Fairfield Hills State Hospital, Newtown
The first of a trio of former abandoned “insane asylums” on the list, Fairfield Hills was closed by the state in 1995, and in the ensuing years has grown into a popular destination for ghost seekers as well as urban explorers. Like many former hospitals for the mentally disturbed, tales of cruelty and abuse surround the facility, which when combined with stories of odd happenings in the network of underground tunnels here — which have since been filled in — have helped forged its reputation, which was exacerbated when an episode of MTV’s “Fear” was filmed here. Plans to demolish the buildings and develop the 700+ acres keep starting and sputtering, but eventually this hospital of horror will only be a bad memory.