Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

A DVD of the Worcester State Hospital fire is now available for purchase. You can learn more about it and buy it at D.M. Wenc’s photography website. The DVD has a running time of thirty-eight minutes, the first eight of which are taken up by radio communications from firefighters on scene as the person who filmed the video races to the blaze.

I haven’t seen the DVD myself so I can’t vouch for its quality, though I suspect it’s at least a decent record of that terrible day. There’s low-resolution sample footage available on the DVD information page. And you can check out the photos of the fire also available on the site for an idea of what you’ll see in the video.

I found a whole slew of photos taken during the infamous Worcester State Hospital Kirkbride fire today. The pictures are part of D. M. Wenc’s portfolio which is available here: Worcester State Hospital Fire. They’re part of a series of Massachusetts fire photos Mr. Wenc and his father took  in the 1990s. They also have video footage of the conflagration that’s being made into a DVD. The DVD will be for sale at a later date.

There are lots of great photos in this collection. Here are some of my favorites:

1. A lone firefighter watches the Kirkbride burn
2. Billowing smoke pours out from a ward’s attic
3. The rear of the Kirkbride in flames with the Clocktower visible in the distance
4. Flames engulf the Kirkbride attic
5. Firefighters drenching the building with water
6. Dousing the flames
7. Flames leap from a turret
8. Firefighters continue to drench the building after the fire is mostly extinguished
9. Firefighters climb up to the roof

I was particularly struck by that last photo, mainly because I’d never seen that structure before. It looks like a group of enclosed porches with some unusual windows. Those were long gone by the time I visited the building for the first time back in 2001. I’ve never seen them in older photos before either.

I was also a little taken aback by the indifferent and nonchalant expressions on many of the people’s faces. It looks like a lot of them thought the fire wasn’t a big deal. It probably wasn’t to many people. I suppose many thought the building was just an old eyesore. But then again, just because someone’s smiling in a photograph doesn’t mean they were having the time of their lives the entire day.

As beautiful as the photos are,  it’s depressing to see these pictures and think about what might have been. If it wasn’t for the fire, the entire Kirkbride might still be perched up there on the hill today.

You can find more photography by D. M. Wenc on his blog: Photography by D. M. Wenc. You can also follow him on Twitter. (Speaking of Twitter, did you know Kirkbride Buildings tweets? As do I, if you’re interested in following me.)

Lightning is the suspected source of a fire causing “substantial damage” to the Saint Elizabeths Kirkbride building in Washington DC. You can read about it here: Fire Breaks Out at St. E’s. Another source confirms it: Old SE D.C. Hospital Complex Catches Fire.

I don’t know much about this yet, but I’ll post more information as I find it. If anyone has anything to share about this please comment. Even if a lot of damage was done, I think there’s a good chance the government will restore the building since it’s going to be part of the new DHS headquarters. Let’s hope so anyway.

Update: There are photos and some video about this available here: Firefighters Respond to Two Alarm Fire at Saint Elizabeths Hospital. The photos show a pretty limited fire on the roof of the admin tower. Judging from those I’d say the fire wasn’t too bad and was probably contained and controlled by the firefighters before too much damage could be done. We’ll have to wait till more information comes in to be sure.

Here’s a message from the General Services Administration: “As has been widely reported, the cause of the fire is thought to be lightning. The fire was contained to the roof and level 5 directly below the roof which was approximately 24 feet by 25 feet, with minimal subsequent water damage. Emergency response was swift and effective. The building has been assessed for emergency stabilization and repairs, and weatherization measures have begun. This incident will not impact the ongoing design development for the rehabilitation and reuse of the Center Building.”

Queenseyes at Buffalo Rising posted about his authorized look inside the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride after the recent fire. From his write-up, it appears the damage was very limited and the Richardson-Olmsted Corporation is getting serious about keeping trespassers out of the building. Read the story and view photos here: Richardson Triage Slide Show.

Update: The Richardson-Olmsted Corporation just sent out this email message…

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squad546 over at the Asylum Projects Forum scored the biggest asylum-related find of the year (so far) by tracking down video footage of the 1991 Worcester State Hospital fire. The video was taken by a gentleman named Michael Newton, who gave squad546 permission to post it on the web. I’ve included a few screenshots in this post, but you can see a lot more here: Worcester Fire Footage.

squad546 will try to get the actual video uploaded to the web soon. I’ll link to it once it’s available. I’d like to give a big thanks to Mr Newton for sharing this footage. It’s sad to see, but amazing at the same time, and I’m glad it was documented like this. (more…)

I found a web site that compiles information about historical disasters: GenDisasters.com. It has quite a few entries describing catastrophes that affected Kirkbride asylums. There’s nothing really amazing here, but it’s a good resource for anyone researching the history of a particular hospital. There are a couple good pictures included to boot (like this one of the Kirkbride in Danville, PA).

The entries I’ve found so far include: (more…)

I just heard this from a friend: on June 3rd, Nor-East Architectural Antiques burned to the ground. Nor’East was the company that won salvage rights to Danvers State Hospital as well as to the Northampton, Foxboro, and Metropolitan state hospitals.

Not only have we lost most of the buildings, but now all these artifacts are gone as well. I don’t know all the details, but there must have been many beautiful pieces of asylum history that burnt in the flames. Hopefully a good number of items salvaged from the hospitals were sold well before this tragedy though. (more…)