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Suburban Underground Vadders
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Travis State School
I’ve actually known about this place for a while but had given up on finding it because the article I first found about it was old. I drove around in the area that I thought it was but thought that it was demolished because I could not find it anywhere.
A few weeks ago Axis sent me a link to the Alamo Draft House movie theatre. They occasionally do what they call a Rolling Roadshow where they take a portable movie screen to places to watch movies. For instance, they took it to Travis Lake to show Jaws (the audience was in the water on tubes watching the screen on the shore) and they also showed Goonies in a cave (Corey Feldman was there too). The link that he sent me to was for an upcoming show. They were planning on showing the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the Travis State School! The best part: they gave directions on how to get to the show. I was there only hours later to scope the place out.
What I didn’t realize is how little this place shows from the main road and also just how immense this place is behind the trees. When I saw a satellite photo of the place later I nearly crapped myself because I could see more clearly that there was 40+ buildings on the campus (later I found it to be just over 60 buildings). Now, the thing is, there is one active building on the campus still used as a learning center. I haven’t yet tried to contact them about the Travis State School and about exploring it but I’m sure they would be somewhat easygoing especially since they are letting the Draft House play a movie there. The only thing that I don’t understand is that the Alamo Draft House calls the school the Travis State School for the Criminally Insane, but I have found no evidence of it ever being called or found any evidence that it was ever used for that. I suppose it could be to add to the atmosphere for the show. (UPDATE: The show went on but I was unable to attend. I spoke to someone who went and they said that they were allowed to roam around and explore. Oh well, that would have been neat but I’ll continue to explore on my own.)
The Travis State School has quite a bit of history behind it. It was first built in 1933 and was then called the Austin State School Farm Colony. Its purpose was to teach the mentally retarded and also provide them with work at a Hog Farm. They became nearly completely self-sufficient being able to provide their own food through farming. They built onto the school in the 60s and 70s and at the height had 1,800 students enrolled. The school was eventually closed in 1996 due to a federal suit against the Texas Department of Mental Health.
Since this place is so big, there is not really one single photo that I can use to sum the place up like I would normally use as the first photo so I will just start from the beginning. Click on the pictures to enlarge!
This is one of the 2 entrances. That thing in the middle was once a guard box for a locked gate. Some of the gates are still locked but are usually open, probably because of the learning center.
This is the second guard box for the other entrance. It’s placed next to a very black looking pond. I nearly killed my car one time on the speed bump on this road.
The pictures that were taken during the day were all from my first few trips that I took by myself. Later on I invited some new recruits, Chicagocookie, Mox25, and TexasOgre on one trip, then Chicagocookie, Mox25, Opheliaism and Allva. Unfortunately on the last trip Allva had to leave unexpectedly before we made it out to the site.
When I first arrived I was overwhelmed by the amount of things to explore and how little the place had been disturbed. There were a few obligatory broken windows and only a single spray paint tag that I could find. It was just that much more beautiful to see it in such pristine condition.
When I first arrived I parked near the water tower at the back of the property near a tree line and between the active learning center and some workshops. I later realized that the water tower can be used to gauge your location because it can be seen from almost anywhere on the campus as long as there isn’t trees in your way. Another way to make sure you know where you are going is to use the street signs. While they aren’t posted often they could still help.
One of the shops had a sign on is saying “Carpenter Shop” another across from it was labeled “Paint Shop”. The rusted object on the side of the building is a Royal Crown Cola thermometer.
Directly to the left was this electrical pole overgrown with vines. |
