This Roman Catholic orphanage was built in 1859 and operated until 1961, despite at least three catastrophic fires. It spawned the "Cry Baby Lane" ghost story, retold here: http://www.ophymirage.net/blog/archives/000135.html

The site is now underneath and around Oval Drive, which is directly in front of EB II.

For anyone interested, I've condensed all my maps, photos, and guesswork from the past six months into one giant Javascript-laden webpage. It's the next best thing to going there and seeing the site in person, though many of you probably drive over the ruins every day.

Dialup users and tiny screened computers beware:
http://ace.methodcomputers.com/orphanage

As always, if you think I've screwed up somehow, let me know.(though I think my mashup of maps and satellite photos jives nicely considering the poor surveying of times past) Oh, and if you do wander around the site, watch out for homeless dudes camping.

The original thread was too old to bttt: http://brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=324898

1/11/2006 6:04:43 PM

nice work

marko will be proud

1/11/2006 6:51:37 PM

^^It's appropriate that your User ID is Pyro.

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 7:06 PM. Reason : ]

1/11/2006 7:06:12 PM

Nice and you weren't kidding with that warning you posted. That's a graphic intensive page, lol.

1/12/2006 1:32:29 AM

bttt

3/19/2006 2:08:37 PM

why does marko always get the credit?

3/19/2006 2:51:19 PM

it's like some sort of treasure map or something. is wireless internet available out there?

3/19/2006 3:26:54 PM

that's pretty dope

did you do this for a class project or just some funnin?

[Edited on March 19, 2006 at 3:44 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2006 3:43:34 PM

Just something I did in my free time. I originally used photoshop layers to overlay and shift the maps around and find the site. Went out there and lo and behold there were old bricks and concrete on the ground right where they should be.

Putting all those maps into some sort of convenient and interactive website was the tricky part. Tons of JavaScript.

It's actually capable of letting users drag and resize maps, but the orphanage maps lined up nicely so I disabled that feature. My original idea was to give users satellite photos and transparent maps. If they didn't like the way I had overlayed them they could just drag them into a better fit, then save their changes and post them for others to see. Sort of a collaborative wiki approach to finding historic sites. I still might eventually finish the software.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, here's what the site looks like today. The buildings would stretch from the left side of this photo to the right side, just behind those cars:



Do you see that big white barn in the upper-left corner? Here's the barn today:

Turning slightly left you can see another of the original barns:

Those barns are now on government property, and they weren't exactly friendly there.






[Edited on March 19, 2006 at 6:11 PM. Reason : .]

3/19/2006 5:48:21 PM

whoa, cool

3/19/2006 6:57:27 PM

dude, you are the big chief for doing this

have you gone to the library to show them this?

i mean if first, go to HOLLAday hall and see if they can see you first

you're in for a big time pat on the back somewhere

and i'm not being sarcastic

if anything, try and find carrie windham at the alumni magazine...you've done some serious stuff here

3/20/2006 12:31:39 AM

actually try and find carrie first...and maybe technician

this is the sort of thing "they" may try and keep quiet...like the steam tunnels

it's a shame considering it is part of our living history...unlike riddick, which they've chosen to fade into a grassy field with ne'r a sign

3/20/2006 12:37:24 AM

yeah this is pretty cool stuff

nice thread pyro!

3/20/2006 12:37:35 AM

bad ass

3/20/2006 4:10:59 AM

it is my professional feeling that you may be off by about 160-175 yards in terms of the building foundations (and slightly turned at about 10-15 degrees as well).

I enjoyed the website, thought it was cool!

(and stay away from the technician - it will destroy an credibility you have put into your effort)

3/20/2006 8:55:50 AM

Holy snappers, awesome work.

3/20/2006 9:25:54 AM

wow

good work

[Edited on March 20, 2006 at 10:50 AM. Reason : .]

3/20/2006 10:43:24 AM

Very nicely done, makes me want to wander out there and see what I can see. I pass by the site almost every day.

