Most Haunted Places in America:Glenn Dale Hospital
Glenn Dale Hospital was built in 1934 to serve as a tuberculosis sanitarium. Sitting on 210 acres in Prince Georges County, Maryland, the 23-building institution was once state-of-the-art, but has stood abandoned since 1982, when it was closed permanently due to concerns about the copious amounts of asbestos used in the construction.
The main campus of Glenn Dale consists of a Children’s hospital building and main hospital building, which are connected by a series of underground tunnels and walkways. Each of these buildings has its own morgue, and both structures are close to Glenn Dale Road, which bisects the estate and makes the buildings easy fodder for local trespassers who want to match wits with the Washington, D.C Park Police, who routinely patrol the area.
Exploration of the Glenn Dale Hospital grounds is a treacherous experience, and not only because the place is closed and trespassers are not suffered lightly. The portions of the buildings that are aboveground are in severe disrepair, seeing that they have stood abandoned since 1982. Broken glass litters the ground, roofs and walls are collapsing under their own weight, and rusted metal and other debris litters the campus because of all of the unused hospital detritus that was left behind when the place shut down. The basement and tunnels are in the same condition, but with the added hazard of standing water, which rises up to three feet in some places.
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of exploration is the same aspect that led to the hospital’s closure: large amounts of asbestos. The few people who are allowed into Glenn Dale,, and this includes paranormal investigators who have gotten permission to visit, always wear respirators because of the carcinogens in the air.
The haunted history of Glenn Dale Hospital is much like that of any other long-abandoned institution of similar size. For example, after the tuberculosis epidemic faded, the hospital was repurposed to house the mentally ill. Out of this fact the legend became that the hospital was a home for the criminally insane, who were simply let loose to roam the grounds when the hospital closed. While there is no evidence to support the idea that society’s violent crazies have been living in a decrepit hospital for over two decades, such stories do feed the fires of both paranormal interest and expectation. Another example of this is the legend that Glenn Dale Hospital had its own crematorium, and that the odor of burning flesh still permeates the buildings. There is a smokestack on the hospital grounds, but all evidence points to it only ever being used to burn refuse.
The few people who are lucky enough to explore the grounds find no lack of intriguing paranormal experiences, however. There are certainly the usual reports of shadow figures and unexplained sounds. The second floor of the general hospital building seems to be a hotbed of these types of activity, with reports of full-bodied apparitions in hospital gowns roaming the halls and disembodied voices either screaming or laughing maniacally. There have even been reports of a pack of ghost dogs roaming around the campus near the children’s hospital. Paranormal activity like this can certainly be found all over the Glenn Dale campus, it’s just that this particular floor seems more active than the rest.
There are a few local legends that concern haunting at the hospital that can’t be directly confirmed or denied, but they are interesting nonetheless. One of these stories concerns a patient who haunts the hospital wearing a straightjacket. He went insane having witnessed the murder of his wife and children during a home invasion. He was so wracked with guilt that he didn’t save his family that he broke into the pharmaceutical dispensary and killed himself by swallowing pills. It is this same guilt that supposedly binds his spirit to the hospital.
The second legend concerns an unnamed police officer who was called to investigate some vandalism that had occurred on the property. A while after he arrived, people in the vicinity reported hearing gunshots. When backup arrived, the officer was found in one of the patient rooms, staring blankly at a bare wall. He had emptied his gun into this wall, firing at something that no one would ever find. True or not, such stories are a vital part of the mystique of this haunted hospital.
Related posts:
- Essex County Hospital Hauntings
- Ghosts at Northern State Mental Hospital
- Haunted Swingle Hospital?
- The Haunted Tunnels of Anoka State Hospital
- The Haunted Elgin State Mental Hospital
26 comments ↓
I like your style, the fact that your site is a little bit different makes it so interesting, I get fed up of seeing same-old-same-old all of the time. I’ve just stumbled this page for you
I thought this was going to be another long boring blog post, but I was pleasantly suprised. I will be posting a backlink on my blog, as I am quite sure my readers will find this more than interesting.
I’m a northern Virginia paranormal investigator and I was very fortunate to have been given permission to investigate this awesome place under official escort. I do not believe this place is haunted and yes, these buildings are crubbling away and there’s a lot of dangerous airborne contaminants, rust, mold and debry. This place have been picked clean of so called “souvenirs” and the only thing you may collect from this place is asbestos in your lungs. Also, chances are that if you’re planning to trespass onto this property, you will get caught.
UrbanEx, could we exchange contact information?
I used to live within 3 feet of the Quarters of Glendale, where the employees lived on site. I visited the hospital on many ocassions with my church choir to sing for the patients. I lost several family members to cancer, ranging from lung, breast, and bone cancer. After reading about the asbestos found there, I am certain that this has something to do with their illnesses. If you have anymore information, please contact me.
my father was the cheif engineer from 1960 until it closed.he died about 5 years ago from asbestos scaring in his lungs.
Ms. Magic— If you used to really live within 3 feet of the quarters like you say.. then you should know how to spell the name of the place. Its Glenn Dale, not GLENDALE…
I’ve driven by Glenn Dale hospital several times on my way to work for a friend. It is so beautiful in a sort of haunting way, I’ve heard lots of people tell Ghost Stories about it but I don’t believe them all.
I have been researching Glenn Dale awhile now as I’ll be driving back by it in a few weeks and read a story which reminded me of the hospital just yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of this article so I applaud the author.
And Tina many people spell it Glenndale without the space so I think the only thing Ms. Magic got wrong is she may have missed an ‘N’ . . .
I really enjoyed reading about the hospital. I pass it every Monday taking my daughter to therapy. I have been curious as to why it is empty. Thanks for the interesting reading.
