Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

There’s been a flurry of activity regarding Fergus Falls lately. If you haven’t heard, things aren’t looking for preservation. The Fergus Falls City Council rejected the only submitted reuse plan, and has started discussing demolition.

If you live in Fergus Falls and want the building saved, please attend the city council meeting on Monday, May 7th at 5:30PM to show support for preservation. The meeting will be taking place at Fergus Falls City Hall.

There’s also an online petition you can sign to show your support, even if you don’t live in Fergus Falls. Please take a minute to sign it. I know online petitions aren’t the most useful thing in the world, but signing one can’t hurt, and it might do some good. (Note that after signing, you’ll get an email with a request for a $5 donation. That donation is for the petition site, NOT for saving the Kirkbride.)

They finally went and did it. The organization behind the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the former  Hudson River State Hospital campus has put the property, along with its magnificently sprawling Kirkbride building, on the real estate market. All CPC Resources‘ plans for Hudson Heritage Park are dead. For details, check out the Poughkeepsie Journal’s Psych Center Site Development Plan Stalls.

This doesn’t come as a big surprise given the devastating fire in 2007, the backing out of project partners in 2008, and the long-term lack of news about the redevelopment plans. In my opinion, the chances for preservation of the Kirkbride are greatly reduced by this sale. I doubt whoever purchases the property in this economic climate will have preservation of an historic property high on their agenda.

An article on the Boston Globe website includes an artist’s rendering of the Worcester State Hospital clock tower replica: Clock Tower: Time Isn’t Up in Worcester. Even though I’m very disappointed in the clock tower replica compromise and don’t think it could ever be a fitting stand-in for the entire building, I have to say it doesn’t look quite as silly as I had feared. What do you think?

According to the Fergus Falls Journal, only one proposal for reuse of the Fergus Falls Kirkbride was submitted in time for the deadline on Wednesday: Only One RTC Proposal Submitted. That’s a little disappointing, but we Kirkbride enthusiasts eat disappointment for breakfast, right? I wouldnt get too upset just yet.

The proposal was submitted by Minneapolis-based Geitso Export Management. The company wants to transform the Kirkbride into what it’s calling The Global XChange Village—using the building for a mix of business, education, retail, and the arts, including an “international boarding school.” The article also suggests that other developers who had planned to but didn’t submit their own proposals may end consolidating their projects within Geitso’s plan. Details of the plan are to be released in mid-February.

In somewhat related news, the Otter Tail County Historical Museum will be hosting an open house this Friday, February 10th from 4:00-7:00PM, unveiling the new exhibition “The State Welcomes: Minnesota’s Third State Hospital. See State Hospital Exhibit Opens at Museum for more details.

Looks like Massachusetts is planning to proceed with demolition of the entire Worcester State Hospital admin (including the clock tower), and construction of a replica clock tower using material from the original building. See this official report dated Friday, January 20, 2012. It’s a lengthy, wordy document which is painful to read in some respects, but the overall gist is their intent is to completely raze the admin and build a clock tower replica. They acknowledge strong community support for preservation, but say the cost is just too high.

While destruction of the clocktower is tragic and more should have been done to save it, there’s some small comfort in the fact that part of the reason this is happening is because of the new hospital building being built nearby. The advancement of care for the mentally ill should always trump preservation and memorialization, no matter how important the latter two are. While I don’t think that fully excuses the state from responsibility for this tragedy, it’s at least something of a silver lining.

As I’ve mentioned here and on the Kirkbride Buildings Facebook page, time is running out for the Worcester State Hospital clock tower. The entire admin is very likely doomed, but there is still a chance the actual clock tower will be saved. Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 10, 2012 is the last day to register a comment calling for preservation. See this article for details: For Old Times Sake. The state has offered to build a replica of the clock tower after demolishing the original. I think keeping the original is much more preferable to a replica. If you feel the same, please make sure to say so when sending your comment to the state.

Comments can be sent by email to the office of the Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs. The address is deirdre.buckley@state.ma.us. It couldn’t get much easier.

Please take a few minutes to send them a message calling for preservation of the clock tower. Please spread the word about this too. Thanks.

The Richardson Center Corporation is requesting donations to help to fund them preserve and reuse the former Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride building. If you believe in their mission, please send them a check for what you can afford. Donations of $50 or more entitle you to a special gift. $50 will get you one ticket to an open house event scheduled for January 26, 2012. $100 gets you a ticket to the open house, plus a photograph of the Buffalo admin by photographer Patricia Bazelon. $500 will get you the best gift of all: a 90-minute private guided tour of the complex for you and 20 friends.

You can view the email they sent out today here: Support the Richardson Olmsted Complex. Please fill out the form and send in a check to support the preservation of this amazing historic landmark.

The Bryce Hospital Kirkbride will likely become home to a museum once the University of Alabama takes control of the building. You can read about it in the university’s student-run newspaper, The Crimson White: UA Releases New Campus Master Plan. Their article states:

“By terms of the purchase agreement between the Department of Mental Health and the University of Alabama, there is going to be a mental health museum located in the Bryce Hospital building,” [said Darrell Meyer of KPS Group, the architectural firm helping UA with the campus master plan]. “We realized that we don’t have a University history museum. I think we really need one of those.”

In addition to building a University history museum, Meyer also spoke of plans for museums for mental health, natural history, Jones art collection, and special collections.

It’s not very clear the way it’s written, but I’m pretty certain the mental health museum is a sure thing, and the university history and other museums are just possibilities. Hopefully though, the prospect of several museums means it’s more likely the entire building will be preserved. It’d be great to have another fully intact Kirkbride that’s accessible to the general public.

UPDATE: This article: Bryce May Become Cultural Arts Center, adds that the Kirkbride would also house spaces for the performing arts as well as for a museum or museums.

As I may have mentioned before, one of the reasons I don’t blog much anymore is because so often the fate of abandoned Kirkbride buildings is murky for years on end. I’m tired of trying to think up new ways to say “whether the building will be saved is unclear, but things sound hopeful…” Regardless, I thought it worth noting that New Jersey’s Governor Christie has announced a $27 million plan to clean up the former Greystone Park State Hospital site. The plan calls for demolition of many buildings, but also “calls for determining the feasibility of redeveloping the historic Kirkbride Building” according to an article by New Jersey News Room: Gov. Christie Announces Greystone Psychiatric Hospital Demolition for Open Space.

I’m sure $27 million — even if it was entirely for the Kirkbride — won’t go very far in breathing new life into the Greystone Kirkbride. Most of the money will go toward demolishing other buildings and converting the property into open space parkland. But at least wheels are turning in regards to the Kirkbride’s preservation. Hopefully the feasibility study isn’t just a token gesture. It would be great if the building could remain as a point of architectural interest within all that open space. It’d be even better if it could be restored to its former grandeur, but that’s very unlikely I’m sure.

Thought I’d also mention a minor bit of trivia I learned while reading about this: according to an Associated Press article, President Ulysses S. Grant spoke at the opening of Greystone Park.

Every year around Halloween there are stories in the papers about old asylums. And I always find myself grimacing over the inevitable few that invoke the supernatural. Although I can sort of understand the desire to connect asylums to paranormal activity, I think actually doing so cheapens the real history of these places—especially when it’s done just to get something spooky out for Halloween. This year however, I was pleased to find this article: Former Fergus Falls State Hospital Source of Many Legends. It relates a few unusual (but obviously very real) occurrences at Fergus Falls State Hospital as told by Chris Schuelke, executive director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.

Speaking of Fergus Falls, if you haven’t already, please join the Friends of the Kirkbride group on Facebook to get the latest news about the building and to show your support for its preservation.