Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

I thought the furor over the Weston name change had died down a little, but evidently not. There’s a protest demonstration planned at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum this weekend. Adding fuel to the fire perhaps is a new t-shirt being sold by the Jordans. The shirt (pictured above) says, “I went nuts at…” on the front, and “Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum” on the back. The “I went nuts at…” part is undeniably crass. Depending on your sense of humor and feelings about proper terminology, you might chuckle or you might be incensed. But the list of reasons for admission is the really funny part and adds something to what appears to be a simple-minded joke at first.

Okay, it’s not funny as in I’m laughing myself sick, but it definitely made me smirk and think a little. Some of the reasons are so ridiculous: dissolute habits, bad company, laziness, egotism, political excitement, deranged masturbation… Who hasn’t experienced these things? (more…)

The recent demolition of the Worcester State Hospital Kirkbride got me thinking about asbestos and other dangerous materials lingering inside old abandoned buildings. Most of you who visit these places on a regular basis know all about this issue already, but I thought I’d write some words of caution for those who aren’t aware of it. If you’re planning on visiting Kirkbrides, you should know about this.

Back when asbestos was still considered a sort of miracle substance, it was was widely used throughout buildings to prevent the spread of fire. Its natural resistance to heat made it a popular fireproofing material. It was used in shingles, cement, wall-board, floor tiles, adhesives, joint compounds, siding, and as insulation for steam pipes. Most abandoned Kirkbride buildings contain at least some of this substance, if not a lot. It’s not uncommon to see warnings attached to these buildings declaring the presence of asbestos (see above photo from Danvers State Hospital). (more…)

Sorry for the blatant self-promotion, but I think some of you regular readers will be interested in this. I’ve started another web site along similar lines to this one, although it doesn’t have anything to do with asylums. It’s a collection of photos and history of buildings in the northeastern United States.

www.nearchitecture.com

In studying Kirkbrides for so long, I’ve also gained appreciation for other buildings too. Even though they don’t have the same allure as the old insane asylums, other buildings can still be beautiful and intriguing. While traveling to visit Kirkbrides, I’ve come across a few other places worth taking pictures of. I wasn’t planning this new site when I took the photos though so the galleries are currently a bit uneven. But at least it’s a better starting off point than the original KirkbrideBuildings.com! (I still can’t believe I put that online. You’ve come a long way, baby…) (more…)

There’s a new pictorial history of Spring Grove State Hospital entitled… Spring Grove State Hospital. It’s was compiled by David Helsel, M.D. and Trevor Blank. (Dr. Helsel is the superintendent of Spring Grove Hospital Center.)

The book was published as part of the Images of America series. Images of America books are pretty consistently good quality resources for historical images and history.

I haven’t seen the book myself yet, but I’m told that several images of the Spring Grove Kirkbride building are included. If the images are anything like those on the hospital web site’s virtual tour of the old Kirkbride, I’m sure they’re worth seeing, especially in print.

A delegation from China visited Fergus Falls last week to inspect the RTC Kirkbride building. In case you don’t know, they’re considering using the former RTC for a Chinese language and business school.

From what I’ve heard there weren’t any dramatic or surprising developments during the visit. But things appear to have gone well and the tone in the local media is optimistic. Below are links to some related articles. (more…)

Over the weekend I stopped off at Worcester State Hospital to check out the demolition work. There’s still a good portion of the wing standing, but I was surprised at how much is gone. Gage Hall (the non-freestanding rotunda) and the section I believe was named Lincoln are mostly rubble.

Oddly, the building seems much bigger with those pieces gone. I guess it has to do with how those parts blocked the view of the rest of the building from certain angles. Anyway, it won’t be long before the whole thing is gone. See it while you can. (more…)

The museum in the former Clarinda State Hospital Kirkbride will be open to the public (without the need for an appointment) on Saturday, June 7th. It’ll be open as part of an Explore Clarinda Day sponsored by the city’s tourism committee.

I found out about this here: Explore Clarinda Allows Residents to See City Like Tourists. What’s not clear from the article is whether non-residents will be allowed to participate. If you don’t live in Clarinda and plan on going, you should probably call ahead just to be sure. You can always call to schedule a visit some other time too. The museum is well worth seeing. The city of Clarinda itself is a really pleasant place to visit as well. I recommend taking a trip there if you live in the general area.

I’ve added a page for Cherokee State Hospital. The photos date from the same trip in 2004 when I visited Clarinda and Independence. Like the other two Kirkbrides, the building at Cherokee is in great shape and the grounds are well kept, giving a good sense of what Kirkbride hospitals must have looked like back in the early days. Cherokee was a little different though in that much more of the Kirkbride is still fully used, not to mention the fact that one wing is now occupied by a prison. A tall fence topped with razor wire surrounds the prison wing, and really detracts from the building’s otherwise pleasant appearance. (more…)

Stepping back from the subject of Kirkbrides a little, I just wanted to announce that KirkbrideBuildings.com passed a pretty significant milestone today. As of this morning, the site had 10,276 unique visitors this month. That may be chicken feed to popular sites getting ten times that many visitors a day, but considering KB.com’s average for the past few years has been around 5000 uniques a month, it’s pretty amazing.

In March the site crossed over the 7000 unique visitors mark for the first time, and then for a second time in April. But May has seen an even bigger increase and the site will likely get over 12,000 uniques by the end of the month. (more…)

Asylum Projects forum member squad546 may have found yet another Kirkbride, but then again maybe not. This one’s in Austin, Texas and it’s a bit of a question mark. If you look at the satellite photo below (or better yet the aerials on the AP forum) you can see what I mean.

Pictured is the original Austin State Hospital building, constructed in the mid 1850s. After finding some old images of the place online (Picture 1, Picture 2) my assumption is that the building was probably planned as a Kirkbride, but for whatever reason it either wasn’t completed or it was decided from the start that there’d only be one wing. The historical pictures show it looking pretty much the same as it does now, except maybe the shorter “wing” and front portico were added some time after initial construction. I could be wrong, but I think it’s a solid hypothesis. More research will reveal if it matches the facts. (more…)