Central State Hospital

Indiana's first and largest mental institution, operating from 1848 to 1994. Over its 146-year history, tens of thousands of patients endured lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and experimental treatments. The Old Pathology Building is now the Indiana Medical History Museum.

Central State Hospital opened in 1848 as the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, prompted by reformer Dorothea Dix's damning 1844 inspection of Indianapolis jails and almshouses where mentally ill citizens were confined alongside criminals. The facility grew from its first five patients admitted on November 21, 1848 into a sprawling 160-acre campus on West Washington Street that at its peak housed over 2,500 patients in buildings designed for far fewer. Superintendent William Fletcher made a dramatic stand for humane treatment on Christmas Day 1883 when he publicly burned the hospital's mechanical restraints in a bonfire on the grounds, though he was later dismissed and the institution resumed using restraints and sedatives.

The hospital's darkest chapter unfolded over the following decades. Thousands of lobotomies were performed between the 1940s and 1960s, along with electroshock therapy and other experimental treatments. The 1896 Pathological Department, designed by architect Adolf Scherrer with a 150-seat teaching amphitheater and morgue, collected and preserved over 2,000 human brains from deceased patients, labeled only with case numbers and stored in jars of formaldehyde. These specimens were rediscovered decades later, a grim testament to an era when patients were treated more as research subjects than human beings. An estimated 10,000 patients died on the grounds over the hospital's 146-year operation, many buried in unmarked graves at the cemetery near the corner of Tibbs Avenue and Vermont Street, their headstones replaced by small red plaques bearing only a number. Chronic underfunding, overcrowding, and periodic newspaper exposes revealing patient abuse finally led to the hospital's closure on June 30, 1994 under Governor Evan Bayh.

The paranormal activity at Central State is concentrated in several locations across the former campus. The Old Power House is the most notorious hotspot, where visitors and investigators consistently report the screams of a woman echoing from the basement, shadows moving between the cement support posts, and the old boiler turning on and off without explanation. A former security supervisor who worked the grounds in the 1980s reported hearing unexplained footsteps in the administration building despite being the only person on shift. Near the former worker dormitories, maintenance staff documented cries and screams in the night described as a woman's voice calling from somewhere in the darkness.

During a 2006 investigation for a documentary, Maggie Zoiss of Indiana Paranormal Investigations was exploring the second-floor administration building when she and two colleagues simultaneously heard a disembodied voice say, "Pull down from the top," seemingly instructing them on how to open a stuck window. None of the investigators had prior knowledge of the window mechanism. The team also recorded a childlike voice during the same session. Visitors to the Indiana Medical History Museum, which now occupies the preserved 1896 Pathological Department building, have reported disembodied moaning and voices from adjacent rooms during tours. The cemetery behind the hospital, where an estimated 235 patients lie in unmarked graves in one section alone, has produced consistent reports of orbs in photographs and an oppressive atmosphere that investigators describe as one of the most active paranormal locations in the Midwest. In 2020, Ball State University archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar to map the cemetery's true boundaries, and during construction of an IMPD K-9 facility on the grounds, human remains of three former patients were accidentally unearthed and disturbed during backfill. The campus has since been redeveloped as Central State Village with residential and commercial buildings, but residents of converted apartments have reported doors opening on their own, sudden temperature drops, and waking to find shadowy figures standing at the foot of their beds.