FFH 13b

WORKING AT
FAIRFIELD HILLS HOSPITAL
IN NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT.

Part XIIIb

Jerry Haffke Remembers:

So Many People, So Many Memories...

Fairfield Hills Hospital
In August 2008
A Dream Abandoned and Destroyed!

Pictures Were Taken And Sent To Me By James Divita.
For so many of us this will be a sad journey to what once was almost home:

Let's begin our journey at Shelton House...	And then continue by crossing over to the Administration Building, Newtown-Hall...
Here is Newtown-Hall again as seen by us as we walk over from Shelton-House...	Now we cross over the center-green to Woodbury-Hall which was a female dorm. The view is as seen from Shelton-House...
From Woodbury-Hall we go back to Newtown-Hall and make a right in the direction of Stratford-Hall, the small cafeteria where Mrs. Adams and staff as well as the office workers dined...	Passing to the right of Stratford-Hall, we end up at the male dormitory Norwalk-Hall...

Diagonally across Norwalk-Hall is Stamford-Hall which was a dormitory for married couples at first, before Watertown-Hall was built and then became a female dorm... This is the view from Cochran-House of Stamford-Hall...	Crossing over from Stamford-Hall, we get to the newest building, Cochran-House which was opened in the late 1950's. The view here is of the main entrance...The building has three floors and 12 wards....and even had it's own kitchen...
Walking from the back of Cochran-House we arrive at Canaan-House....	Diagonally across to the right we reach Greenwich-House which seems to have big construction going on. In the left-center of the picture we see a new building...
Here is Greenwich-House as seen from the street with the end of Canaan-House in back of us and with the main kitchen and dining rooms of Bridgeport-Hall to our left....	Greenwich-House as seen more from the right, with the Yale-Lab in back of us.... The new addition to Greenwich-House is straight ahead in our view....
Another view of Greenwich-House from the same perspective...	And now we look at Greenwich-House from the other direction with Kent-House in our back...

Having walked back towards Canaan-House, we come to the main kitchen and dining rooms for patients and employees, Bridgeport Hall. Shelton-House is just barely visible to our left and Greenwich-House would be on our right....	Another view of Bridgeport-Hall with the main entrance for employees under disrepair... It seems like there used to be an addition with bathrooms and a cloak-room through which one walked into the main dining hall...
View of female patient entrance to the patient's dining room at Bridgeport-Hall....	From Bridgeport-Hall we can see the Yale-Lab building which contained the morgue and autopsy rooms as well as the pharmacy (until 1970 when the pharmacy moved to Cochran-House. The building to the right is Canaan-House again...
Having walked all the way across, from Canaan-House, past Bridgeport-Hall, we come to a large activities field and see Kent-House from it's side viewed from Danbury-Hall... Kent-House and Canaan-House are identical looking structures...	If we turn around from facing Kent-House and the activities field, we face Danbury-Hall which was a dormitory for male employees. The residents at Danbury-Hall were mostly maintenance people, While Norwalk-Hall was mostly for Psychiatric-Aides...
Another side-view of Kent-House and the activities field as we walk past Danbury Hall onto a side-street on which a few maintenance buildings are located and which would head directly into the hospital's own power-supply-house....	Coming down from Danbury-Hall and walking down the street, we come first to the hospital's own fire-house. In the background we see Kent-House again...The fire station was made up of mostly volunteers working in maintenance or as psychiatric-aides...

Walking past the fire-station, we come past the main maintenance
shops building, which had separate electrical, plumbing and painting shops...as well as many others, in it... On the left front, we see the driveway entrance to the main garage building which was located right across from the maintenance building...

Main entrance to the same shops-building...

Way in back we see what used to be the cow-barn
where patients and employees used to take care of the hospital's
own cows for wholesome milk production...
Now it seems to be a horse-barn for state troopers....

And here we see a typical staff-house which probably
served once as residence for the head farmer of FFH....

Continue to Page XIIIc
For More Pictures Taken in 2009

Fairfield Hills Hospital
In September 2009
"A Curious Rebirth"
Pictures from James DiVita

Let us remember Fairfield Hills Hospital
With This Picture From A Better Time
All Around!

This picture was obviously taken after the closing of FHH. That's why threre are no cars visible and no people. Normally, when I worked there, the view would have shown a lot of activity.
Good old "Shelton-House" where the Director of Nursing
Rosa Lee Adams R.N. ruled with compassion and an "iron fist."
Her office was on the third floor along with her staff's.
This is also where Psychiatric Aide classes were taught.
The two stories below held four semi-geriatric wards.

Go to Page XIV
The Continuation of My Story from Page IX
Training on Greenwich-House 1A

Return to Part I
Working at Fairfield Hills(State) Hospital - How I came to Fairfield Hills Hospital - Summation of my
immigration story - Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC - Meeting Pete in Danbury, Connecticut - Mrs. Morrell's
Guest House - Working at Danbury Hospital - Hearing about Fairfield Hills Hospital - Getting a job there - Mrs. Adams
and Mrs. Schwaller - Central Linen Room - A Listing of Former Employees at FHH--People I Knew and Loved -

Picture Pages:

Part X
Picture Page courtesy of Beryl Carr
with pictures of Beryl Carr, Cliff Kearnan, Paula from the pharmacy, Florence Brown, Ms. Raeford R.N.,
Dover Seawright, Dr. Didios, Dr. Seanado, Tommy Ferrell, Andres Vaga, Flo Erickson, Carol Lockwood,
Lynn Wilson, Mary D'Agusta and many more employees.

Part XI
Various Pictures and Historical Articles from a Pamphlet
Issued to FHH Employees in 1983

Part XII
This Page Is Dedicated To The Loving Memory
Of Our Friend And Co-Worker At Fairfield Hills Hospital,
Evelyn M. Brown
With A Collection Of Pictures Sent To Me
By Her Loving Granddaughter Penny Lee. Group Photo From The Early-To Mid- 1970's
Probably Taken In Cochran House Basement O.T. Room.
Far Left Standing Is William "Billy" Lawlor, Center-Table Is Charlie Gallagher,
Second From Right, Standing, Is Kay Hodgman....
All The Others I Know And Worked With, But I Don't Remember Their Names.
Also Pictures of Dino Lopez, Georgia Lasorco, Kay Barkasy-Colgan and Frances DeManuel.

Part XIII
I Thought This Memorial-Page Would Be A Proper Place
To Put A Few Of My Own Pictures, Since
I Met My Wife, Donna, As A Co-Worker
At Our Beloved Fairfield Hills Hospital as well as my first wife Thelma
...Also Pictures
of Steve Hirst, Pete Wagner, John Kilpatrick, Bill Lawlor,
Jerry Haffke.

Part XIIIa
Pictures of Shirley Pavone, Rita Morton, Drs. Sonido
and Aurora Alcantara with Shirley Pavone.

Part XIIIb
So Many People, So Many Memories...
Fairfield Hills Hospital
In August 2008
A Dream Abandoned and Destroyed!
Pictures Were Taken And Sent To Me By James Divita.
For so many of us this will be a sad journey to what once was almost home...

Part XIIIc
More Pictures from James Divita
taken in February 2009

Return to Index Page
of "A Gnostic Childhood"