Joseph P Ladd Center

Rhode Island · United States · Hospital

Ten buildings in the Rhode Island woods: a six storey circular infirmary with a padded cell, a morgue and a crematorium, closed after eighty years.

The Ladd School operated at Exeter, Rhode Island from 1902 as an institution for people with intellectual disabilities, and by the end it was a compound of ten buildings standing in bare meadows surrounded by dense coniferous woods.

The inventory alone explains the site's reputation. A recreation centre holding a theatre, basketball courts, locker rooms, a bowling alley, indoor swimming pools, classrooms, canteens, kitchens and a sub basement. A six storey cylindrical infirmary containing a padded cell, a dental clinic, operating theatres, a morgue and an x ray clinic. Administration blocks, dormitories, classroom buildings, a crematorium, and a community building with a greenhouse. One room was found filled entirely with x rays and patient incident reports dated between 1968 and 1987.

Rhode Island closed the institution after decades of campaigning over conditions, and its history is documented in state records rather than in folklore. The buildings drew explorers and ghost hunters for years afterwards, but the strongest material here has always been the paperwork somebody left behind in that room.

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Where is Joseph P Ladd Center located?

Joseph P Ladd Center is in Rhode Island, United States.

More haunted places in Rhode Island

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.