Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

Our little paper, gotten up for the benefit of the patients of the Alabama Insane Hospital and to give the patrons of the institution an insight into some details of its practical operations, is printed on quarto Novelty Press, without expense to the State—the whole labor of type-setting and putting to press being performed by the patients, or by employees of the Hospital in intervals of leisure from their regular duties…

That’s how The Meteor—a newspaper written and published by Bryce Hospital’s patients—describes itself in its inaugural issue published in 1872. The Alabama Department of Archives and History has put eleven issues of The Meteor online in PDF format (note that at the time of this writing the link for the second issue isn’t working). While not quite the juicy rag you might hope for, the paper’s articles do offer some glimpses of life at the hospital as well as into the minds of the patients.

My favorite part is from the very first issue where one patient compares Alabama’s hospital for the insane with its neighbor the state university by saying, “The inmates of the University come to acquire ideas. We to get rid of them.” (more…)

Continuing a theme from my last post, I have it from a good authority that the Kirkbride building in Saint Peter, Minnesota is still partially standing. I had it down in the demolished column, but it turns out I was wrong once again! I’ve updated the list of Kirkbride buildings accordingly. Sorry about that…

The administration center is what remains. The wings were torn down in the 1960s and 70s. I haven’t seen it for myself yet (obviously), but I’m told there’s a museum there which can be visited by appointment. The hospital itself is still active, so I recommend making that appointment before going to take a look. Call 507-931-7182 for more information. (more…)

A few weeks ago, one Jennifer Shipp emailed me pictures of Anna State Hospital (now Choate Mental Health Center) in Anna, Illinois. I was surprised to see that there’s actually a bit of its Kirkbride building left. I thought it had been completely torn down, but I was wrong. I apologize for misleading anyone regarding the status of this Kirkbride and have dutifully updated the Kirkbride lists.

As you can see from the pictures below, two stories of the administration center and a piece of wing off either side remain. I was told a fire (one of many in this hospital’s history) destroyed the upper floors. It’s sad to see the building so diminished, with only faint hints at its former grandeur. But I guess it’s better than nothing.

As a follow up to my last post about Oregon State Hospital, I thought I’d refer you to this story about one person’s personal connection to the Library of Dust.

Grandpa Was One of 3,500 Who Didn’t Fly over the Cuckoo’s Nest

While the story itself is interesting, I also bring it up because I think it’s important to connect actual, personal stories about these places with the more abstract discussions about architecture and general history that usually go on here. A little while back the daughter of a former clinical director of Columbus State Hospital wrote to me and shared her memories of the hospital. It gave me the idea of making KirkbrideBuildings.com something more than a collection of pictures and brief factual histories, and I’ve been trying to collect more personal anecdotes and memories from other people. History is a lot more than just a series of dates and names. Unfortunately, it’s been slow going so far. But M-Explorer over at Asylum Projects has had the same idea and, although the idea hasn’t taken off yet and there are still some related issues to work out, I’m hoping that this will eventually take web sites like ours to a new level of documentation. It seems like a logical next step.

And in case you’ve somehow missed it, a great example of this kind of documentation exists on John Gray’s Danvers State Insane Asylum. His Former DSH Employee Interview is a great read. Check it out if you haven’t already.

As a result of the site’s 15 minutes of fame a couple weeks ago, I got a few emails about Oregon State Hospital. Each made a case for including the Oregon State Hospital “J Building” (soon to be “The Kirkbride U“) in my list of Kirkbrides. They were pretty convincing I have to say. Apparently the building was originally designed according to Kirkbride’s specifications, but when it came time to add on additional wards, real estate issues prevented the wings from being extended in the normal fashion. Instead, they were extended back at a right angle to the original building’s main axis.

After hearing the evidence from multiple sources, I’ve decided to finally consider the building a Kirkbride. I’m a little worried that adding it to the list will open the door to other variants and ugly cousins of the Kirkbride plan, but we’ll see. (Just to be clear, I don’t mean to say that OSH is ugly:) I also got a bunch of messages about other possible Kirkbride buildings not included in the list. Some people were obviously just mistaken, but a couple submitted promising candidates. I’ll keep you posted if anything interesting turns up. (more…)

On Tuesday there was a public meeting concerning efforts to preserve the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride. At the meeting, the Richardson Center Corporation revealed their Historic Structures Report (available for download on their documents page). The report is a beautifully comprehensive collection of history and images of the hospital buildings, and you should definitely check it out.

