Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

The blogging Worcester taxi driver at Wormtown Taxi promises to post pictures of Worcester State Hospital demo work as it unfolds. This might be a good resource for those of you outside Massachusetts.

Old time Kirkbride Buildings forum member WSH posted a few scans today of some annual reports from the “Worcester Lunatic Hospital“. Among other things, the superintendent writes about the installation of the clock in the admin tower. Also included are old photos of one of the rotundas, Hooper Hall. They’re definitely worth checking out.

Source: Google Maps

Above is Google’s Street View of Worcester State Hospital. Click on the image and drag your mouse around to explore it. You can see the Clocktower and other remaining pieces of the Kirkbride, as well as the rest of the hospital campus. (more…)

I’ve received confirmation from a respectable source: demolition at Worcester State Hospital will definitely take place this Spring. Not only that but portions of what used to be the Kirkbride will be taken down. Demolition is scheduled to start March 31st and everything but the Clocktower and Hooper rotunda (the one closest to the functioning buildings) will be destroyed.

This is sad news, but not completely unexpected.

According to this article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Worcester State Hospital came “this close” to being featured in an upcoming Martin Scorsese film. Unfortunately, scheduled demolition of buildings at WSH prevented that from happening. Too bad. It would have been nice to see the Worcester Kirkbride featured in a film. (more…)