Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

1000 unmarked graves have been discovered on the former grounds of Jackson State Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi according to the Clarion Ledger: Discovery of Graves Affects UMMC Parking Plan. The graves belong to deceased patients of the hospital.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center was planning to build a parking garage on the site, but changed its plans after discovering the graves and will build the garage elsewhere. It would be too expensive to move the bodies.

You can’t help but wonder how many other unmarked graves there are that nobody knows about on former asylum grounds around the country. I’m sure there are many, many thousands (and that’s not counting the thousands of marked graves either named or anonymous).

By the way, there’s a nice image of the Jackson Kirkbride about halfway through the video accompanying the Clarion Ledger’s article (embedded above).

There’s a special exhibit focusing on Northampton State Hospital at Historic Northampton in (where else?) Northampton, Massachusetts. “Vanished: the Hospital on the Hill” will run from February 8th till March 7th and features photographs by Stan Sherer and text by J. Michael Moore. More information can be found at the Historic Northampton website.

Even though the exhibit is already ongoing, the opening reception is this Friday, February 14 from 5 to 8 PM. The reception will feature a talk by Tom Riddell at 6 PM: “The Long March to Memorializing Northampton State Hospital.”

Read an interview with photographer Stan Sherer here: New exhibit tells story of Northampton State Hospital.