October 16th, 2008
The Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture will be revealing its proposal for the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride restoration tonight (10/16). The presentation will take place at 7:00PM in St. John’s Church on Colonial Circle. The public is encouraged to attend. There probably won’t be any earth-shattering revelations during this presentation, but at least it indicates things are moving forward. If anyone in the Buffalo area attends, please let us in on the details.
October 13th, 2008
Vote now! No, not for the next president, but for the subject of the next Buffalo-building-themed snow globe! According to Buffalo Rising, last year Avalon Scarves and The Floristry (both of Buffalo, New York) created a snow globe featuring Buffalo’s City Hall. Now they’re asking the public to choose which iconic Buffalo structure should be featured in this year’s globe. They’ve posted an online poll where you can vote, and the Richardson Complex is one of the options! Vote here.
October 10th, 2008
I’m usually skeptical about the paranormal and don’t like the associations often made between ghosts and asylums. But I do like being scared and I willingly set aside my skepticism around this time every year. I’m not sure how I feel about Scariest Places on Earth though. The episodes I’ve seen were far too overdone and just downright silly. That said, Dixmont State Hospital will be featured on a special airing of Scariest Places on Earth this month. The program will be shown October 28th at 10PM on ABC Family as part of their 13 Nights of Halloween. I’ve never seen this particular episode, so I can’t really say I recommend it. It’s probably worth catching just to see the Kirkbride building though.
October 7th, 2008
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.
October 3rd, 2008
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…)
September 29th, 2008
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.
September 26th, 2008
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.
September 23rd, 2008
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.
September 19th, 2008
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.
September 18th, 2008
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