I haven’t digested the whole report yet, but the part I find most interesting so far is the description of the hospital’s construction, development and eventual downsizing which begins on page 62. Included are maps of the hospital campus during different time periods, as well as photos of the buildings from over the years. Especially striking is an old photo from about 1880 of the unfinished Kirkbride (page 70). (more…)

If you’ve been following Danvers State Hospital news for a few years you’ll probably remember that John Archer is building a DSH inspired addition to his home. A couple weeks ago, John Gray sent me the above photo of the addition. Obviously it’s not finished yet, but it’s getting there.

Mr. Archer probably did as much (if not lots more) than anyone in the fight to preserve the Danvers Kirkbride in its entirety. And even though I have to admit I’m a little disappointed in how the addition looks, it’s great to see that he’s following through in creating this tribute to the Kirkbride. I guess I imagined something more along the lines of a direct copy of one of the Kirkbride’s wing sections, but such a large and exact reproduction would have been way too expensive I’m sure. There’s also the fact that the addition had to harmonize at least a little with Mr. Archer’s existing house. (more…)

Bryce Hospital’s chances for becoming a national historic landmark are looking much better. The University of Alabama has agreed that national landmark status won’t hinder their future plans for the hospital buildings. An application for a federal historical designation will be made, and I think it’s likely that the application will be approved. As noted here a couple weeks ago, national landmark status would do much to help the Bryce Kirkbride be preserved, so this is great news.

Someone familiar with the hospital’s history pointed out to me recently that the Kirkbride at Bryce is most likely the oldest intact Kirkbride building in existence today. In addition, Dr. Kirkbride himself stated that this particular building was the most exact embodiment of his original principles of hospital design. Those two facts alone make the building worth preserving, not to mention it’s long history as a part of Alabama and the nation.

This week, Danvers Youth Theatre will be performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a twist: the action takes place at Danvers State Hospital instead of Frankenfurter’s castle. You can read about it here: Local ‘Rocky Horror’ Show Brings a Danvers State Feel.

Aside from scenery backdrops and some costume modifications, it doesn’t sound like this production will deviate much from the original though. The change of setting is more a clever gimmick than a statement or exploration of the hospital’s weird mystique. Still, it’s kind of a fun and irreverent idea which is in good keeping with the story, if not particularly sensitive to DSH’s history. But I don’t think DYT needs to be criticized for that really.

Performances will take place at the Masonic Temple Danvers at on August 7th, 8th and 9th. Tickets are $10. Email danversyouththeatre@hotmail.com for tickets and other details.

I’m on vacation right now, but wanted to make a quick post to keep things going. Here are a few Kirkbride-related news items from the last week or so.

Some brief memories of Weston State Hospital are given by former employee Michael Mays in this story about West Viginia’s state mental health system: Three Steps Forward, 50 Years Back. According to the article, WV’s mental health care isn’t necessarily getting better in spite of improvements, and in some cases the same mistakes are being made over and over again. Similar criticisms are often made about mental health care around the rest of the country unfortunately…

The Weird New Jersey guys’ latest merchandising endeavor Weird US: The Board Game features Danvers State Hospital among other locations. I guess it’s kind of cool that DSH is iconic enough to be included in a board game, but it seems kind of cheesy and not very respectful. I have to admit I haven’t actually seen the game in real life (and probably never will;), so I can’t really comment on how DSH fits in or how it’s portrayed. I’m skeptical that this is a good thing though…

Looks like there’s not much chance of a film being shot at the Fergus Falls Kirkbride after all: City Council Delays Movie Action. As one reader comments, the delay is most likely a passive-aggressive political maneuver meant to squash filmmaker Dav Kaufman’s hopes of shooting at the RTC. The Friends of the Kirkbride weigh in with a separate opinion piece, saying the film wouldn’t be a good thing: Friends: Film Jeopardizes RTC.

While I don’t put much stock in the idea that a small-time, independent thriller would permanently damage the former state hospital’s reputation, it’s true that the movie might not add much in the way of positives and that national exposure would be limited. I think it would’ve been great however to have the Kirkbride featured in a movie, even if it only turned out to be an underground favorite. I guess that’s not a good enough reason to give Kaufman the green light, but I don’t believe the opposing argument is a good enough reason to refuse him either.

BTW: I recommend reading the comments accompanying both Fergus Falls pieces above. Some of them are better than the actual articles, and the back and forth can be pretty funny sometimes. It’s good to see that a lot of Fergus Falls residents care enough to comment.