Quote:
Originally Posted by sgibson
I grew up in Golden, while in high school my buddies and I would go roaming through there late at night looking for a scare. Nothing to gloat about until the time we went into the basement. Now we were down there for no more than 2 minutes but I can vouch to the shackels and what seemed like cages. This was in probably 1999 or 2000 but I vaguely remember some sort of a chair with straps in one "cage" or whatever you would call it. I remember it being very primitive down there but the main floors looked like a run down hospital that kids had trashed once it closed. So was there abuse? I say yes once there was a great deal, but later no there was not.
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Well, I'm the dad that Noahma has mentioned.
As a kid, I lived on campus from 1963 - 1966 and then again from 1968 - 1972.
I became an employee in 1972 and worked there from 1972 - 1980 as a direct care technician and from 1980 to 1989 as a direct care supevisor.
My dad was the assistant director during the times I lived on campus as a kid.
"Ridge Home" was a state institution that was opened in the 1920's. I've included a layout of the campus. Hopefully it uploaded when I completed this entry.
The red square is where the house was my family lived in.
The yellow square is the original building.
The olive green area were buildings that were added later.
The orange area I believe was added sometime in the 50's.
The pink circle was the laundry buiding and the gray circle was the building contained the boilers for heating and the maintenance dept.
Everything above those areas was added in the 60 and 70's.
The institution was for the developmentally disabled. The names used then were not as nice and the conditions were primarily to warehouse those who were undesirable in the old days.
There were tunnels that linked each of the buildings together. The purpose being to have a way to move people around without having to go out in sever weather.
The buildings in the yellow and olive green areas were monsterous. Very large and very crude. Those were closed in the late 60's and early 70's as better, more humane ideas for working the the developmentally disable were developed.
Ridge stored old equipment, chairs, desks and the like in the basement. the chair with straps could very well have been a dental chair. The equipment of the old days was very crude, after all, these people were not human. I know that nothing like that was used after the 60's.
The cage could have been used for most anything from providing storage for equipment to restraining of an out of control individual.
The building in orange was both the administrative offices, hospital and living area in the 50's and early 60's. In the 70's it contained offices and living areas.
I was in the basement of that building once and there were supplies that were to be used in case of a nuclear attack.
Was there abuse? Yes, there was some abuse. There is in any place of that size where people are being taken care of. It wasn't a common practice and those that were caught were fired. I reported a couple of cases my self.
Like technology in all things, as time passed, treatment improved. The dark ages were rough on the clients. The later years, life was much better. Most clients now live out in the neighborhoods in group home.
There are still clients living on campus because the exhibit sever behavior problems and there is no other place for them to go where they would be safe and others in the area would be safe.
Yea, you could have gone through the old buildings and found a lot of things that were crude and midevil, but you can say that about normal every day medical treatment. Go over to Lutheran Hospital and look at some of the "curde" tools that used to be used on the "normal" people.
As far as ghosts go, if there is a place for ghosts to go, that would have been it. Those big old buildings, after they were closed, would have been a great place for a halloween party.
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Ridge Home
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