Until last last several years, there was a hulking old house on a huge lakeside lot up here in the edges of Round Lake. Teh land contained many cottage houses, a small farming plot, and the rather new and secure house of the person who managed the land for the state.

Originally we had heard that the place had been an insane asylum, however after some expeditiona and research, we found that it had been a 'sanitarium' first for the rich, then eventually for the poor and possibly mentally unfit.

The upstairs contained the usual for such an old building, lots of kids spraypainted pentagrams and such. However the building was amazing. Electroshock baths rustign away in the basement, rooms away from the rotting hulk of a GIANT ornate Brunswick Pool Table. The basement even had some bookshelves that had been slightly hidden behind some junk, with severely mildewed and disintergrating old books. To keep people out, someone had put a sign on the back porch stating this was the breeding ground for the 'vermacious knid' and listed what to do if bitten.... I am pretty sure it was a joke, as I think the knid was from a scifi book I read once...

Turns out the place was originally built by a 'free love' commune back the the late 1800's. They left Iowa due to problems with the local sheriff and moved to Round Lake. They built the place by hand using materials quarried from Wooster Lake. They lived there until thier leader died aroudn 1910-1912 and the group soon disappated not long after. The land and buildings were left to that state who turned in into the sanitarium, and eventually into a northern extension on Elgin Mental Hospital...

The most disturbing part was that it was just abandoned... I would have to check my references, but it seems like the place was just left one day. The Medical cabinet was left full, and not just junk either, somehow it hadnt getting cracked into for years... and it was full of barbituates, steroids, thorazine, and other hard to believe medications... all marked the same year the placed closed...

I will try to scan in the brochure for the place, the Lake County Discover Museum was a huge help in determining the history of the place... if anyone else knows of the Sanitarium off of Wooster Lake please let me know...