Urban Legend of Glenn Dale Hospital

Glenn Dale Hospital

Background

Over the recent break, I mentioned to a friend that I needed to write about a ghost-related urban legend. He offered to tell me about Glenn Dale Hospital, which is supposedly a famous ghost legend in Maryland. Since I am a lifelong Maryland resident and did not know about the hospital, I was eager to hear the story. The story was told in the living room of a house by a 19 year old white male native to southern Maryland. He is from a middle class family and his father and mother are a construction worker and a homemaker, respectively. He heard the story from another friend who claims to have visited Glenn Dale Hospital.

The Story

So, in the 30s and 40s they used to send tuberculosis patients to the [Glenn Dale] hospital for treatment. [normal relaxed tone] Eventually it was converted into an insane asylum and it became notorious for its treatment of patients. The staff experimented on the patients and locked them up all day. One day, all the patients revolted and the doctors ran out of the hospital and boarded up all the doors and windows. [talking faster] The patients were left inside to die and the hospital was abandoned. The insane still wander the halls. Today, if you sneak in the hospital you will be chased by the ghosts of the patients and catch tuberculosis. My friend went there and swears he saw a ghost watching him from the shadows, and he won’t go near that place anymore [gestures with hand in horizontal motion]. The cops arrest anyone they catch trespassing, but they say the cops won’t go in the hospital after you if you need help.”

Context

There is evidence to support some of this story. According to a Washington Post article from December 10, 2006, Glenn Dale Hospital does exist on over 200 acres in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In fact, it did house tuberculosis patients starting in the mid-thirties. However, that is essentially all the truth in the story. The article states, “It [Glen Dale Hospital] was never an insane asylum, as urban explorers and paranormal researchers suggest on the internet.” Since it was never an asylum, the idea of a revolt and the insane wandering the halls must not be true. Since tuberculosis does not last for decades without human hosts, it is impossible to catch the disease just by exploring the hospital.