Carrington Mental Hospital (Unitec) – Building 76

DSC01433Unitec was founded as “Carrington Technical Institute” in 1976 on the Mt Albert site on Carrington Rd, which has 55 hectares of grounds.

The area on which Unitec’s main campus is located was formerly home to the Whau Mental Hospital, later known as Carrington Hospital.
The hospital was decommissioned during the early 1990s, and the building is now part of Unitec’

Building 76 was once a male ward for the most dangerous patients.

It was also known as the Whare Paia Maori mental health unit and was run by Titiwhai Harewera untill she was imprisoned for nine months, for assaulting patients under her care.

The small white cell rooms, still sealed by the original solid (thick glass viewing panel adorned) steel doors, used to hold the most violent and dangerous patients. These are now utilised by students to work on their individual art / graphics assignments.

BUILDING 76 - 1940
BUILDING 76 – 1940
BUILDING 76 - 2
BUILDING 76 – TODAY

 

DSC01513Activity

In the past there have been reports of ‘furniture moving in the seminar room at the end of the long upstairs hallway’, moving shadows, the sound of children singing and laughing, various items being moved to different parts of rooms, students being pushed…..

DSC014533 hour investigation.

– 1 hour Exterior – Photographic, audio and visual noting and documentation of the building and perimeter.
– 1.5 hours – Interior – Photographic and EMF data gathering.
– 30 mins – EVP communication attempts.

During my time in this building I noted two incidents of EMF fluctuations and apparent moving energy fields outside rooms in corridors. No reasons or sources could be found.

At the same time an icy chill filled that area of corridor.

Unfortunately I did not have my thermometer at the ready to measure the actual temperature at that point.

DSC01467– Outside room 076-1022 : Briefly in the one area (about a minute then disappearing, as if moving away)

– Outside room 076-1044 : Energy field appeared to suddenly form. I am unsure as to whether if it truly did ‘appear’, or perhaps just moved to that position. Either way, I am sure that it was not there one moment, and then it was.

EMF meter went from 0 to ‘off the scale’ in a second, lasting for about a minute then leaving. Appearing again, a few seconds later, about a meter further along the corridor.

The small energy field was tracked from rooms 076-1044 down the corridor to outside room 076 – 1048, where it disappeared. Tracked for about 5 minutes total.

DSC01463I estimated at the time that the ‘ball’ of energy would have been roughly about a foot or two in circumference. Not visible to my eyes, but definitely measurable.

EMF was very flat throughout the building except for in the areas of wall mounted power boxes, computer filled rooms and alarm systems.

– A couple of EXIT signs showed high EMF readings. Nothing unusual.
– A power box also typically gave off an extreme reading on passing.

In a hallway I briefly smelled cigarette smoke. Thinking it was coming through an open window, I exited the building and walked all around the exterior looking for the culprit. There was no one around and no smell of smoke detected outside.

3 x 10 minute communication attempts – Nothing found on audio analysis except two segments where students are heard talking out in the carpark.

I intend returning to Building 76 in the near future to conduct further investigation and research.
If anyone has had unusual, possibly paranormal, experiences within Building 76 of Carrington Unitec, please make contact so we can add your information to our records.

Stay Tuned.

13 Comments

  1. Tia Te Huna

    Wow fascinating. Are the public allowed on the grounds? My Aunty was institutionalised here in the 1980s and commit suicide here. I would like to go and have a look at where she spent the last time of her life

      1. Mark

        Worked in this building today running cables to the individual cell rooms as they are now going to be used as offices. I had to climb into the ceiling to run cables and I must admit, it is a very creepy environment to be in.

        1. Mark

          Worked in this building today running cables to the individual cell rooms as they are now going to be used as offices. I had to climb into the ceiling to run cables and I must admit, it is a very creepy environment to be in.

          1. Greg

            Apparently, there was a guy called “Bob” who used to move chairs around. Until one day Bob and his favorite chair disappeared. Not sure if this is true but just something I heard!

            1. Mark

              Hey Greg. This is such a coincidence. When I poked my head into the ceiling to start running the cables, I looked straight into a chair with “Bob” written on it. I have a photo

  2. j

    I was a student for 3 years in building 76. There were some cells upstairs that you knew weren’t welcomed in.spent many all-nighters there finishing project. You were never “alone”

  3. Kim

    I studied at unitec and one of my classes was in building 76 on the first floor wasn’t so bad there but a few of my class was invited to view some art work upstairs and boy were we glad to leave we were all uncomfortable and felt cold a few of us complained of headaches we all swore never to go back up there or building 1 the stories my aunt told me when she was working there I made sure to always leave before dark.

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