Author / Joseph Finley

Posts by Joseph Finley

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by Joseph Finley

Stuck in Time: The Abandoned Westborough State Mental Hospital

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Original Hospital Plan

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Campus Pencil Drawing

 

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The East wing of Building #23. The windows are covered with plyboard and a security fence outlines its perimeter.

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Building #23 – Another section of the massive main hospital – which house approximately 200 in-patients at any given time.

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Building #23. The front “visitors entrance” into the lobby of the main patient ward.

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A peak inside building #23

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Building #10. This structure predates the main patient ward and was the site of the original boy’s home on the campus grounds.

 

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The quiet and bare grounds of the abandoned hospital campus.

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Small trash door and show. A look inside the courtyard of building #23.

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Building #7 – Administration
This structure sits on the south side of the now abandoned Westborough State Mental Hospital campus – just a 3-minute stroll from the main patient ward at building #23. 
Here, staff would perform various administrative duties and rest during breaks from caring for the approximately 200 in-patients residing at the hospital at any given time.

 

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Building #7

 

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by Joseph Finley

Euro Mutt

“The world’s trash and mutts – the whole lot of them, in ships every day by the dozen.” – Matilde H. Journal Entry (est. 1880) recording of an overheard comment during passage to an American port (NYC). German Immigrant – 16 at the time of passage. Traveled alone.

Or, personal labels I am comfortable with – by Matilde H. (1883)

My sense of beauty is Italia,

simple yet bold.

pragmatism of Deutschland

thoughtful and structured

attitude towards others of France

laissez-faire but curious

passion of Scotland

misunderstood yet strong

presence of England

conservative and reserved

pace of España

relaxed with meaning

purpose of Ireland

complicated and symbolic

surroundings are Kongeriket Norge

filled with peaceful tranquility

I do not love them,

Nor hate them.

I am with them.

Always.

 

by Joseph Finley

My X-MAS Time Gift Wrap

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All of these precious gifts from you

they consume me

and often at times like these

oh how they can confuse me

“why am I acting my way

through Christmas again”?

I know we do not have much

in the way of material things

which sort of makes

  • it sting a little more.

Did these gifts

ever hold a real sparkle in your eye?

You heaped them on me

and I always knew

this was your display to me

of love –

everybody could see.

I never learned to wrap a gift

decorative bags became an indispensable friend.

Perhaps I am lazy,

or have never found the perfect packaging

for my one and only true gift

to you.

 

 

 

 

by Joseph Finley

Please Come Home

A 20-pound ball of empathy –

he is one of our marvelous creatures.

Has anything ever held a mirror up to your humanity

like an animal that loves or

an animal that fears?

Throughout history,

we have served each other’s purpose.

They are bred in our reflection

mutts at the core, wanting to be truly known,

begging for nourishment –

constantly.

*Chase — otherwise known as booter, booter-butt, chicken butt, or boo boo

by Joseph Finley

Seriously though; what does love have to do with it? With any of it at all?

He sits on his folded legs, 3 feet from the large stand bubble that practically dwarfs his little body. The large expanse of a room consumes them both.

He is excited. The MTV is on and he knows his odds are about 1 in 4 that the new Tina Turner video will be coming on shortly. He has deliberated – and there will be no touching of the actual tv this time or getting too up close, this time he wants a pan of every single glass tube end. Maybe he could record it in his head better that way.

And then it happens just as he knew it would.

Tina is over for another brief visit. But she is even more mesmerizing than before and those vibes begin quickly — with a high intensity that will quickly subside, but stay long enough to leave a slightly deeper impression that eventually will need to be filled.

In front of him, she is shaking and strutting, he is hypnotized by this “dance”? The hair. The voice. Those legs. Is this expression!? How you can be?

Where do you learn this?

Certainly not at school.

Not even at the local skating rink. That’s why he never skates much – too busy watching.

Like right now – but today she has a message for him as well. He knows to pay attention because she keeps on repeating it – and it forces him to open his ears a little more.

What’s that Tina? That question you are asking – “Whats love got to do with it”?

Has a better question ever been asked?  What does love have to do with it? With any of it at all? Another question he can add to the running list.

At that moment, he discovered his first expert. His first “expression” expert. He will meet many more experts in the years to come – all of them having valuable lessons to teach.

However, first – he must tackle the complicated world of gender roles as exhibited in the American domesticated house pet – cats and dogs in particular.

 

by Joseph Finley

We Came To Rest

We Came to Rest

I came

and my monster followed closely behind,

out here in the December air;

both ready

finally,

to rest.

 

Is this it?

Did the night air just speak to me?

The fullness of her light is dancing as the wisps of vapor energy float by –

a gradient drop of the pressure in the air.

 

Unfreeze my heart,

yes

please!

Have we located the

final resting place?

Something feels closer.

I feel it more so every day.

by Joseph Finley

Nothing is Ever Easy

A Small Glitch Appears In Utero

A nuchal cord was wrapped around my neck 3 times when I was a fetus inside of my mother’s uterus. After discovering this on the sonogram during a final pre-labor exam, the doctor decided to enact emergency labor, as he was concerned the cord might restrict the flow of oxygen to my tiny brain – perhaps rendering me with some sort of lasting brain damage.

Although it may sound ominous from the first pass, this type of incident is not all that uncommon during pregnancies and depending on the severity of the knot, is usually fairly benign – in fact, some studies claim it occurs in about 1/3rd of births in any given year in the U.S.

