Kirkbride Buildings Blog

Archive for January, 2008

Second Life for Danvers? Sort of…

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Ryder AsylumRyder Asylum
There’s a location in Second Life modeled after Danvers State Hospital. It’s called Ryder Asylum. If you’re a Second Life user, you can teleport there from this page. You can also rent rooms in the Kirkbride. (more…)

St. Elizabeths: Latter-Day Snake Pit?

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

St Elizabeths
An article in The Washington Post and another at Examiner.com describe a new report on St. Elizabeths Hospital by University Legal Services, an advocacy group for Washington D.C.’s disabled population. The report criticizes serious “deficiencies”, “dysfunction”, and “failure” on the part of the hospital staff, blaming the poor quality of care at the hospital for the deaths of eleven patients in 2007. It’s disturbing, but not too surprising given the long history of such problems at public psychiatric hospitals. That’s not to say that all treatment at psychiatric hospitals has been poor or inadequate, but it is unarguably a recurring issue. (more…)

Visions for the Richardson Complex

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

On the Buffalo State University web site, I found this podcast of a forum discussing the problems and possibilities of bringing life back to the Richardson Complex. The forum took place on May 5th, 2007.  Apart from the discussion of  ideas and visions for re-use, there are some tidbits of history mentioned, as well as explanations of the usual problems encountered when trying to find new uses for a Kirkbride building.

Weston State Hospital

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

Weston State Hospital
As I’m sure most of you already know, late last summer a private individual purchased the former Weston State Hospital and is working to preserve the Kirkbride building. In case you haven’t already found it, let me direct your attention to a fairly new web site in connection with this:

www.TheWestonStateHospital.com

In addition to the usual photos and background information you’d expect, there’s also a place where you can donate funds for the restoration of the building, and directions for subscribing to their email newsletter and list-serv. If you sign up for the newsletter you’ll be notified of upcoming tours. Tours aren’t being given yet, but they plan to have them in the near future.

The Willard Suitcase Exhibit

Monday, January 7th, 2008

On her blog Designspiel, Joanne Molina posts about the Willard Suitcase Exhibit currently showing at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library until January 31st. (Includes text from an older New York Times article on the subject.)

Referrer Referrals – Part I

Monday, January 7th, 2008

At least once a month I browse through my site statistics’ list of web pages linking to KirkbrideBuildings.com. Besides links from the usual asylum and urban exploration sites, KB.com gets a good number of referrals from the not-so-well-traveled corners of the web. Sometimes I find interesting bits of information and personal anecdotes by visiting these pages, most of time I don’t though, and occasionally I see things that I wish I could forget. Anyway, filtered out for your safety and convenience, here are a handful of referring pages from over the years that you may find worth looking at: (more…)

In the News – January 4, 2008

Friday, January 4th, 2008

There’s more news today on the possible transformation of the Fergus Falls Kirkbride into a college for cross-cultural studies. Read about it here: Chinese Get Invitation to Fergus Falls

In addition, there’s an article on Willard State Hospital which also mentions a photography exhibit titled “Willard: Behind the Walls of the Asylum for the Insane” showing in Binghampton, NY this weekend. You can read it here: Willard: The Buildings They Left Behind

Goodbye Worcester Wing

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

Worcester State Hospital
I’ve received confirmation from a respectable source: demolition at Worcester State Hospital will definitely take place this Spring. Not only that but portions of what used to be the Kirkbride will be taken down. Demolition is scheduled to start March 31st and everything but the Clocktower and Hooper rotunda (the one closest to the functioning buildings) will be destroyed.

This is sad news, but not completely unexpected.

Kirkbride’s Book

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

It’s long been my goal to transcribe the entire contents of Dr. Kirkbride’s book, On the Contruction, Organization, and General Arrangments of Hospitals for the Insane, and make it available online. I even tracked down and bought an original copy for a few hundred dollars and spent hours copying chapters into digital form so I could post them here. I got as far as chapter fifty, and then essentially gave up. I always meant to continue, but it’s questionable that I ever would have either. It was just too tedious. (more…)

Books on Amazon

The Art of Asylum Keeping The Eclipse of the State Mental Hospital The Mad Among Us America's Care of the Mentally Ill Angels in the Architecture The Architecture of Madness Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals The Eye of Danvers: A History of Danvers State Hospital
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