Once a children’s hospital, and later a facility for the mentally challenged, Seaside Sanatorium in Waterford has been abandoned for over a decade, despite its architectural pedigree and prime location. Update: We visited Seaside in April 2011.

For over 60 years, Fairfield Hills State Hospital in Newtown was home to the mentally ill. Now it sits empty and abandoned, holding only the dark secrets of its troubled residents who are long gone. Or so everyone wants to believe.

Getting inside the abandoned sections of this mental hospital is said to be pretty difficult (though I’m pretty sure I could get myself admitted without too much trouble!). Lucky for me, I ran into a bored and amicable State Trooper who let me inside.