Over the weekend, I was surfing Facebook aimlessly, the way I always do, looking for something to stand out and catch my eye besides the usual political diatribes of my friends. Facebook becomes a lot like the movie Groundhog Day after a while. what with all the constant repetition of people posting all the same things. But then I happened upon a post on the Abandonment of Maine page. It's one of my favorite pages on all of Facebook.

I'm a person that enjoys Maine history and even more, abandoned buildings. I'm not prepared to say either way, whether I've been known to enter an abandoned building from time to time, because it's totally illegal. Trespassing is trespassing, no matter how empty and forgotten a space may seem. So if you do want to poke around a place like I'm describing, please make sure to have permission from the owners of the property, lest you find yourself in the back of a police cruiser.

The Kennebec County Paranormal Society has done lots of research and ghost hunts in The Central Maine Sanitorium, also know formerly known as the Chase Sanitorium, was originally opened in Waterville as a small hospital dedicated to treating patients with tuberculosis.

Photo: Shaina Rai Swift
Photo: Shaina Rai Swift
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Over time, land was purchased as the need for more space to treat patients quickly grew. After treating many patients over several decades, the facility finally closed down in 1970. Later that year it was sold to some folks from Augusta who turned it into a home for recovering alcoholics, and eventually it became a nursing home. 

Now fast forward to all these years later, and if you look at the photos and videos, you will quickly discover that you really don't wanna go anywhere near this place alone, or at night, or just about any time. A few years back, I worked briefly at the Dorathea Dix Psychiatric Center, and saw spots in that facility that were just like this. And all I did was walk around in constant fear that spooks and spirits were about to present themselves to me in some horrible way.

Photo: Shaina Rai Swift
Photo: Shaina Rai Swift
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It doesn't help that I'm afraid of the dark, heights, my own shadow, small dogs, and clowns. Well, I'm just a giant fraidy-cat all the time. So just looking at these photos makes me want to run screaming into the night. I've seen The Ring enough times, that I feel like if I watch this YouTube video too many times, I'm destined to end up going mad and suffering some unimaginable fate.

But maybe you're much more with it than I am, and will just be fascinated by the antiquity and general awesomeness of the whole scene. It's crazy to think a building could hold such intense energy years after it closed. But hey, don't take my word for it. check all this footage out. If it doesn't send chills up your spine, you're a bigger man than I am.

But then, I'm no man. Like I said, I'm just a big fraidy-cat.

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