Kirkbride Buildings Blog

January 29th, 2008

Greystone Park

Greystone Park State Hospital
I added a Greystone Park page to the site. I’ve been sitting on pictures of the place for a few years now. They’ll be a bit of a yawn to those familiar with other asylum web sites (most notably John Gray’s fantastic Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital). But I think it’s important that the building be represented here, if only to stop the semi-regular emails I get telling me that I missed Greystone…

You might notice there are thirty photos instead of the usual twenty, and that the full-size versions are a bit larger too. As I continue updating the site, I’ll expand the galleries on most of the other building pages, and will add larger full-size versions of the photos to them too. I’ll also put up pages for other Kirkbrides I’ve visited that aren’t represented on the site yet. Most of them are from places you don’t often see pictures of online, so that’s hopefully something to look forward to.

A lot of my photos from Greystone didn’t make the cut for the gallery. The one below for example is a bit on the extra lame side (note especially the prominently placed janitor’s cart), but I thought what it shows is still kind of interesting. This is a doorway leading in and out of what used to be staff quarters in the admin. I was told that in the days when staff lived here, these doors would be shut and locked at night as an extra precaution against patients making surprise visits in the small hours.

Admin Doorway
Click on the image for a larger view.

Whether that’s true or not, I don’t really know. It sounds suspiciously made up, and they look kind of like fire-proofing doors to me. But either way, it makes for a nice little anecdote about the place.

And finally, this video by GreySky Films has been online for a few months, but I thought I’d point it out for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it already and might be reading this post while looking for more information about Greystone.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0VCMRbKYbw[/youtube]

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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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