I am the founder of R.A.S.P.S ,my team and myself have got a lot of stuff from glenndale.voices light lines.I would hate to see this place go.it was our first place to investigate.also it was kinda fun running from the park police and never getting caught.keep hunting people and you will find what your looking for.
heyy ive trespassed before and ive experienced something i couldnt explain. when i first went in their i thought it was just and abandon hospital like any abandon place, i did not know anything about the history until after reading this today. my experience compared to this blog really explained what really happened to me that day, im not going to get into detail but i will say i heard disremembered body voice and the i saw the soo called a full-bodied apparitions of the guy who died from overdose wearing the straightjacket blocking the way to get to get to the second floor.
I lived in Prince Georges county all my life (39 years) and have heard of the allegedly haunted Glendale Hospital. Through my childhood and teen years, the older kids in the area would tell ghost stories of the hospital to scare us younger kids. I found out not long ago that my mother, now a retired RN worked in the Glendale hospital in 1972 (pregnant with me)for 3 months. When she was asked to work on the wing that had patients with TB, she absolutely refused saying she didn’t want to risk bringing anything home to her family. I thought that was interesting seeing as some known haunted hospitals housed and treated TB patients. I have never visited the hospital but thought I would share that little tidbit of history when I saw this sight.
Thanks for the history PAllen!
i have been to glen dale a couple times but one time we went during the day with a group of friends and first went into the creamatory and didnt see nething but on the walk to the main campus i looked up onto a second story glass walkway and saw a man looking at us and i looked at my best friend and he was staring at the same spot the he looked at me and we both knew we had seen the same thing
Hi , ilive in Glenshire Estates like right across the street from the hospital, ive trespassed there NUMEROUS time since ive moved there and almost all the times that i have NOTHING paranormal has happened (btw i never got caught) but anyways, one of the times i was walking passed the building next to the neighbor hood and i heard a scream and also candle lights in 3 windows. That freaked me out for a while so i stayed away from it. My boyfriend didnt believe me so i convined him to come with me in broad daylight to the big building across the street..We went through the whole building even the roof. When we was on the roof we heard a scream so i was ready to go. When we was leaving we saw a dog run passed one of the doors. We went to go check it out and when we got to the door the dog was just staring at us (it was a German Shepard) so we walk outside and the dog ran to the other side of the building. We ran to the other side of the building and we saw it poking its head from the side and when we headed for it it turned around and started to walk away . As soooon as we got to where it was at in like 5 sec. it was gone. It was no where in site and we searched the place numorous times to find it , and never did. THIS IS TRUEEE !!!! I swear that was the Last time i went up there and this was back in April..
Hello, you may find me sitting in my police car at all times of the night there. We go there to collect paperwork and train. I would advise those that try to go inside the buildings that they are beyond repair; the recent snows have collapsed several roofs, mainly the smaller buildings. It isn’t safe.
I will say this, someone is pushing the large concrete slabs from off the main hospital into the driveways (we used to be able to drive through the archs).
I have never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, in fact, I find it peaceful there.
Oh, the German Sheppard was K-9, they train there on the property and run loose.
I seen you up there. You ain’t lock me up when you got me me thx. All I know is there is lots of water in them basements cuz we tried to get to them tunnels. I heard some crazy noise in that main bulding…we ain’t going back up there Peace
Does anyone have contact information to call or get in touch with someone to seek permission to investigate Glenn Dale? Me and some friends were looking to do some ghost hunting this month and didn’t really want to take the chance in getting arrested or fined for trespassing into something that we just want to investigate and not destroy or vandalize. Thank you!
One of our authors named (DEE ALLO) wrote a book entitled: The 13th Day, which is about the Glenn Dale Hospital. We initially thought the book was just a good read, but after seeing all of your blogs about this place…we think this author may know something privileged about this place!!!
Hmm. After reading some of these replies, I realize that the younger generations are lacking some SERIOUS grammar skills. My God. What is happening to the English language…
Ive been to Glenn Dale Twice within the last year. Ive experienced some things unexplained either mind tricks or paranormal. Ive seen he Park Police up the only on one occasion an ive never had thepriviledge in running into them. I would love to goback again with permission so sneaking around isnt needed though. I f there is anyone who has info on who to talk to about it please let me know. And to the PgPolice – if i were to ask your permission would i be able to go through the hospital with or without your guidance would i be aloud? I dont vandalize property abandoned or not and have great respect for the great landmark! Ive seen figures walking, i have pictures of shadows and videos or a (ghost) following us(noises and file cabinets being moved on film) It is a great place to explore except for the asbestos and rubble. So to the PGPolice if i were to go to the Portable building up there where the truck always sits would i be able to gain access to the buildings?
Here is an Update: Vandals have spray painted a ton of new grafitti on the upper levels of the main building. They have also removed about 5 well covers from around the property. Meaning, if you come up there at night and don’t look down, you will fall down into a well.
Listen, I enjoy the intrigue and mystery just like all of you. But thanks to a few vandals, they have ruined it for everyone. We arrested a couple of guys there who were using one of the buildings as a place of business for heroin. Also, there are those who dump trash others who like to destroy the brick work.
so we are not able to go up there and investigate but if we are then what are the age range that can go in there if we get permision
I visited the hospital about 4 years ago. While I was there I encountered a green orb when I was walking towards the chapel that dissapeard into the ceiling. I also heard voices down by the basement.
My friends and I went to Glenn Dale last night, we were dressed in all black and just walked on the sidewalk of the grounds to find the building we wanted ( street side) and we got stopped after like 5 minutes by TWO police officers..
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