Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

There’s some awful footage of the former Topeka State Hospital admin being destroyed here: Wrecking Ball Meets Topeka State Hospital. The video was produced by WIBW of Topeka, Kansas. According to the reporter, the wrecking ball will be swinging for a few more days, and a few months later in October, there’ll be no sign that the building ever existed.

According to an article in the Topeka Capital Journal, demolition of the admin building at the former Topeka State Hospital (all that remains of its Kirkbride building) is scheduled to begin on or before June 1st. The building is only being torn down because of its dilapidated condition. There are no plans for using the space on which it currently stands. Read the article here: End Nears for TSH Building.

Last week someone on the forum posted a link to a Time Magazine Story which mentioned Traverse City State Hospital. It gave me the idea to check for more stories concerning state hospitals from Time’s extensive 86 year archive. While there weren’t any amazing finds, there were a few interesting items…

Medicine in a Mad House (1934) – Tells the story of how a patient filled Danvers State Hospital‘s kitchen sugar cans with cockroach poison, killing another patient and making 13 others seriously ill.

Government Inspiration (1936) – This story about government sponsored art during the New Deal starts off with a description of a mural painted at Elgin State Hospital. I just thought it was interesting that the artists were instructed to “use only the softest shades of primary colors, to ‘avoid all exciting combinations.'”

Unhappy Anniversary (1952) – The sad story of Miss X, Topeka State Hospital’s oldest resident in 1952. She had been admitted to the hospital in 1882.

Reinforcement Therapy: Short Cut to Sanity? (1969) – Experiments in something called “Reinforcement Therapy” at Anna State Hospital in Illinois.

Topeka Public Schools has officially purchased the former Topeka State Hospital campus: 501 Buys Former State Hospital Land.

As I’ve mentioned before, this will probably lead to the demolition of the remaining piece of Topeka’s Kirkbride. To be fair, I haven’t heard that that’s an absolute fact, but it does appear likely.

The future of the historic Center Building in Topeka, Kansas isn’t looking so good. This last remnant of the Topeka State Hospital Kirkbride is in danger of being torn down. The Topeka Unified School District is considering the purchase of the former state hospital grounds on which the building stands. If they do buy the property, many of the abandoned buildings on the property will be demolished, and the Kirkbride admin will very likely be among their number. While I’ve heard that this structure’s future hasn’t looked particularly hopeful even before now, I think this is the first indication of any real plans to knock it down.

I got an email last week informing me that my list of Kirkbrides was incomplete because the asylum in Osawatomie, Kansas wasn’t included. While I’m still not 100% sure there was a Kirkbride there, I trust this person‘s opinion and went looking (again) for whatever evidence I could find.

During my search I did find something promising related to the Osawatomie asylum, but the thing I found really exciting was something else entirely that I stumbled upon by happy accident. I’m sure only the most geeky of asylum architecture enthusiasts will find this interesting, so if you’re not one of those, please disregard this post. If you are an asylum architecture nerd, then read on… (more…)