So of the buildings pictured in the one you have up top of this thread, I guess it was the white frame one that burned in '58? Did the three decent size brick buildings, church, and power plant all get demolished when the diocese sold the land in the '60s? And are they the source of the occasional bricks and concrete in some of your pictures?

I also wonder this: in the blog entry you link to with the ghost story, when the guy goes to the "supposed" site, he says he finds a cornerstone. If the orphanage wasn't there, what is the cornerstone from exactly?

Again. Quality work. I'm quite impressed.

3/20/2006 1:10:50 PM

The large building on the right was still standing in the late '70s early '80s. As highschool students a group of us went out to visit the haunted orphange. There was a story back then that many children were burned alive because the place was infected with TB. You could supposedly go out behind the building and find the ash pit where the fire was.

3/20/2006 4:34:10 PM

it looks like the place the directions take you to isnt even close to the right place.

3/20/2006 6:36:20 PM

That dude from the blog was way off. He just wandered around in the field across Centennial Drive. The 'cornerstone' he found was probably a road marker for Old Avent Ferry Road, or part of one of the dozens of houses that used to be in those woods.

The fires were all in the orphanage, and it was rebuilt in parts a couple time. I don't know when the "priest's house" was torn down. The concrete pad in front of the church and that big curved driveway were re-exposed when the power company came through. Today that little sidewalk in front of the church is just a sidewalk to nowhere.

3/21/2006 8:01:12 PM

very nice work man

3/21/2006 8:49:04 PM

This story was kind of on the same lines. very interesting read if you have a few mins. http://www.serve.com/mahood/a-12/index.htm Hunt for a crashed SR-71 blackbird

3/21/2006 8:52:45 PM

I threw this together to settle any doubts and make things easier to see. It uses a 2004 satellite photo and a 1954 survey of Dix Hill Mental Hospital. I made no changes to the original map, other than coloring and scaling it.

3/22/2006 9:46:17 AM

Damn! I like that pic.

3/22/2006 10:48:44 AM

ok i dont know centennial at all, but i was driving through there last night and i thought about this stuff...

so coming from the farmers market, if you went left at the intersection that says OVAL DR, you'd pretty much drive over the spot where it was?

3/22/2006 10:55:40 AM

have a TWW campout to see if it's haunted

3/22/2006 11:03:34 AM

hahaha i doubt theyd want you down there

this type stuff interests me. not the ghost stories, just the old roads and old etc. it made a lot more sense, btw, when i used the 3rd level dix map on the white background, with the photo tour. really tied it all together. nice work.

3/22/2006 11:07:42 AM

Quote :

"This story was kind of on the same lines. very interesting read if you have a few mins. http://www.serve.com/mahood/a-12/index.htm Hunt for a crashed SR-71 blackbird"

that is a good read, thanks

3/22/2006 11:49:56 AM

^Yea, I enjoyed that too.

^^I'm pretty much the same way. I don't care about ghosts...I'm not catholic...I have no personal ties to the orphanage. I'm not even sure I'd want the area preserved(It's pretty pointless at this point to save some old rubble). I'm just facinated by the idea that generations of people lived and died in this spot, yet thousands of college students drive directly over it each day utterly clueless to its existance.

It should be noted though, that the University's master plan calls for additional park&ride lots to pave over the remaining site. In fact, I'm not sure why they haven't paved it already(they may be waiting for objections by history buffs or the catholics, but I doubt it). In any case it's a safe bet that the remains won't last another 5 years, so if you're at all interested please do check it out.

3/22/2006 12:24:40 PM

so wheres the white barn / pond?

3/22/2006 12:33:05 PM

In the last map I posted, the white barn is at the very bottom. The bottom red line from "Perfect Match wth Existing Buildings" points directly to it.

I think the pond is a very small, dark grey spot at the very bottom, center, directly south of EBII. It may have been filled in by now.

3/22/2006 12:37:48 PM

ah ok, i had been looking for it a lot closer to where the main buildings were

3/22/2006 12:40:34 PM

Quote :

"I also wonder this: in the blog entry you link to with the ghost story, when the guy goes to the "supposed" site, he says he finds a cornerstone. If the orphanage wasn't there, what is the cornerstone from exactly?"

