Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

I’ve been trying to add to the list of Kirkbride buildings and remembered a couple asylums mentioned in America’s Care of the Mentally Ill. In the book, there’s a nice bird’s eye view of an asylum called Saint Vincent’s in Saint Louis, Missouri. After a little searching I was able to find the address and confirm that it was a Kirkbride. In the aerial photo above, you can see the building still stands. It’s been converted to a residential complex called Castle Park Apartments and will probably be around for a good long time. That was a nice surprise. It’s hard to believe there aren’t any other photos of this castle-like Kirkbride online. It’s pretty impressive, if a little over the top in style. (more…)

There was an interesting development reported yesterday concerning the former Hudson River Psychiatric campus. According to the Poughkeepsie News, three Hudson Heritage partners sold their shares of the property to the remaining partner who plans to continue redevelopment. There’s a more extensive article on the story available today: 3 Sell Psych Center Property Share. (more…)

So I’ve changed the site’s look a little. It’s not an earth-shattering transformation, but I think it’s a decent improvement. If you notice anything strange, please let me know. You can comment here or send me an email.

I could go into all the details of the design changes, but I don’t want to bore anyone. I’ll just list off the most significant content updates which are: (more…)

There’s an article today in The Boston Globe about Avalon Danvers: Rentals Are Going Quickly at Old Danvers Hospital Site. Avalon is finishing up the last few buildings and completion of the entire project should be in June of this year. It doesn’t sound like they’re having any trouble leasing or renting units either which will come as a surprise to those who thought Avalon’s investment unwise. Not that I’m all that happy for them…

There’s an article in The Buffalo News about repairs getting underway at the former Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride. Stabilization, roof repair, electricity and added security seem to be the priorities. There’s no surprising information here if you’ve been keeping up with the story, but the photos accompanying the article are a nice surprise. They show work being done on one of the outlying brick wards—the part of the building least likely to be saved. While it doesn’t mean anything for certain, it makes me hopeful that preservation of the brick wards is at least a possibility.

Note: Some time after this post was published, The Buffalo News archived the article mentioned and it is no longer available without a membership to their web site. The article can still be read here, although the pictures aren’t included.

Old time Kirkbride Buildings forum member WSH posted a few scans today of some annual reports from the “Worcester Lunatic Hospital“. Among other things, the superintendent writes about the installation of the clock in the admin tower. Also included are old photos of one of the rotundas, Hooper Hall. They’re definitely worth checking out.

Credit goes to squad546 on the Asylum Projects forum for this revelation: it looks like there may have been a Kirkbride building in Bolivar, Tennessee. As it stands today, the building has no wings, but there are clues it used to have some. An older topographic map shows what appears to be that old, familiar outline. Also, the structure was completed in 1889, putting it within the tail end of the Kirkbride era. And lastly, these photos show there was definitely something torn down on either side of the old administration building. Check out these images in particular where you can make out traces of what was torn down:

Image One
Image Two
Image Three

I’m still not completely sure this was a Kirkbride, but I wouldn’t post about it if I didn’t think there’s a really good chance it was. Finding out about a Kirkbride not mentioned in the usual sources is always a nice surprise. It gives you hope that there are more out there. Conservatively, I’d estimate the total count of Kirkbride asylums ever built at somewhere around fifty. But the real count could be more like seventy. Finds like this make me think the larger number is more likely. I’ll write more about those estimates in a future post.

I came across some images from Saint Elizabeths on this blog: Bioephemera. I’m not entirely sure they’re from inside the Kirkbride, but it’s likely they are. The patient graffiti reminds me of Egyptian hieroglyphics, but “Klee-esque wall scribblings” (as the blog author refers them) is probably a more accurate description.

These photos would have been a nice addition to the slideshow of Saint Elizabeths photos mentioned in this post.

(BTW: I searched through the archives mentioned at Bioephemera for more images from Kirkbride asylums, but didn’t find any.)

Looking through my “archives”, I came across this image. It’s an architect’s drawing for the planned Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane. I’m not sure if this exact building was ever constructed though. There was a Mendocino State Hospital—it was built in Talmage, California and opened in 1893. Its main building was demolished in 1952.

The best images I’ve found on the web show a building similar to the one above, but without the segmented wings and a radically different admin. It’s hard to tell if the building plan was changed, the existing building was modified, or if images like the ones below are of an entirely different structure.

1) Image: Mendocino State Hospital
2) Image: Mendocino State Hospital

My guess is that the plan was changed before it was built, but I really don’t know. If anyone has any information on this, please comment. Or if you’re a Kirkbride enthusiast living in California, maybe check out the collection of 217 photos from Mendocino mentioned here. They might shed some light on this mystery and are probably worth looking at anyway.

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 Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) to document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States. Of course I immediately searched for images of other asylums, but didn’t find much of interest in terms of Kirkbrides (except for these photos of Buffalo State Hospital). A few days ago I had a few hours to kill and discovered that there were actually lots of photos of other Kirkbride buildings in the collection. Here’s what I found: (more…)