Ding Dong! The Wich Is Dead

Posted: Sunday January 23, 2022

The blasted open Administration Building is one of the few remaining hospital structures left standing within a wide open brownfield strewn with manmade detritus including bricks and chunks of concrete. Divots in the ground highlight where magnificent buildings one stood and re-bar protruding from hunks of cement poke up through the soil providing visual clues to where the labyrinth of steam tunnels once snaked below. Demolition at the former Norwich State Hospital has ceased for the time being and what little remains as a tease.

Part of the allure of urban exploration is that the landscape is constantly changing. Abandoned buildings continue to perpetually rot until they are either demolished by neglect, finished off by a greedy land developer, or maybe even incinerated by the neighborhood pyromaniac. Nothing remains the same for long and while change isn't always welcome, it keeps the game fresh. Often it can seem like a race against time and progress to explore and see as much as possible. Certainly over the years I've found myself entering this rat-race; exploring for the sake of exploring but never truly enjoying the moment. More recently however, I've discovered that no one ever truly wins this rat-race, instead it's just an interminable stampede of curiosity gone rouge, until someone eventually gets hurt or arrested, neither of which outcome seems desirable, especially as I grow older.

I've found it far more worthwhile to remind myself that sometimes you have to quit the race in order to stay ahead. There is far too much out there to explore in a lifetime and with that realization comes the fact that certain places will be lost to the rat-race of progress. Norwich State Hospital is precisely one of those epic locations that I absolutely lost the race to explore. During the institution's heydays of abandonment the idea of driving multiple hours to explore a single location seemed preposterous, for living in close proximity to such excellent ruins as Overbrook and Greystone, my weekends were well spent.

While standing within the massive dirt field that was once Norwich State Hospital I noticed how the skeletal remains from a few remaining buildings seemed to be placed impossibly far apart. Even just attempting to imagine all the buildings that once filled this campus was an overly daunting task. As I explored my way through what little ruins remain, I found my sense of regret was quickly replaced with a aura of nostalgia, for while I never got to experience Norwich during its prime, I absolutely know what such an adventure would have been like, for I've been fortunate enough to live the feeling in places just like this.

These pleasant thoughts ran through my mind as I leisurely roamed one of the last remaining intact basements at Norwich. The familiar yet dank smell of rotting paper work from patient files decades older than myself transported me to excellent times in amazing places. However, here at Norwich times have clearly changed, there is little adventure to be found here any longer, but there is still adventure to be found. One could even argue that perhaps the golden age of roaming around massive abandoned asylum campuses is nearing the end, yet I am still as curious about the urban world around me as the day I first stepped foot into the ruins. While The Wich is undoubtedly dead, I think the spirit of exploring is more alive than ever. For better and for worse, the game is moving at a record pace, but there are no rules in exploring and thus no reason to play the game. It's far more rewarding to enjoy the moments no matter how large or small, then it is to run the race.

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