3/22/2006 1:42:02 PM

Quote :

"That dude from the blog was way off. He just wandered around in the field across Centennial Drive. The 'cornerstone' he found was probably a road marker for Old Avent Ferry Road, or part of one of the dozens of houses that used to be in those woods."

3/22/2006 1:49:39 PM

I had some spare time at the NRCS office in Wake County today. Here are some historical aerials showing the orphanage, for those that are interested.

1954 aerial:


1971 aerial:

3/29/2006 1:27:54 PM

Thanks man! You have no idea how much I appreciate that. Lines up nicely!

And look at all those houses/cottages to the east. That's probably an interesting story too. An entire 40-home community that's completely vanished. Anyone know anything about them? I'd guess they were for Dix Hill patients or staff.

3/29/2006 8:35:50 PM

I spent some time as a patient at Dix.
In the 1954 photo, below the subdivision is what I believe is an office building. I'll drive through there on the way home tonight and get the building name. In the 1971 photo, you can see another building - Williams building - long-term (more than 2 weeks) ward for 12-18 year olds. It's not visible in the 1954 photo. There's a single grave just behind the building
Google maps has centennial parkway going right through where the leftmost third of the subdivision was, possibly even the left half...the scales are throwing me off, but what might be Kilpatrick Dr on google maps might be the white arc in the middle of the subdivision. Having followed CP and bilyeu, and looking at the diocese, that's what I think is more likely.

I might be able to get a story on the subdivision. My guess is that they were halfway houses.

3/29/2006 8:55:18 PM

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

why were you a patient at dix?

3/29/2006 8:56:38 PM

Do you really want to know?

You can IM me and ask me.

3/29/2006 8:57:22 PM

nah its not that important, and it was kind of rude of me.

anyway, good work on this stuff Pyro

[Edited on March 29, 2006 at 9:05 PM. Reason : .]

3/29/2006 9:01:16 PM

Don't worry about having been rude. I don't mind at all

3/29/2006 9:15:08 PM

Quote :

"this is the sort of thing "they" may try and keep quiet...like the steam tunnels "

Ive never heard about the steam tunnels.....do tell

3/29/2006 9:32:43 PM

Here's the northern-most street of that little subdivision today. This is what the blogger thought was "cry baby lane". It is a little strange since it's so abandoned.


Yea, I don't know much about the steam tunnels either, though I'm sure they don't want students in there.

3/29/2006 9:50:54 PM

numerous threads on it - i've been down there a few times - we got caught the first time because of silent alarms - don't open modern looking doors

http://zidik.net/tunnels/

3/29/2006 9:52:48 PM

i've got this uncle who was a patient off and on his whole life at dix.

i'd ask him about it, but he's crazy.

oh, yeah, and dead.

nm.

3/30/2006 4:08:26 AM

Im gonna go check out the orphanage site Sunday. Great work Pyro. I asked some of the older alumni @ work about the steam tunnels and they said "thats where all the Dungeon and Dragons types hung out". lol I would like more info on the tunnels though if anyone has any.

3/30/2006 8:45:37 PM

yea, how the hell do you get in the steam tunnels?

3/30/2006 10:02:24 PM

went to the orphanage site tonight.pretty neat. is that the steam plant beside it?

3/31/2006 8:08:13 PM

Yes, that steam plant is directly beside it. I usually just park in the wolfline park and ride and walk around from there. The "cry baby lane" area is directly across Centennial Drive and an easy walk. See the map: http://ace.methodcomputers.com/orphanage/photos/overview.jpg

There's not a whole lot to see(just some concrete pads and sidewalks and brick rubble), but that's actually why it interested me in the first place. A casual observer would miss it completely.

If you walk down Old Avent Ferry Road you can see clearings in the woods where houses once were. A hobo was camping in there the last time I went. It's also bizarre to see a School Crossing sign in the middle of the woods.

4/1/2006 4:27:23 PM