapel, you can find hymnals. Head towards a different room, you will find artificial limbs. The place is chock full of stuff, you can even meet other people there doing what you're doing. One time, the group I was with came across a different group also gaining access to a hospital building. I think we basically cheered and wished each other luck. Submitted by: Chris A.

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See also: Glenn Dale on acurse.com
"Urban legend has it that when the hospital was rife was Tuberculosis outbreaks the staff panicked and sealed the doors and windows with boards - trapping the patients and their souls within."

See also: Lots of nice pics on opacity.us

You might want to see this. You might also find this compelling: She's done an awful lot of things for me that money can't pay for."

From an excellent article on a similar facility, near Louisville, Kentucky, the Waverly Hills Sanantorium: [site]

Imagine yourself choking. Not being able to get air in to your lungs because your throat is closing up inside from something unseen, congesting and constricting the tissues like invisible hands. Your chest feels like it’s ready to explode and your lungs feel like they are on fire. Finally, able to cough, clumps of bright red blood spew from your mouth as the inner walls of your lungs have started to disintegrate. The buzzing and dizziness that you feel in your head is from the constant fever you keep and made worse by the lack of oxygen going to your brain. Capillaries explode in your eyes due to the violent coughing spells and leave your eyes spotted with broken capillaries or a violent crimson red. Your skin has now turned a ghastly pasty white color because your body has stopped producing enough red blood cells to keep the pigment in your skin.

This graphic description can only provide a hint of what millions suffered in the early history of America -- the dreaded and deadly "white death" known as tuberculosis. The plague swept through the country for centuries, claiming entire families and sometimes entire towns. It was a terrifying and very contagious disease for which there was no cure. Streptomycin, an effective antibiotic, was discovered in 1943.

Other Sites

http://www.abandonedasylum.com/photos.html
http://www.mantenostatehospital.com/gennie/index.html
http://www.forgottenphotography.com/
http://www.mountainsanatorium.net/
http://www.explorationstation.co.uk/hellingly.html
http://www.angelfire.com/creep/liverr14/
http://bpc.buffaloexploration.com/
http://www.angelfire.com/realm3/wardc/
http://www.ramseursdanversstatehosp.com/
http://www.abandonedmemories.com/
http://www.talesofeloise.com/main.html
http://darkpassage.com
http://hudsonvalleyruins.org

http://www.danvers-state-ia.com/home.html
http://ramseursdanversstatehosp.com/
http://www.danvers-state-ia.com/gallery_gnd.html

"The Salem witch trials did not occur in Salem, but in Salem Village, or present-day Danvers. The Salem witch hysteria and trial began at a church on Centre Street before the trial moved to a larger building in Salem. The mother of one of the young accusers lived on what is now hospital grounds. More significantly, the most fanatical judge of the witch trials, Johnathan Hathorne, lived in a house built by his father in 1646 at the top of the hill--in the exact location on which the hospital was later constructed. As one person stated: "The witch hysteria occured in Danvers, not in Salem...so the Witches Castle reference is eerily accurate."

Known in 1692 as Salem Village, Danvers was the scene of the outbreak of witchcraft in Essex County. The strange actions of the young girls in the area first began at the parsonage, home of Reverend Samuel Parris. Those first accused of witchcraft lived in Danvers. As the witchcraft contagion spread, however, people throughout all Essex County were accused. Many people accused of witchcraft were examined by the magistrates in the meetinghouse in Danvers. When the Court of Oyer and Terminer was appointed in May 1692, the trials and executions were moved to neighboring Salem, the county seat. --http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/tour/danvers.shtml

"As I sat transfixed by the strange scene before me, a man's head suddenly appeared in the car's passenger window. His face was taut with anxiety, his voice beseeching as he asked, "I'm not going to die, am I?" He repeated the question several times, his visage contorted with despair and what I would characterize as an existential angst--although this could well have been my own anxiety projected onto him. "I'm not going to die, am I?" was the crucial question. . Thirteen years after that patient asked the question, it still resonates, reverberates. I lied to him of course, telling him no, he wasn't going to die, and apparently that was good enough for him, because he then wandered off. But his question haunts me now more than ever.

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updated 2jan2005:

HOUSE BILL 841

Unofficial Copy // 2004 Regular Session

L5 // 4lr2604

By: Delegates Conroy and Holmes

Introduced and read first time: February 9, 2004

Assigned to: Environmental Matters

1 AN ACT concerning
2 Glenn Dale Hospital Property - Sale, Lease, or Transfer

3 FOR the purpose of authorizing the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning
4 Commission to sell, lease, or transfer a certain amount of the parcel of property
5 known as the Glenn Dale Hospital to a person who will use the property only for
6 certain purposes; providing that the Commission shall retain ownership of the
7 Glenn Dale Hospital until the Prince George's County Council sitting as the
8 district council approves a certain alternate use under certain circumstances;
9 altering the number of acres of a certain parcel of property that the Commission
10 is required to acquire title to and incorporate into the park system; altering the
11 number of acres of certain property of which the Commission is also required to
12 acquire title; altering the number of acres of certain property that the
13 Commission may sell, lease, or transfer under certain circumstances; and
14 generally relating to the authority of the Maryland-National Capital Park and
15 Planning Commission to sell, lease, or transfer the Glenn Dale Hospital.

