Kirkbride Buildings - Worcester State Hospital

By the early eighteen-seventies, there was a general consensus that the old Worcester asylum building, opened in 1833, had become inadequate for the state's needs. Merrick Bemis, the superintendent at the time, called for the construction of a new asylum complex based on a grouping of smaller, decentralized buildings. Although initially meeting with approval, his proposal was ultimately rejected and the more traditional Kirkbride model was agreed upon. The new asylum, with its massive Kirkbride building, was designed by the Worcester architect Ward P. Delano and completed in 1877 at the cost of well over a million dollars.

Today the Worcester State Hospital Kirkbride is deserted. Severely damaged by fire in 1991, large sections of the building were torn down and what's left is only a suggestion of the impressive structure it once was. Even with Route 9, a large office park, and the current hospital site nearby, the abandoned building is a peaceful place. It must have been even more peaceful before the city grew up and around it. In spite of this peacefulness, the Kirkbride is somewhat ominous and foreboding. The building looks more like some weird castle or fortress than a hospital. It's odd to think that the parties involved may have felt this building could help create a calming or stabilizing influence.

In his book The State and the Mentally Ill, Gerald Grob argues that the building actually resembles a prison and that this is not by chance. State asylums were becoming more custodial in nature when this Kirkbride was constructed. The belief that mental illness was highly curable was being seriously questioned and asylums were being built with a stronger focus on confinement rather than treatment.