Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

Here’s some really fascinating footage of the Oregon State Hospital J-Building being torn down. I don’t advocate smoking pot, but I think sparking up a J may be the only way you’re going to get through all 38 minutes and 57 seconds of this video. So why am I including it here? I feel bad about not posting more often and this seems like a fast and easy way to make it look like I’m still providing value for your money. Plus it gives me a chance to engage in some clever word play (J-Building… sparking up a J… get it?) (more…)

The recent tours of Oregon State Hospital’s J Building proved to be very popular. However, the Statesman Journal reports that there won’t be any more of them because of demands on staff and upcoming asbestos abatement. You can read their article on the subject here: Popularity of J Building Tours Isn’t Enough to Continue Them. Make sure to check out the video tour. There’s a 10+ minute version in the upper left right (ah, duhhh…), and an unedited 48 minute version at the end of the article (which I’ll also include here to save you a click). It’s pretty interesting, especially if you’re a fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. (more…)

Image courtesy of the Oregon State Library

The upcoming tour of Oregon State Hospital’s historic J-Building has turned out to be more popular than it’s organizers anticipated: State Hospital Public Tour a Hot Ticket. 210 people have already signed up for the tour and a number of registrants had to be placed on a waiting list. If enough people continue to sign up, the state’s Department of Human Services will consider holding another tour. (more…)

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…)

A piece of the original Oregon State Hospital building that’ll be spared the wrecking ball is being called the “Kirkbride U”. It’s kind of a weird term, but sort of makes sense considering the building itself is a little unusual because of it’s “J” shape. Read about it here: Plan Spares Tower on Old Hospital Site.

I’m still not sure I’d classify OSH as a Kirkbride building considering it’s oddball floorplan, but it could be one if you use a loose definition of the term. It was built in the right time period and probably followed most of the other structural ideas. It even looks like a Kirkbride minus the segmented wings. And if calling it a Kirkbride helped preserve the place, who really cares? It’s unquestionably historic and should be saved. (I know the state is destroying a lot of it, but they’re saving the most interesting part architecturally speaking.) (more…)