16 BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
17 Article 28 - Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
18 Section 8-127
19 Annotated Code of Maryland
20 (2003 Replacement Volume)

21 SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
22 MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:
23 Article 28 - Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
24 8-127.
25 In the event of the sale of the entire parcel of property or a portion of the parcel
26 of property known as the Glenn Dale Hospital by the District of Columbia,
27 immediately after the transfer of the land from the District of Columbia to the buyer
28 of the land, the Commission shall acquire title to and incorporate the approximately
29 [150] 105 acres that have not been developed as part of the existing hospital campus
30 into the Commission's park system and maintain the land within the park system in
2 HOUSE BILL 841
1 perpetuity. The Commission shall also acquire title to the approximately [60] 105
2 acres that have been developed as a hospital campus. The Commission may sell,
3 lease, or otherwise transfer the approximately [60] 105 acres to a person who will use
4 the property as a continuing care retirement community in accordance with Article
5 70B, §§ 7 through 23 of the Code OR FOR SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES OR A COMBINATION
6 OF A CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY AND SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES. If
7 the Commission is unable to find a qualified person to carry out the intent of this
8 section, the Commission shall retain possession of the approximately [60] 105 acres
9 until the [General Assembly of Maryland] COUNTY COUNCIL OF PRINCE GEORGE'S
10 COUNTY SITTING AS THE DISTRICT COUNCIL approves an alternative use.

11 SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect
12 October 1, 2004.

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HB 841

Department of Legislative Services

Maryland General Assembly

2004 Session

FISCAL AND POLICY NOTE

House Bill 841	(Delegates Conroy and Holmes)
Environmental Matters

Glenn Dale Hospital Property - Sale, Lease, or Transfer

This bill reallocates the classification of the 210 acres known as the Glenn Dale Hospital Property located in Prince George’s County to be 105 acres that have been developed as a hospital campus and 105 acres of undeveloped property. The bill permits the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) to sell or otherwise transfer the hospital campus grounds to a person who will use the property to develop single-family housing or a combination of a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) and single-family housing. If M-NCPPC cannot find a qualified person to develop the property as required by law, M-NCPPC must retain the 105 acres until the Prince George’s County Council, sitting as the District Council, approves an alternative use.

Fiscal Summary

State Effect: None. The bill applies to local government operations only.

Local Effect: M-NCPPC finances would not be materially affected.

Small Business Effect: None.

Analysis

Current Law: If the District of Columbia sells all or part of the Glenn Dale Hospital Property, M-NCPPC must acquire approximately 210 acres (150 acres of undeveloped land and 60 acres that have been developed as a hospital campus on the property). M-NCPPC may sell, lease, or otherwise transfer the 60 developed acres to a person who will use the property as a CCRC. If M-NCPPC cannot find a qualified person to carry out these provisions, M-NCPPC must retain possession of the 60 acres until the Maryland General Assembly approves an alternative use.

M-NCPPC was created in 1927 to assume jurisdiction over parks and planning in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. M-NCPPC is composed of 10 members, five from each county, serving four-year terms. The five members from each county make up that jurisdiction’s planning board. The commission acquires, maintains, develops, and operates park systems within the Maryland-Washington Metropolitan District. It adopts and amends general plans for physical development of the district; makes zoning recommendations to county councils; and approves subdivisions, location and grades of streets, location of public buildings and utilities, and street names and house numbering. Administration and planning expenses are paid from an administrative tax levied within the district.

The Prince George’s County Council, sitting as the District Council, has specified zoning authority in Prince George’s County. The District Council may adopt and amend zoning ordinances related to agricultural open space and has the power to regulate for the protection of historical, archeological, architectural, and cultural sites within the county.

Background: Glenn Dale Hospital, located in Glenn Dale, Maryland, was established in 1937 for low-income Washington-area children suffering from tuberculosis. The M-NCPPC already holds title to the hospital facility, which has not been used as a hospital for over 20 years, and over 200 acres of surrounding grounds. The intent of current law is to ensure that the undeveloped portion of the property (currently classified as approximately 150 acres) is incorporated in the M-NCPPC park system and give M-NCPPC the authority to transfer the hospital campus portion of the land (currently classified as approximately 60 acres) to a qualified person who will use it as a CCRC.

A CCRC offers a full range of housing, residential, and health care services for seniors by maintaining a variety of medical and social services and facilities on campus. A senior may enter into the community while healthy and then move to more intensive care on the same campus if it becomes necessary.

In 2002, Toll Brothers, Inc., a local housing developer, purchased the Glenn Dale Golf Club, a 125-acre golf course situated near the Glenn Dale Hospital Property. The developer plans to build 230 single-family homes on the golf course. Prince George’s County had considered purchasing the land, under a clause in the sales contract that permitted another purchaser to acquire the property if the purchaser maintained the property as a public golf course; however, the county missed the October 25, 2003 deadline. Prince George’s County has also considered offering Toll Brothers approximately 105 acres of the Glenn Dale Hospital Property in trade for county acquisition of the golf course. To do so, the amount of acreage classified as developed and undeveloped must be changed.

Additional Information

Prior Introductions: None.

Cross File: None.

Information Source(s): Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Legislative Services

Fiscal Note History:	First Reader - February 18, 2004
ncs/ljm

Analysis by: Susan D. John

Direct Inquiries to: (410) 946-5510 (301) 970-5510