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Porcelain Princess wrote: "You aren't done yet. You never will be. I swear, each time I think I have found the end of my searching, I have no more to go on, more comes up or people out there ask me more questions that get me moving. Been 10 years since I started, and I haven't stopped yet. I doubt I ever will because I don't think I will ever know everything I want to know."
True. I've a pal who researches railroads, he makes swings around the country a couple times per year, visiting serious libraries at universities of all sorts, etc, to dig out ever-more old trade publications.
He's into WorldCat and Compendex catalog searches, which can be done on line and at many libraries. When he gets a hit he notes it for a future research trip. He also gets into the newspaper articles. His entire home is full of research notebooks on various topics. One thing he will tell anyone is that most of what he sees in trade pubs are usually recycled press releases from the railroads, and above all else he's found that data in popular railfan magazines are more fiction and folklore than fact. He refuses to believe much of anything until he can find an "original source" document from the actual railroad, until then he considers it hearsay or lore. He and I are members of an historical society for our favorite railroad and we have a whole building of original source documents from that railroad. I have a stack of that stuff here on my desk today, for an article I'm writing, and it won't be another train-fan folklore piece. Why this long story? Because it relates and translates directly into most any field of research, including urban exploration and the history of many of these old institutions.
Places like Ridge Home would rarely get in the newspapers, since staffers wouldn't call police on themselves for any wrong doing and very few newspapers would ever be aware of incidents or situations. Some positive matters might be in a newspaper or trade journal of some sort if Ridge released info about new services or buildings or research findings, etc. If there were ever any court proceedings on unsavory matters, there'd be a docket somewhere and that might be locatable by searching state or city court records or archives, and possible news articles etc. IMO, the vast majority of any serious info on Ridge Home will be found in the Denver metro area. Dig deep, dig often.
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Why this long story? Because it relates and translates directly into most any field of research, including urban exploration and the history of many of these old institutions.
Places like Ridge Home would rarely get in the newspapers, since staffers wouldn't call police on themselves for any wrong doing and very few newspapers would ever be aware of incidents or situations. Some positive matters might be in a newspaper or trade journal of some sort if Ridge released info about new services or buildings or research findings, etc. If there were ever any court proceedings on unsavory matters, there'd be a docket somewhere and that might be locatable by searching state or city court records or archives, and possible news articles etc. IMO, the vast majority of any serious info on Ridge Home will be found in the Denver metro area. Dig deep, dig often.
I do the newspapers too, as far back as I can go and I finally did find my early 1900s newspapers on Ridge Home. Nothing too mind blowing but the ones that grabbed me was the one of the first child to enter Ridge, and the story on the super at Pueblo and Ridge that was trying to pass a bill to sterilize patients.
I have found quite a few others from when Ridge was being investigated by the feds but like you said, they don't call the cops on themselves. And oddly enough, this kinda goes back to when I was working in childcare. I saw some of the women there down right nasty to the kids. It bothered the hell out of me, I loved all the kids I worked with. I would go to the director, we were short handed so there wasn't much they would do. A few of us would call the state each week to have the place looked at. The state would call before they showed up and schedule an appointment to come check it out. The director would then make everything legal, moving the kids so teachers weren't over crowded, they would do a great deal to be sure that it all looked great.
I can see Ridge being the same way. You have the people who care deeply, trying to change it, and even going to the extent to call whoever to get help. But it never worked out. Or possibly, they had no where to go, maybe people didn't believe them.
For now I will continue looking over old newspapers, talking to ex-staffers, searching records, everything I can get my hands on. It takes a lot of time, but it's out there.
Hey the only link that worked for me was defunct playgrounds *love that site*
Thanks for checking the links. I've deleted the ones that are now dead. Silly internets.
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Hi how you doin? If it is Ridge home you are inquiring about I have a tale for you. My friends and I during our high school years stumbled accross this place, we were the first ones to really started hanging out there and made it a party spot when we wanted to make some noise, we had no idea as to the history of the place when we were hanging out there we just new of the rumours passed down by parents and friends, we all as well as myself had explored that place inside and out as well as traversed the tunnels underneath the place, so if you would like to know more I am an expert on the creepy side of that place.
When I was in HS, I went inside one of the closed up buildings at Ridge Home. We were really freaked out. We saw a bunch of papers from the 1940's and old medical equipment. We also heard some noises coming from a couple of empty rooms across the hall from where we were. We also had 1 flashlight apiece-they were new with new batteries and 2 of them quit working inside the building. The sort of sputtered and then went out. When we climbed back out the window, we tried turning them back on to find the car-and they came back on. Could just be loose batteries and nerves, but we were plenty freaked out. I was shocked to drive by there a few years ago and saw it was all torn down. Amazing.
I know they lost alot of kids when the one dorm building gaved in one year. I want to say around 1975ish. it was a dorm that my bother lived in, he lost his best friend to that cave in.
