The Tower of Despair

*WARNING*: This article may be emotionally challenging for some viewers. The content touches on the subject of suicide. View discretion is advised.

Background

The Brattleboro Retreat, formerly known as the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, is a popular attraction in Brattleboro, Vermont. Walking the trail behind the Inn at Putney Road along the Retreat trails, you eventually get to the entrance of the Retreat Tower and Retreat Cemetery, where the structures remain standing today.
The Retreat was established in 1834 as an early way of providing care to those with mental illnesses. It would soon become so renowned for this it would be deemed as a leader in the early battle against mental illness. . Offered at the retreat, all sorts of events took place; there were entertainment groups like music groups and theatre troops that would visit the facility in order to entertain the patients, all 450 of them.
However, the treatments they did at the facility would be considered to be barbaric today in torturous ways such as shock therapy. The editor of Vermont Phoenix did write in 1894, “All patients are kindly treated, and those in need of extra attention receive it.” He wrote this after visiting the Retreat almost every day for three months, clearly covering something going on behind the scenes.
The founding goal of the facility was to provide humane and effective treatment and although they most definitely had their issues, that was nevertheless their end goal. During that time period, many doctors believed that letting patients get some fresh air was essential to their wellbeing. Which is exactly what led the founders of the retreat to the idea of building the Retreat tower.
The Retreat tower was designed for patients to take in the scenery where the asylum was built. In 1837, construction of the Brattleboro Retreat tower started. Patients helped to construct the tower, since it was believed the physical activity would help their treatment. With the tower being completed, it provided the patients with beautiful views of the area. But results showed that the tower did not help the patients, it proved to actually achieve the contrary.. It’s believed that several leaped off the top of the tower, as a means of ending their lives.
Nearby the tower, there is a cemetery, and here many of the gravestones date back to the 1800s, some of them with “unknown” engraved on them. Others have no birth dates, only first names. The last person who was buried in the cemetery died in 1901. Kurt White, the retreat's director of ambulatory care, has stated that the records do not say very much about the people who were buried in the cemetery. More than 650 people were laid to rest at this cemetery in the late 1800s. A Series of Unfortunate Events

Although the facility strived to be good to their patients, misfortune had still fallen on the Brattleboro Retreat. In the years 1893 and 1897, lightning struck the facility and caused mass damage to the buildings. In 1900 and 1901, parts of the property succumbed to fire. These incidents did not report any deaths, but it is still strange how all of these series of unfortunate events followed seemingly so close together.
Strange events

This infamous spot had its first strange and unexplained occurrence in June,1913. A woman, Mrs. B. E. Leitsinger was taking a walk by the tower when she saw what she described as a deer. She followed the deer to the tower until it abruptly disappeared out of thin air. The next day, she took the same walk and saw the same deer, in the exact same spot she saw it the previous day.

Almost exactly 10 years later, on June 1, 1923, a body was found near the tower. The body belonged to Carl W. Dodge, who was known as a lead cello player at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his right temple.

People who have dared to pay a visit to the tower have claimed to have a very unsettling feeling. There have been reports of people seeing a patient jumping from the top of the tower, and never making it to the ground.

My thoughts and experience

This was one of my many adventures I took during the Covid 19 lockdown period, I walked the trail and even in my own recognition, my heart knew that the trail had a tale of sadness I felt the overwhelming sense of heaviness there, the bad energy, the sadness that surrounded the entire property; It was unfathomable to me that many people’s lives ended at the Retreat when they never could’ve imagined themselves being trapped in the walls. Some lost the battle and some won it, maybe some of them went on to achieve their dreams and for others, it remained just that- dreams.
I remember along the trail there was this eerie quietness, I made my way to the tower and was immediately met with an even stronger sense of heaviness. I looked at the door, curious to see if we could go inside and go to the top, but it was sealed off. There was also an abandoned building nearby- all boarded up. To my surprise, the old building wasn’t vandalized. Eventually I went down and saw the cemetery. The headstones looked worn out from the years and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I couldn’t shake the feeling the entire time that I was being watched.