Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

Here’s some really fascinating footage of the Oregon State Hospital J-Building being torn down. I don’t advocate smoking pot, but I think sparking up a J may be the only way you’re going to get through all 38 minutes and 57 seconds of this video. So why am I including it here? I feel bad about not posting more often and this seems like a fast and easy way to make it look like I’m still providing value for your money. Plus it gives me a chance to engage in some clever word play (J-Building… sparking up a J… get it?) (more…)

In case you missed it, the first shots of the Greystone Kirkbride appeared on the House season five finale: Both Sides Now which aired about two weeks ago. You can now watch the episode online at Fox’s web site. Greystone makes its appearance just before the 42 minute mark. The footage is brief, but it’s a nice view and really captures the building’s imposing bulk. I was a little surprised to see that they didn’t try harder to make it look more like an active hospital, but maybe that was an artistic choice?

This morning, a reader sent me the URL to this article. The important part of which being the second to last sentence reading:

“[T]he company also expects within the next 30 days to start work tearing down 24 empty buildings on the grounds of the Taunton State Hospital.”

So demolition of the Taunton Kirkbride is a sure thing and it looks like it’ll happen this summer. There’s not much to say but too bad. It will be missed.

Maine’s Health and Human Services Committee co-chair, Senator Joseph Brannigan, has suggested that the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor be closed. His reasoning is that doing so will save the state from having to make more painful cuts elsewhere.

Closing Dorothea Dix would leave the state with one public psych hospital (in Augusta). However, since there’s little to no support for the idea from Maine’s governor, and strong opposition from the Maine State Employees union, it seems unlikely that the hospital will be closed any time soon. It’s worth noting though that it’s being discussed.

You can find more details about this development here: Closure of Bangor Psychiatric Center Proposed to Save Money. You can also listen to Maine Public Broadcasting’s piece about it here: Legislators Eyeing Possible Closure Of Psychiatric Hospital To Save Money.

This summer, the city of Fergus Falls (Minnesota) will be holding an auction to sell off items from the former Fergus Falls State Hospital. Items include tools, medical equipment and office supplies — “everything from crutches to wardrobes to giant kitchen mixers.” The auction will probably happen in June, but the city hasn’t yet set an exact date for it. You can read all about it here: City Selling RTC Artifacts.

As usual, the most intriguing part about that Fergus Falls Journal article is the comments section (no offense to the FFJ reporters, it’s just that the juicy gossip naturally shows up in the public’s commentary). A few readers express concern that the proposed college will never materialize and criticize the lack of publicly available information about it. There’s also some speculation that the building is being looted and that an antique pool table was spirited off to someone’s private residence.

There’s a new book out by photographer Katherine Anderson featuring photographs of several former New England asylums, including the Kirkbide buildings in Danvers, Worcester, and Northampton, Massachusetts. In addition to the pictures, the book also contains an extensive history of mental illness and asylums as well as “feeble-mindedness” and the state school system. The book is called Behind the Walls – Shadows of New England’s Asylums and you can preview (and purchase) it here: Behind the Walls.

Since the forum receives so little traffic, I thought it might be a good idea to point out a recent series of posts by someone who spent several years at Traverse City State Hospital. Ronl, became a resident of the hospital in 1965 when he was 12 years old, and his memories (both good and bad) make for fascinating reading.

You can find them here: Forgotten Children – Hall 18, Hall 17.

Fox’s hit television series “House” is currently shooting at the former Greystone Park State Hospital according to this article on NJ.com: TV Show “House” to Film at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. It sounds like the production is trying to keep things under wraps for now, so there’s not much information other than that the hospital will “play” the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital on the show.

Unfortunately, scenes from Greystone probably won’t appear on the program until next season. Also, the area will be closed to the public while filming takes place. I won’t be surprised if a few Greystone “regulars” manage to do a little spying though:) Not that I recommend or endorse such things mind you.

Another little interesting tidbit from that article is that a movie titled Marvin’s Room was filmed at Greystone Park. I wasn’t aware of that and will have to check it out to see what kind of footage of the hospital it has.

According to a write-up on Preservation New Jersey’s blog, the state’s governor, Jon Corzine, has stated that he favors demolition of the Greystone Kirkbride: Governor Corzine Apparently Favors Demolition of Greystone. While the governor doesn’t have final say on what happens to Greystone, the office does have a lot of power and I’m sure Corzine could have a strong influence on the fate of the building if he wanted to. Not being from NJ, I don’t really know much about Corzine or how much he’s involved with the future of the former hospital campus. Maybe someone from NJ could chime in about that?

I also can’t help but mention that while reading Preservation NJ’s blog’s post and another article about the hospital by the same, I was surprised by the appearance of my Greystone admin photo (without any acknowledgment of its source to boot). It’s been a continuing annoyance since I started KB.com that some people believe that if a picture is online, that means it’s somehow in the public domain and they can do whatever they want with it. In this case, the people using my picture are working to preserve a building I also want saved, so I’m not going to do anything about it (except write this whiney post;). Luckily not too long ago I decided to watermark my online photos with a copyright declaration. It’s something I strongly recommend to anybody posting photos online.

Yesterday, forum member WSH posted some pictures of the restored first-floor hallway of the Weston admin. You can see them here. It’s a relatively small step toward restoring the building, but I’m sure it was still a good amount of work and it looks great.