I have a bother who lived at the facilty from 1971 till it was torn down. would like lots of info on the place. very intreseted in the place. thank you. [email]ljbunicorn@comcast.net[/email]
Last edited by Mike from back east; 04-22-2011 at 12:37 PM..
Reason: Merged 2:1
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.
you say you worked there in 70-80's just wandering cause that is around the time we had put my bother in the home. 70-71ish. if maybe you helped my bother any. I was very little then, but I dont rember seeing any one doing wrong. just tring to help these kids from hurting them selves. I my bother was takeing good care of. they let him push the laudry cart to help,he helped in the kitchen. he was very engerized and hard to mange at times. I know we use to take him home for visits. I praise any one who gave their hearts out to thses kids. it would of not been a easy job to do day after day. would like to know more information if you could on the place. my bother is now 52 lives in a group home setting. and they do a wonderful job with all of the residents they have. thank you!! love to hear from you. [EMAIL="ljbunicorn@comcast.net"]ljbunicorn@comcast.net[/EMAIL]
I visited the abandoned ridge homes some time around 2001. A friend and I went there the night before Halloween and we were able to explore all of the abandoned buildings on the property.
One of the buildings seemed like a utility building which had what I thought were large boilers or something. There was a metal staircase that led up to a small platform that had some old "do not cross" police tape tied to it that was torn and looked pretty old.
Another building had a lot of small rooms, possibly living quarters or hospital type rooms. The main entry room had some rainbow colored lines painted along the walls. There were a few old metal/wire bed frames in some of the rooms and a few old chairs scattered about. One room had a sort of fenced in part. The fence material looked like what a cage would be made out of but it looked more like a storage area that could be locked than an actual cage. I figured it might have been for storing medicine.
Another building had an auditorium with a stage and curtains on the main floor and a basement with a lot of tunnels that seemed to go pretty far. We didn't explore the tunnels too far because it would have been easy to get lost down there. While we were in the tunnels, we found an inflatable doll with clothes and a pack of cigarettes in the shirt pocket. The shirt had a pentagram spray-painted on it and there was some dried crusty white stains on the shirt. I'm not going to say what I think it was. I'm sure anyone reading this can guess. In another area we saw a shopping cart full of random junk, a sleeping bag and a pile of trash. It was obvious that someone had been squatting there. We never did see any shackles on the walls anywhere though, as some have claimed.
There was also an old playground that was falling apart, next to the building with the auditorium. There were a few newer buildings on the property that had lights on and didn't look abandoned. There may have been one more building that we searched but I don't remember anything too spectacular. It was also about ten years ago so I don't remember every exact detail about the place.
We never saw anything that really led us to believe that the place was haunted. We did hear lots of noises like other people walking around the place - voices and stuff like that, but we both figured there were probably other people there, like us, exploring the place. We never did see anyone else there though. I got pretty creeped out when we were leaving the last building. It was the building with the tunnels. When we were walking back up the stairs to leave, we both heard footsteps coming up after us. I still think it must have been someone else who was exploring the place or maybe a bum that was living down there or something. We didn't quite run, but we got out of there pretty fast.
The place definitely gave you a creepy feeling. I could only imagine what it was like when it was open. I told my mom about it the next day and found out that she used to work there. She said that most of the patients were on heavy medication when she was there. I'm not sure what years she worked there but it was before I was born in 1983. She also said that there was some abuse that most people knew about but nobody really talked about it. She said that the supervisors and people that had worked there for a long time were aware of some of it but they all watched out for each other and the people with the lower jobs were "punished" if they spoke up by being assigned disgusting jobs (of which they had an unlimited supply). There was also this idea that it was acceptable for the employees there to mistreat the patients to some extent due to the pressures of working in that environment. She said that she really loved alot of the kids there but at the same time, she dreaded going to work. She told me that it was the most depressing time of her life. She also told me that one of the kids that lived there had wandered off one day and gotten killed by the train that ran nearby but she wasn't there the day it happened. She told me that there were a lot of issues with neglect, abuse, and improper medical treatment but back then they didn't have the stringent policies that we have today in the medical industry so it wasn't anything too shocking at the time. She also told me that when she worked there, there were some really old buildings from around the turn of the century that they used for storage that still had shackles on the walls and isolation cells, but she said that those buildings had been torn down a long time before I went there around 2001. She has been known to exaggerate at times so some of her accounts may be embellished a bit but they're certainly interesting.
I've heard all kinds of ridiculous stories about the place from friends that grew up around there. Some of them said that the kids that lived there would wander back there years after the place closed but if what my mother told me about the place was true I can't see why they'd want to go back there. I know that there were people squatting in the tunnels beneath the place though. I wonder if any of them were trapped down there when they tore it down.
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Pictures of Ridge Home
