Do YOU Believe in Ghosts?
As a locations Production Assistant I had the experience of working out at Riverview, what is known throughout the city as Coquitlam’s insane asylum, I didn’t know until I just read one of the few articles I could find on the place that it used to be called Essondale until sometime in the 60’s. In all the years I have lived here I had only ever driven by the massive looming Crease Clinic on the colossal piece of property knowing nothing of its history until one day I was called to set.
I quickly learned the building had been long closed down, hearing horrid rumors of psychotics and the permanently insane, of lobotomies and leftover ghosts from every person who had worked on that locations set before. If it is scary and it was filmed in British Columbia then it was probably filmed in that building.
I spent two days in there. I toured as much of the building as I could alone without getting lost and the one time I did get lost I almost pissed my pants from fear, and we were filming in the tunnels to boot. Being that I suffer from mental disorders myself when I got the call just knowing it had been an insane asylum had me intrigued to say the least but I was determined to believe that it was only rumour and that the building would not “find its way inside me”.
I don’t know if it did find its way inside me or not but I would say I did have somewhat of a problem getting a heaviness off me, just thinking of the place makes me anxious, it is not a friendly place, it does not have any good vibes, it is dark where there is light, it left me freezing cold in the middle of the summer for two whole days where the horrors that took place there consumed me. I would never ever work out there again. A security guard told me while I was waiting for the circus to drop that there are grown men, police men that WILL NOT enter that building.
The previews for the movie Shutter got me all riled up I still don’t know what I think of ghosts I just know what happened to me out there and it would take a whole nother post to tell you but of all the photos I took that are now viewable on my flickr im showing you one because it is my favourite of all the shots I took I don’t claim to have any photo taking talent but there is just something David Lynch creepy in the one called Holly Drive and this is where I ask you to click on the photo and look at those red dots. That is the fourth floor where it is rumoured the lobotomies took place. Is that a ghost in my photo?
March 14th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Creepy…Iwas just telling my nephew that “my friend” worked on set at a place JUST LIKE THIS! and then my friend posts about it same day!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:46 am
This is the kind of story and picture that belong in the magazine Fortean Times. You should send them the story and pictures and let their experts pick it to pieces and find the truth. They love urban legends like this. they used to have TV series but I’ve not seen it for ages. Was hosted by a Harley riding Reverend. Brilliant. Can’t find it anywhere though, which is bum.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Wow so I read your post and then I looked at all your pictures and then I spent the last half hour reading about lobotomies and I’m sitting here crapping my pants.
Those pictures are so creepy I mean you can only imagine what happened in there. It freaks me out.
They are pretty cool pictures tho!
March 14th, 2008 at 9:35 am
The movie Shutter looks super creepy! It’s similar I think to The Ring.
I went to see The Ring 1 with my brother and the poor guy could not sleep for a week!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I believe there are a lot of unexplained things in this universe. I grew up in, and my mom still lives in, a haunted house. We even had “ghost buster” types come to the place to attempt to “cleanse” it. I have a lot of stories about that house but I find so many people don’t believe unless they experience something for themselves. Even after all I have experienced I still seek hard proof answers.
Great photos. Hard to say what that is in the window, it could be a plasma glow, but there is no way to know for sure. Most times photographic glitches can be explained by very simple things, light sources or reflective surfaces you were not aware of at the time, dust reflections, hair bits, bugs, flash reflections etc. Cool story though. Thanks for sharing this.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
locations like this give me the heebs, but not so much because of ghosts…rather because of the things those people must have gone through…imagine if we went to the doctor with some anxiety or depression and they whisked us off to THE ROOM!? if somebody told me i needed to have my brain hacked to get better i’d seem insane too.
i wonder if anybody even told them or they just grabbed them and did it? inhumane is what that was. i have the same feeling at the dungeons at the old goverment castle here…i have a vivid imagination..i can imagine the sounds…and smells etc…the feelings…
i wonder what those lights are too? i do believe that energy is sometimes trapped in places…but not a conscious entity..more like an energy photo..replayed in an endless loop because of how the building is structured etc..but i’m also very sensitive to places..like houses and the energies in them..some places i just want to run out of..the house i’m in now had a very weird neutral bordering on neglected air about it..like pretty much of a muchness nothing either way..now it feels good..once i planted flowers etc…now it feels comforting and peaceful..and less neutral..
March 14th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
@rhonda i still can’t believe you were doing mainers last night
@lyvvie as long as it was done in a respectful way and not in any sort of glorifying way, i’d love to know the true history of what really went on there.
@smelly thanks for the link love
my trackbacks don’t seem to be working though 
@raul scariest part is that girl coming out of the tv, THAT was scary.
@barbara i’ve had a couple ‘not an immediate’ explanation situations myself my dad does not believe in any of this stuff and has had two.five experiences even he will say did happen and are ‘out of this world’.
@capegirl i know working in there was beyond creepy the thoughts the images i have a vivid imagination too it wasn’t fun. it is odd being in there because on one hand it just feels wrong and disrespectful to be there i questioned whether it was disrespectful to what went on there to post this but it is a big part of the metro areas history. and people film in there pretty much every day and there is one other thing on that building that i will post on soon that is crazy wrong.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Aren’t I the awesomest?
March 15th, 2008 at 12:25 am
I checked out all of these pics on your Flickr account and the fucking Rock. Thanks for the grand tour, that place is right up my alley.
And yes, I do believe in Ghosts.
http://ghosts.nin.com/
Cheers
March 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Great photos and great stories about the place. There’s a movie that is quite freaky that takes place in an abandoned psychiatric hospital and it’s called Session 9.
I’m not sure what the light is. Weird, though. Kind of makes you wonder.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I think there’s a possibility that it’s a reflection of light from somewhere outside the building.
March 16th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
NEAT!
March 21st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
My grandma worked there as a nurse for many years. She’s got lots of stories. I don’t think they did lobotomies there, but they did do sterilizations and lots of shock therapy. I think the weirdest thing she talks about though was some sort of therapeutic bath procedure where they’d restrain people inside tubs with running water and leave them alone in the rooms, sometimes in the dark. Some of the patients used to drum with their feet and it was creepy.
Did you see the cages in the stairwells? They put them in when she was in her residency because one of the patients threw one of her coworkers down the middle and killed her.