Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

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.

Back in January, I wrote about some of the less well-known web pages linking to this site which I thought might be of interest to you. Since then, I’ve found a few more worth pointing out and as promised, I’m listing them here…

Placeography is a wiki site where people share information about locations (eg houses, buildings, parks, neighborhoods, etc). The Fergus Falls State Hospital page links to KirkbrideBuildings.com. It also links to a page where you can hear a two-part radio series on the hospital, Update: Fergus Falls Mental Hospital.

Here’s a long article about the renovation of Building 50 at the former Traverse City State Hospital: Granting Asylum. It’s a bit old (published in 2006), but it’s worth reading if you’re not familiar with the story of Building 50’s rebirth or if you want to learn some of the finer details. (more…)

There’s a new web site dedicated to Harrisburg State Hospital: The City on the Hill. It’s the work of Phil Thomas (otherwise known as thomasp94 on the forum) who has diligently compiled old pictures, his own photographs, and lots of historical facts to create the site. It includes a healthy portion of information about the Kirkbride building there (which was demolished a long time ago).

It’s worth taking a look, especially for the Kirkbride gallery which includes blueprints, maps, and old photos from inside the Kirkbride. Strangely, Phil has found more photos of the interior than the exterior.

Once again, Asylum Projects forum member Squad546 has discovered a Kirkbride building that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere before (including here:\). While scanning Sanborn Maps from around the country, Squad came across this example of everybody’s favorite kind of asylum building at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Virginia…

Originally known as the Central Lunatic Asylum, the hospital was founded in 1869, although it moved to its present location in Petersburg in 1885. That’s where the Kirkbride was built. It appears to have been demolished as I haven’t been able to find any trace of it in aerial photographs. The only possible image of the Kirkbride that I’ve been able to find online is on the Historic Asylums’ Central State Hospital page (direct link to image).

There’s a pretty thorough history of the institution on the University of Virginia Library web site. It’s kind of interesting that the hospital was originally created for the treatment of African-American patients only. While segregated mental hospitals weren’t a novelty in the past, this is the only one I know of that had a Kirkbride building.

I happened across another story about a graveyard restoration today. This time it’s for Wildwood Cemetery which belongs to Terrell State Hospital: Restoring Dignity to Wildwood Cemetery. Restoration has been ongoing since about 1997. Volunteers have cleaned up the grounds and replaced the numbered headstones with markers bearing the patients’ names. In addition, a decorative fence is being erected around the graveyard.

The volunteer Wildwood Cemetery Association is accepting donations for the project. Information on making a contribution can be found at the end of the article or on the association’s web site (click on “Contribute – Wildwood Cemetery” in the left hand link list).

Unfortunately, I’m not very familiar with Terrell State Hospital, although I do know that the Kirkbride there is long gone. You can see more pictures of the building and learn a bit more of it’s history at the Kaufman County TXGenWeb Project Site.

Yesterday, Richard Nickel, Jr. over at The Kingston Lounge posted about the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride. Along with a nice write-up about the building, he included some first-rate photos of the Kirkbride’s interior, something my own site is still sorely lacking:(

It’s worth checking out, and you can do so here: BSH – The H. H. Richardson Complex.

The 954 grave cemetery at Warren State Hospital has been the subject of a restoration. Like many state hospital cemeteries, this one was overgrown and neglected until a restoration committee formed at the hospital in 2006. Employees and volunteers are just about finished with the painstaking task of identifying the deceased patients and giving each one a headstone with their name on it.

There will be a public rededication ceremony at 10:30AM on Friday, September 26. More information can be found here: Silent Witnesses

Rummaging around online as I do all too often, I’ve come across a few famous names in connection with different Kirkbride hospitals—as patients I mean. I thought it would be interesting to start a list of them. Not only will it shed a little light on their personal stories, but it also shows mental illness doesn’t necessarily prevent one from being brilliant and/or functional. It also helps humanize the mostly anonymous group often referred to simply as “patients”. (more…)

Forum member Swansod made a post today about a small treasure trove of newspaper clippings he found while researching Worcester State Hospital. The clippings are from the 1930s, ’60s and ’90s. You can see reproductions on Swansod’s Zenfolio pages: WSH Related. (Hint: click on a thumbnail, then hover your mouse cursor over the larger version to get the download link. Download the file for a more legible version.)

Some high points from the articles include a map identifying each part of the Kirkbride (pictured above), mention of some films made by superintendent Dr William Bryan (which I’m trying to find more about), descriptions of various renovations over the years, LSD experiments, pictures of the hospital’s operating room, and information about the first phase of demolition which happened shortly after the Kirkbride fire in 1991.

Image courtesy of the Oregon State Library

The upcoming tour of Oregon State Hospital’s historic J-Building has turned out to be more popular than it’s organizers anticipated: State Hospital Public Tour a Hot Ticket. 210 people have already signed up for the tour and a number of registrants had to be placed on a waiting list. If enough people continue to sign up, the state’s Department of Human Services will consider holding another tour. (more…)