November 3rd, 2009
I haven’t been down to Taunton to see the old Kirkbride in a long time now. I wanted to pretend that the demolition going on there isn’t happening, and that the building is still standing untouched and quietly beautiful as ever. But of course I wasn’t going to be able to avoid reality forever thanks to the internet. Some photos of the demolition are available here: I Less-than-Heart Massachusetts. Although I suspect the writer’s claim to have taken the very last pictures of TSH may be a little premature, it does look like the Kirkbride is pretty close to being a memory, if it isn’t already.
October 27th, 2009
For Halloween this year, “Ghost Adventures” will be at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum on October 30th for a SEVEN HOUR live broadcast. The show will be aired on The Travel Channel from 8PM to 3AM. I haven’t seen much of “Ghost Adventures”, but the few times I did I got a chuckle out of it. In my opinion, they go way over the top whereas a show like “Ghost Hunters” seems to try to maintain some degree of dignity. Regardless of that, the show will provide hours of footage from the former hospital and should be worth tuning in to for that alone. If you’re into the paranormal, you’ll love it even more. And if you also like spiky-haired guys with huge biceps, you’ll be in Heaven!
October 15th, 2009
Points North, a show on Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan, recently produced a program about Traverse City State Hospital: listen here. The program is 50+ minutes and full of personal history told by hospital employees and patients of the hospital. In the beginning you even get to listen in as former employees tour the Kirkbride building and tell stories of their experiences—the mundane and unusual, the humorous and sad.
What’s particularly fascinating is the contrast between the patients’ feelings and the those of the employees. The former almost exclusively express a fondness for the hospital, while the patients interviewed express good and bad feelings about the hospital.
The end of the program is about Heidi Johnson and her connection to the hospital. It tells a sad side of her story that I personally hadn’t heard before and was surprised to learn.
October 8th, 2009
A public forum to discuss the future of Clarinda MHI will be held on Monday, October 12th in the MHI auditorium. The scheduled time is 3:00 – 5:00PM. If you live in the area and are concerned with keeping the Clarinda facility open, you should attend and make your voice heard. Here’s a flyer for the event: Attention Citizens of Clarinda (4.7 megabyte PDF). The forum is part of Iowa’s investigation into whether one of it’s four state psychiatric facilities should be closed. You can read more about that story here: Iowa to Close a Kirkbride?, and in the forum within the various Iowa hospital threads.
October 6th, 2009
Last week someone on the forum posted a link to a Time Magazine Story which mentioned Traverse City State Hospital. It gave me the idea to check for more stories concerning state hospitals from Time’s extensive 86 year archive. While there weren’t any amazing finds, there were a few interesting items…
Medicine in a Mad House (1934) – Tells the story of how a patient filled Danvers State Hospital‘s kitchen sugar cans with cockroach poison, killing another patient and making 13 others seriously ill.
Government Inspiration (1936) – This story about government sponsored art during the New Deal starts off with a description of a mural painted at Elgin State Hospital. I just thought it was interesting that the artists were instructed to “use only the softest shades of primary colors, to ‘avoid all exciting combinations.'”
Unhappy Anniversary (1952) – The sad story of Miss X, Topeka State Hospital’s oldest resident in 1952. She had been admitted to the hospital in 1882.
Reinforcement Therapy: Short Cut to Sanity? (1969) – Experiments in something called “Reinforcement Therapy” at Anna State Hospital in Illinois.
September 29th, 2009
The transformation of Traverse City State Hospital into The Village at Grand Traverse Commons is probably a familiar story to most of you reading this blog. Reuse of the buildings there is moving steadily forward and the project has largely been a success. It continues to amaze me that more cities haven’t yet followed this example with their own abandoned Kirkbrides. NPR recently produced a piece on the project describing how it could be a model for developing sustainable neighborhoods in Michigan—a state that’s been hit especially hard by the economic downturn. Listen here: 
And lest we forget the past while we’re contemplating the future, I’d just like to remind you that a few former TCSH patients continue to share their memories of the hospital on the forum. You can read their thread here: Forgotten Children of Hall 18, Hall 7.
September 15th, 2009
On Wednesday, September 16th at 10AM there will be a public hearing concerning the historic buildings at the state hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation is asking everyone interested in preserving these structures to attend the meeting and show support. More information can be found here: Crunch Time! Join the Palmetto Trust and Have a Voice!
Here are a few recent articles describing what’s going on with these buildings (including the Kirkbride): State Nearing Sale of Old Bull Street Mental Hospital and Dual Plans in Motion to Make Use of Old Bull Street Hospital.
Anybody living in South Carolina that can attend and support preservation of these buildings, please do!
(Sorry this is such short notice. I only just found out about it.)
September 15th, 2009
The classic Danvers State Hospital posters from DanversStateInsaneAsylum.com are available for purchase again. A few days ago, the reclusive John Gray posted about them on the forum. If you can spare a twenty, I’d recommend getting a copy. It’s a fantastic image with lots of interesting detail — as you can tell from the graphic above. More information is available on this page: Danvers State Hospital Posters.
September 9th, 2009
Chris Payne’s upcoming book Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals is available for pre-purchase on Amazon. In case you don’t know, Chris Payne has been taking fantastic photographs of state hospitals for many years now. Although we’ve never met in person, our paths have crossed a few times as we both travelled around the country visiting many of the same psychiatric hospitals. Mr. Payne, however, has visited more hospitals and taken more photos than I have—better quality photos too. I haven’t seen a copy yet, but I’m certain this book will be worth purchasing if you have any interest in asylums and asylum architecture. I’ll write more about it after I get a copy to look through. That will probably be some time in early October.
September 7th, 2009
Aside from a video with some nice photos and footage of the Buffalo Kirkbride, there’s not much new in this article about the rehabilitation project there: Plans for the Richardson. It’s good to hear things are progressing, but I just mainly wanted to point out the video (it appears directly after the text of the article).