And like my own delivery, most occur without incident, as the baby is removed, and the cord simply cut. As you can imagine, the ordeal caused some unneeded stress for my mother.

She reflects on it with a mildness today, but I can imagine this must have shot her nerves – unless she has completely changed since then. Doubtful.

Similar to myself, she is prone to worry – a chronic over-thinker. However, the focus of our anxiety tends to be different; hers on close loved ones and mine tend to be a bit more selfish in nature.

Looking back, I wonder if this incident had any effect on shaping her view of me as her youngest child. Did it make her more protective or more prone to worry about me? I remember her doing plenty of both growing up – incessantly at times.

Did this first glitch set off a domino effect of others – or was my fate sealed even before then?

by Joseph Finley

You Are Conscious Matter

Aerial View of The Abandoned Quarry with Graffiti – Quincy, MA

The Quincy Quarries produced granite for over a century and was the site of the Granite Railway—often credited as being the first railroad in the United States.

The last active quarry closed in 1963. After their abandonment, the open quarries filled with rainwater and groundwater. The flooded quarries soon became a popular spot for cliff jumping.

However, many people were injured—sometimes fatally—while diving into the quarries from great heights. This led the police and the city of Quincy to grapple with what to do with this abandoned space.

In 1985, Boston’s Metropolitan District Commission purchased 22 acres, including Granite Railway Quarry, as the Quincy Quarries Reservation. A solution to the public safety problem was found with the massive Big Dig highway project in Boston. Dirt from the new highway tunnels was trucked in to fill the main quarries. This created new sections of rock to climbers, and the site was subsequently improved to encourage public use of the reservation.

The reservation is connected to the trail system of the Blue Hills Reservation.
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#graffitiart #landscape #outdoors #winter #environment #weather #nature #daylight #scenic #calamity #graffiti #darkhistory #dystopian #rockclimbing #historicalnewengland #aerialphotography #naturereservation #bluehillsreservation #contrastingcolors #urbandecay #urbanphotography #bostonphotography #newenglanphotography

by Joseph Finley

In like a lion – out like a lamb…

Aerial View of a Traditional New England Farmhouse (March 2018)

A traditional New England farmhouse and the surrounding property thaw from a series of March snowstorms.

This residence (built in 1914) was originally situated on a family farm located a few hundred yards due East, where Interstate 93 currently passes the Blue Hill of Massachusetts.

As construction on the highway began in 1954, this house (along with a few others) were relocated to this adjoining lot, located in the Boston suburb of Canton, Massachusetts.
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#snow #winter #tree #cold #wood #weather #outdoors #landscape #thaw #frost #ice #nature #travel #traveling #visiting #instatravel #instago #sky #daylight #scenic #aerialphotography #newenglandphotography #dronephotography #djispark #bluehillsreservation

by Joseph Finley

Great Blue Hill at Dusk

Commuters on Interstate 93 drive by the Great Blue Hill in Canton, Massachusetts – part of the larger Blue Hills Reservation, a 6,000-acre state park located roughly 10 miles southwest of Boston, Massachusetts.

The reservation covers parts of Canton, Milton, Dedham, Randolph, and Quincy and is one of the most expansive sections of protected conservation land in the metro area and a popular recreational area with a diverse ecology that includes marshes, swamps, upland and bottomland forests, meadows, and bogs.

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#aerialphotography #commuters #outdoors #exitramp #dusk #orangesky #road #seashore #architecture #nature #daylight #landscape #scenic #hill #vehicle #interstate #highway #twilightscapes #dronephotography #bluehillsreservation #recreationalarea #snowcovered #statepark #conservationland #dronestagram #aerialview #dji #dronephotooftheday #aerialaesthetics

by Joseph Finley

Long Shadows

This photograph was taken in January 2018 while on a hike in the Blue Hills reservation (Milton, MA). It reminds me of the opening credits from the anthology horror/sci-fi tv series from the 80’s; “Tales from the DarkSide”, as the credits end a blurry image of black and white trees appear, along with some haunting music.

Have you ever seen it?

When we were kids, my sister and I would watch this along with our other favorite show – “Unsolved Mysteries”. I wonder how much we’d like them today if we tuned in again? . . . . .

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by Joseph Finley

Stained Glass #1

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by Joseph Finley

Santa Gives me the Head Spins

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Feb 13th

Mrs. Callahan,

Do you know this little boy? While standing in the line to have a picture taken with Santa, this little boy’s mom asked me to take his picture. But, I don’t know her! I forgot I had the picture until coming across it yesterday.

I believe he is new here and very shy. It seems like every time I see him, he is wearing that colorful sweater!

If you don’t know him, could you kindly give it to the office secretary? If I give it to Caitlyn (sp?) to hold, I’m afraid it will end up in Russia!

Thank You –

Noreen Floyd

 

I have zero recollection of any of this little Santa Clause setup, but I can tell you one thing.

I do recall that my mother “ghosted” that ugly yellow sweater from my laundry a few months after this photo was taken.

This was a practice wherein my mother would sneakily discard (steal) certain items of clothing because I would continually wear them, sometimes day after day.

One day it would be – wa-la! Joe has two brand new (more earth-toney) sweaters – magically hanging in the closet – or a new blue pair of tennis shorts to replace the purple that I originally favored – or whatever other articles of clothing needed replacing.

Since I craved predictability as a child, incidents like this might botheredme for a bit, but I eventually got over it and realized that yes – sometimes things need to be discarded instead of over-used, for the sake of public appearances.

One of those “pride” things I had no interest in, or time for since I just wanted to be comfortable and left alone to think about something.