November 3rd, 2009
I haven’t been down to Taunton to see the old Kirkbride in a long time now. I wanted to pretend that the demolition going on there isn’t happening, and that the building is still standing untouched and quietly beautiful as ever. But of course I wasn’t going to be able to avoid reality forever thanks to the internet. Some photos of the demolition are available here: I Less-than-Heart Massachusetts. Although I suspect the writer’s claim to have taken the very last pictures of TSH may be a little premature, it does look like the Kirkbride is pretty close to being a memory, if it isn’t already.
May 14th, 2009
This morning, a reader sent me the URL to this article. The important part of which being the second to last sentence reading:
“[T]he company also expects within the next 30 days to start work tearing down 24 empty buildings on the grounds of the Taunton State Hospital.”
So demolition of the Taunton Kirkbride is a sure thing and it looks like it’ll happen this summer. There’s not much to say but too bad. It will be missed.
December 26th, 2008
The other day I came across this fiscal year 2009 resource summary for the Massachusetts Office of Health & Human Services. I wanted to save the bad news for after Christmas… One of the items in their budget is “Demolition at Taunton State Hospital.” It has an allocation of 1.3 million dollars. The full description reads, “This funds the demolition of buildings damaged by fire in 2007. The fire damaged buildings are close to or contiguous to an operating DYS facility and represent a severe safety hazard.”
Looks like plans are being made to knock down what’s left of the Taunton Kirkbride soon. The eventual demolition of the Kirkbride has been pretty much a given since the fire, but I think this is the first definite sign that it’s going to happen in the not too distant future. It’ll certainly be a sad day when that building comes down. It really had a unique and understated beauty that I haven’t seen at any other Kirkbrides. I expect most people who’ve seen the building would agree. It’s also a special building to me personally because it was the first Kirkbride I ever saw the inside of.
On a brighter note, the resource summary also allocates $140,000 to fund “a study to preserve the vacant historic Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower building.”
June 24th, 2008
I like all Kirkbride buildings, but definitely not equally. I have my favorites. Below is a list of the five I like most. Before we get to the list though, here’s a little disclaimer: this list is based solely on aesthetics and does not mean that these are particularly good examples of Kirkbride buildings, or that these were the best hospitals in terms of treatment, recovery rates, staff, etc. Also, I’m only counting the buildings I’ve been to. There are other Kirkbrides I would have considered, but they were demolished decades ago and I don’t want to evaluate them on photographs alone.
And now, without further ado… (more…)
