Buy your own prison
August 30, 2010 9:40 AM   Subscribe

For Sale: historic Adirondack camp with 48 buildings on 92 acres of parkland. Camp Gabriels is truly a multi-purpose property and has been used as a tuberculosis sanitarium, college campus and most recently as a minimum security prison. Now it can be yours.
posted by cedar (28 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sounds like a great place for the new MeFi corporate headquarters!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:55 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Thanks! I've been looking for a place to house my naughty, student lungers: Camp Coughcoughcollege. Our motto: We put the Spit in School Spirit.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:56 AM on August 30, 2010


A private mountain compound is tempting, but I'm afraid that my zany Adirondack real estate dollar is already spoken for.
posted by Iridic at 10:03 AM on August 30, 2010 [4 favorites]


How many other properties can boast all of the following: Shrine, Pheasant farm, wood chip storage building, weight pavilion, and guard tower? Plus a bunch of other creepy-looking buildings.
posted by ghharr at 10:04 AM on August 30, 2010


Does it come with minions?
posted by oddman at 10:04 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


I wish I had been more motivated by money in my life, I would love to buy this place. Damn.
posted by dbiedny at 10:07 AM on August 30, 2010


If it's got a Carillon, count me in.
posted by davejay at 10:12 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Meh. Lacking a certain something. Oh yes, deep crows.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:25 AM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


It would be the perfect place for me to enact all my darkest Dirty Dancing fantasies.
posted by KarenX at 10:25 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Does it come with an unkillable hillbilly with a machete and a sack over his head?
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:26 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Man it annoys me when a for sale listing doesn't have the price front and center.
posted by phearlez at 10:35 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Nobody puts baby in a corner, KarenX.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:36 AM on August 30, 2010


...and now I have the blueprints....
posted by clavdivs at 10:43 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


*Visits sanitarium and cures phobia; eyes neighbouring gated community warily*
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:47 AM on August 30, 2010


There's a dorm at Miami University of Ohio that used to be a sanitorium. At some point, the students confused sanitorium with sanitarium and now the story goes that it used to be a nut hatch.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:55 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]



Nobody puts baby in a corner, KarenX.


Weelll... sometimes they do. ;)
posted by KarenX at 11:28 AM on August 30, 2010


No ghosts. Really. I swear.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:32 AM on August 30, 2010


Well, I have been looking for a lair where I can finally settle down and really embrace my inner horror movie stereotype, so I might need to look into this.

At the very least, it'd be nice to hear college students camping down the road say something like "We can't go to the old sanitarium! That's where all those people died! Plus, I hear it's haunted by some kind on crazy monster!" and know that, at long last, they were finally talking about me!
posted by quin at 11:51 AM on August 30, 2010


You could be Old Man Quin from the haunted prison! Those darned kids...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:57 AM on August 30, 2010


Well, that explains a lot about the people who went to Paul Smiths...

Anyone see a price, did I miss it somewhere?
posted by madajb at 12:28 PM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think it's an auction, no? This is where "Metafilter" laughingly throws in and ends up high bidder. Subsequently, new memberships cost $500, but come with an awesome time share.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:35 PM on August 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


Durn Bronzefist: "I think it's an auction, no? This is where "Metafilter" laughingly throws in and ends up high bidder. Subsequently, new memberships cost $500, but come with an awesome time share."

I would totally pony up for my share. And...I can bring minions. And my minions know better than to wear vinyl jumpsuits because I've studied the "How to be Evil" manual, and know to dress them in breathable cotton. Also, I have friends at MIT. I'm just saying, we're one community commitment away from sharks with lasers and weekend Scooby Doo revivals. We could do this. We could rule the world! Mwhahahahaha.ha.ha.ahem.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:50 PM on August 30, 2010


I'd be glad to help out with the lasers.
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:04 PM on August 30, 2010


This local news article says the state hasn't put a price on it, because they have no idea how much to ask for.

We used to see inmates cleaning and maintaining a visitor center nearby where we'd go hiking. And they were also there to help build the Saranac Lake Ice Castle for Winter Carnival. But by the time it closed, there were only about 80 prisoners and with the reform of drug laws we're hoping the prison population in New York will shrink more, so it just wasn't needed.

Honestly, who's going to buy it? No lake, brutal winters, probably not good farmland, ugly steel buildings. In this economy, I think we're going to end up with nutso lunatics who want to overthrow the government moving in. Hiya neighbor!
posted by saffry at 3:42 PM on August 30, 2010


Private army hangout... Defense contractor training ground / porn studio, interrogation center for those that displease our corporate overlords...Eco-terrorist re-training center... Expensive school for abandoned children of the rich, poses as a wilderness arts academy...Oh no, wait, this idea was already proposed by some Senator recently, dormitories for folks on unemployment, retraining center with hygiene classes.
posted by Oyéah at 6:43 PM on August 30, 2010


Camp MeFi. Where there's a big cauldron of beans warming on the fire and plates for all. For after-dinner entertainment we'll be re-enacting certain scenes from Blazing Saddles.
posted by ninazer0 at 11:35 PM on August 30, 2010


Pope Guilty: I lived in that dorm for two years -- Wilson Hall. Since its history is confused as a nut house they put on a pretty good haunted house every year. It doesn't need much help, though, as the basement and attic are pretty spooky all by themselves.
posted by crawl at 11:17 AM on August 31, 2010


crawl, my stepsister was the... I dunno, the person in charge of the hall, for a couple of years, with the apartment/office on the first floor. Very cool place- I took a ton of pictures when we visited for graduation, and she took us to the attic and opened the tunnel door so we could peer around the boulder. That enormous gnarly tree out front is pretty neat, too.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:39 PM on August 31, 2010


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