Mount Pleasant State Hospital
Originally known as the Iowa Lunatic Asylum, Mount Pleasant State Hospital opened in 1861. It was the first public asylum in the state of Iowa, and was built between 1855 and 1865 at a cost of approximately $400,000.
The Kirkbride building was designed in a relatively modest Elizabethan style by architect Jonathan Preston of Boston, Massachusetts. Apparently, Dr. Kirkbride himself recommended Mr. Preston to the Iowa state commission.
In 1936, a fire devasted most of the building, sparing only a kitchen services area at the back. There isn't really anything left of the original building. Several old images of the Mount Pleasant Kirkbride can be found in the American Memory collection. The interior view of the central staircase is especially worth seeing.
Forum Topics
Read more about Mount Pleasant State Hospital in the forum.
- Early Accounts Of The Asylum
- I always like reading contemporary descriptions of asylums when they were first...
Blog Posts
For even more information on Mount-pleasant State Hospital, read the blog.
- More Kirkbride Buildings
- In case you haven't noticed, I've been adding pages for Kirkbride buildings that no longer exist. If you go to the main buildings page and scroll down to the demolished...
- Kirkbrides in American Memory
- A while ago I came across some photos of Taunton State Hospital on the Library of Congress' American Memory web site. They're part of a collection of photos put together by the...
