Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

Hidden Columbia, a local news segment on ABC’s Columbia, SC affiliate, recently put together a report on the history of South Carolina State Hospital. It’s a reasonably in-depth look at the hospital’s story with a few surprising details among the typical, to-be-expected facts. You can view all five currently released parts online by following the links below. I’m not sure if there are more parts coming in the future, but I’ll add the links here if they do.

Hidden Columbia
Unfortunately, these videos are no longer available online.

1. The State Carolina State Hospital Part 1
2. The State Carolina State Hospital Part 2
3. The State Carolina State Hospital Part 3
4. The State Carolina State Hospital Part 4
5. The State Carolina State Hospital Part 5

Watching these, I’m especially struck by how much the history of these hospitals all followed the same trajectory: a founding with much fanfare and optimism, early success giving way to hard times and overcrowding, then reform and a long slow decline terminated by closure or radical down-sizing.

Queenseyes at Buffalo Rising posted about his authorized look inside the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride after the recent fire. From his write-up, it appears the damage was very limited and the Richardson-Olmsted Corporation is getting serious about keeping trespassers out of the building. Read the story and view photos here: Richardson Triage Slide Show.

Update: The Richardson-Olmsted Corporation just sent out this email message…

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I’m a bit late writing about this here, but I think it’s important enough to make a post regardless. There was a fire on the second floor of the admin in the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride building early this past Saturday morning. The two-alarm blaze caused $200,000 worth of damage, but apparently there was no major structural damage and renovation efforts will not be affected too much by it.

The fire is considered suspicious and arson has not been ruled out. Firefighters were called to the building at 3:15 in the morning. Investigators have determined that the starting point was most likely a pile of papers on the floor, and also found a point of entry to the building which may have been used by someone who started the fire.

The article with the most information on this story that I’ve found so far can be found on The Buffalo News web site: $200,000 Fire Damages Richardson Complex.

On Sunday April 18th, there will be a special ceremony  in honor of those buried in the four cemeteries at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It will take place in the hospital’s chapel at 2PM. Directions and further information can be found in this invitation: Bryce Hospital Cemetery Memorial Dedication Ceremony (1.52MB PDF File).

While relatives of patients, former patients, friends and hospital employees are especially invited, the event is open to the public and all are welcome. Following the ceremony and a reception, there will be a tour of Bryce’s Kirkbride building.

Related to this story is a relatively new web site: Bryce Hospital – Historic Preservation Project. It’s not quite complete, but there’s already a lot of historical data contained there and it’s worth taking a good long look through it. Also included on the site is information about volunteering for or making donations to the historical preservation project.

This morning someone who wishes to remain anonymous emailed me about a Kirkbride building that’s still in use and is absolutely enormous! When I looked up the address on Google maps and took a look at the satellite view, I couldn’t believe my eyes. As you can see for yourself, this monster had seven wing sections off either side of the admin. That a Kirkbride of this magnitude has flown under the radar for so long is almost unbelievable. More about this amazing find later when I learn more details.

UPDATE: Note the date this post was made (April 1st).

This is a “reprinting” of an email message from Preserve Greystone, the group dedicated to saving the Greystone Park Kirkbride building.

“On Thursday, March 25, the statewide historic group Preservation New Jersey will be holding an ‘Endangered Sites Summit’ to draw attention to five Places in New Jersey that are particularly at-risk of decay and demolition but particularly promising for reuse and valuable as landmarks. A few Preserve Greystone members will be at this idea-sharing, strategy-formulating season to present on Greystone and discuss the state of efforts to save it. Afterwards, there will be a press conference to draw further attention to issues discussed and the objectives set. As an intensive discussion group, the Summit is limited to about 20 participants, but the press conference is open to the public; the bigger the turnout the better a message it will send to politicians and the media of the interest people show and the stake they feel they have in these sites. I’m sure the other groups are rallying their troops and it will be good to have a sizable Greystone contingent too.

The press conference will be held at Centennial Hall in the Newark Public Library, 5 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102 at 12:30PM (the same location as the Summit earlier that morning). Please feel free to email mcgovernix@gmail.com with any questions.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiCZHrp4340[/youtube]

A few days ago, psychiatrist Dr. William J. Resch emailed me about this film featuring Columbus State Hospital. “City of the Sick” is a documentary about CSH (and to some extent all psychiatric hositals) narrated by a fictional hospital attendant. Judging by the film’s look and feel, it was produced some time in the late 1940s or early 1950s. In spite of its quaint mid-20th century style, it’s worth watching for the footage of the Kirkbride building and the insights regarding life inside the hospital. I’m sure the latter were at least a little whitewashed, but I wouldn’t fault the film’s producers for that since part of their purpose was to minimize the stigma attached to mental illness and state hospitals.

Dr. Resch received a copy of the film when he spent part of his Ohio State University residency working at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare in Columbus (CSH’s replacement and sister hospital to the former Twin Valley psychiatric center in Dayton). He just recently put this digitized version online. The second half can be seen here: City of the Sick – Part II.

Kirkbride connoisseur Ian Ference has put another notch in his found-a-kirkbride-building-no-one-knew-about belt. What’s especially exciting is that, just like the last lost Kirkbride he discovered, this Kirkbride was located in New York City — in Brooklyn to be exact. Brooklyn State Hospital was created to serve the Kings County region of New York. I’m not 100% sure of this, but other names for the hospital include Flatbush Insane Asylum, Kings County Lunatic Asylum and Long Island State Hospital. It’s now known as Kingsboro Psychiatric Center. It was originally a county hospital, but the state took it over in 1895. (more…)

Forum member Jenca mentioned there’s going to be an historic walking tour of the Warren State Hospital grounds this Spring. It’ll take place on Wednesday, April 14th from 1PM to 3PM. The tour is offered by the Warren Forest Higher Education Council and is open to the public. The tour will not enter any hospital buildings. Participating will cost $10 per person. You will have to contact Warren Forest Higher Education to register which can be done by phone or by mail. Here are some details…

Historical Walking Tour of Warren State Hospital
CRN: 4513, 2-hours, April 14, Wednesday from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Cost: $10
Warren State Hospital has been an integral part of the community for decades, yet very few of us know the history and significance of this institution. Enjoy a guided tour of the grounds along with rare photos depicting its history and treatment options for patients. Lecture will meet at Hi-Ed located on the Warren State Hospital Grounds. Call 1-814-723-3222 for more information.

Even though I’ve read in several sources that Ward P. Delano designed the Worcester State Hospital Kirkbride, today I learned that is untrue. The actual architect was George Dutton Rand. You can read all about him in the third letter to the editor listed on this page at the Preservation Nation web site.

I just wanted to point that out since I’ve been spreading the Delano lie on this site for years. Even more embarrassingly, I also did so in a comment on the original Preservation Nation article which inspired that letter to the editor — although in my defense, the original article listed Thomas Kirkbride as the architect and I was trying to dispel the common misconception that Dr Kirkbride personally designed all these buildings himself.