Just off the road leading to Sandbank down New Point sits the former Horn Harbor Nursing Home. Although I'd heard of the nursing home, I'd never been there before and was startled to see its condition. In spite of its state of disrepair, the nursing home facade has many photogenic features.
Almost all the windows are framed by weeds and vines.
This lonely old ladder leans lifelessly against the exterior.
The building struggles to look alive even as dead weeds choke it out.
There's all sorts of graffiti on the inside.
(Not that I went inside or anything.)
(Well, maaaaaybe I was in there for just the quickest second or two to take this picture. It's hard to say for sure.)
Just down the way from this nursing home lives a flock of domesticated geese that look exactly like Killer Goose Gustav. I was so shocked at the sight of that many Gustavs concentrated in one area, that I lost all my wits and failed to take a photo of them. But rest assured there were Gustavs comin' at me from every which way.
I'm thinking the next time ol' Gustav gets loose and swims up Queens Creek, I'll point him in the direction of Horn Harbor rather than risk life and limb trying to herd him back home to my parents' house next door.
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Have a great,
23 comments:
I remember going to Horn Harbor Nursing Home as a child. It was the first time I ever talked to a person who was blind. I gave her a banana and helped her open it. I was nine or 10 at the most. I also remember when a barge spilled some toxic stuff nearby, and the nursing home had to be evacuated. That even made ABC national news that night.
I love how you capture the heart and soul of forgotten buildings. I miss you and Gustav.
I remember going there with the girl scouts at Christmas to sing for the residents. Sure looked a lot different back then. I had forgotten all about that place!
You always conjure up all kinds of (good) memories for me!
Trinia
Glad that old nursing home is VACANT. You do make photos that are appealing from old buildings most people would just tear down. We can all photograph the beautiful, but you can find beauty in....well you get the idea. A flock of Gustav's? Dear Lawd! RUN GIRL RUN the terror of it all.
Looks like I found the spot where I'm going to stick my parents in a few years. Love the window shot.
That building certainy is struggling to remain, isn't it? It is sad how buildings can be abandoned. At least nature loves it!
Stay away from that flock of Gustavs!
Did the Gustav wannabe's come after you?
How many years has it been since the last old person left? Mother Nature has all day - this building is a reminder that all things will eventually return to the earth. Vacant buildings and old people alike.
This morbid thought brought to you by I probably should have stayed in bed.
GrandmaJ is right you really see into the heart of things
How perfectly foul to have a flock of Gustav-like fowl-
Hope you had a lovely weekend!
Even though this isn't Thursday I have 3 things to say...
1. The poor building looks so sad.
2. Your picture taking is very good
3. There is a place in Heaven for you for getting that goose for your Mom....
wv: elinfl: my day today was waaay
That is all kinds of forlorn there. And the Gustavians will protect it.
Oh yes,i remember the barge too,it was an Allied Chemicals barge.
that nursing home has alot of memories,probably sad for some and happiness for others.
Lots of memories down there...Great-grandmother's two sisters were there. One there a LONG TIME. We'd go every week to see her. And almost daily to see the other one who went there as she had to be on oxygen and my great-grandmother cooked on open flame gas stove, heated with oil burners, etc. She took care of the later one in her home for a while until oxygen a must. She only lived a few days after the move.
Girl Scouts and Church going there singing Christmas Carols, delivering Christmas packages to those who would not receive anything, cookies, etc.
My aunt and cousin worked there.
I had often wondered what happened to that building if it was still standing if it was being used for anything....
Remember the barge flipping too and the patients taken to the fire house...
My great, great aunt was the one who paid for the building to be built. My great aunt, grandmother, father, and cousin all worked there. My great, great aunt sold the building to another resident in Mathews who had it reconstructed. After the building was no longer used, many came and tagged the vacant structure with graffiti and conducted witchcraft. They say the building is still haunted today and I believe that as well.
I'm very interested in learning all I can about the history behind the building. I am attempting to write a book about the history/paranormal activity in Mathews. If anyone could offer me any info: dennisorork23109@gmail.com
Thank you very much!
Do you know what happened to the nursing home? I have searched everywhere but can find nothing, no old photos not the history. If you could tell me anything that May help it would be greatly apreciated.
I was hired to work at the school that occupied the nursing home building in the early 1980's. I moved down from Michigan to take the job, hired because the Danish owners of the school "needed people with American college degrees" in order to keep their license. The place, once we got there to see how it worked, was a nightmare-circus. Those of you from the neighborhood might remember all the trouble the kids caused, and the hostility if the Danish staff (I remember the hostility if the Danish staff -toward us, their employees -- very well, too). The Danes were a very weird group of people to begin with, but they were there, primarily, not to care for the kids, but to skim money off the funds the state paid them and send it back to their parent company in Denmark. They were vastly understaffed, the staff that had come from Denmark worked 24/7, the poor kids were unsupervised for the most part, and these were kids who were quite disturbed, so of course they got into trouble when left to their own devices. My American co-worker, a highly experienced teacher who had worked for Department of Defense dependents' schools in Greece, Italy and Turkey for most of his career, and I, reported our bosses to the authorities & their provisional license was rescinded. Good riddance to the Danes! We felt really bad for the kids, though...yet another disruption in their akready shattered lives. I notice, looking at an image of the building on Google earth, that it looks as if the walls of the building have collapsed in places, the roof is gone...and that part of the building may have burned.. Sad.... but it was a shabby, falling apart place even then... If anyone is looking at this thread, anymore, you can add this little tidbit to your history of the place.
I remember delivering a truckload of groceries there once a week back in the late 70's early 80's. The kitchen staff were very friendly and would serve me a drink and sandwich for the 3 hr. Ride home.
Yes, Em! I camped at New Point campground just through the woods. I remember the nursing home and then in the early eighties what we called a boys home. Those kids broke into our campers etc. Fast forward, I bought a place in the campground back in May 2016 and the building is rubble but the rot iron decorative gate and pilar looking entrance where the Horn Harbor nursing home sign was is still standing.
This is where my maternal grandmother was in the early seventies. I think that when I was in high school in the early sixties, I was told that my other grandmother was at Horn Harnor, but my memory of visiting her was that she was in a large multi-story white frame building.
I remember my dad Jerry Washington used to work there many yrs ago...as a young girl I can remember him getting up very early on the mornings to go.
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