Kirkbride Plan
The Kirkbride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century.
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[edit] History
The establishment of state mental hospitals in the U.S. is partly due to reformer Dorothea Dix, who testified to the Massachusetts legislature in 1844, vividly describing the state's treatment of people with mental illness: they were being housed in county jails, private homes and the basements of public buildings. Dix's effort led to the construction of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, the first asylum built on the Kirkbride Plan.
Kirkbride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged en echelon (staggered, so each connected wing received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect: "a special apparatus for the care of lunacy, [whose grounds should be] highly improved and tastefully ornamented." The idea of institutionalization was thus central to Kirkbride's plan for effectively treating patients with mental illnesses.[1]
The asylums tended to be large, imposing, Victorian-era institutional buildings within extensive surrounding grounds, which often included farmland, sometimes worked by patients as part of physical exercise and therapy. While the vast majority were located in the United States, similar facilities were built in Canada, and a psychiatric hospital in Australia was influenced by Kirkbride's recommendations. By 1900 the notion of "building-as-cure" was largely discredited, and in the following decades these large facilities became too expensive to maintain. Many Kirkbride Plan asylums still stand today. Most are abandoned, neglected, and vandalized, though several are still in use or have been renovated for uses other than mental health care.
[edit] Notable Kirkbride hospitals
- 1847 New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton, New Jersey, the first Kirkbride Plan building[2]
- 1848 Jacksonville State Hospital at Jacksonville, Illinois (demolished sometime in 20th century)[3]
- 1848 Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital (aka. Harrisburg State Hospital) at Harrisburg, PA
- 1853 Maryland Hospital for the Insane at Spring Grove, Catonsville, MD (demolished in 1963)
- 1854 Taunton State Hospital at Taunton, Massachusetts (Demolished in 2009)
- 1854 Western State Hospital (formerly Western Lunatic Asylum) Hopkinsville, Kentucky[4]
- 1855 Dayton State Hospital (formerly the Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum) at Dayton, Ohio (renovated and used as assisted living)
- 1858 Northampton State Lunatic Hospital, Northampton, Massachusetts (demolished in 2007)
- 1858 Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital (formerly the Western Michigan Asylum for the Insane), Kalamazoo, Michigan
- 1859 Dixmont State Hospital (also known as Western Pennsylvania Asylum for the Insane) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (demolished in late 2005)
- 1860 The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital (also known as the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane Department for Males) Philadelphia
- 1861 Bryce Hospital, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (still in use)
- 1861 Mount Pleasant State Hospital, Mount Pleasant, Iowa (Closed and demolished after a huge fire left the buildings beyond repair.)
- 1863 West Virginia Hospital for the Insane (also known as Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum), Weston, West Virginia
- 1868 Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, Poughkeepsie, New York
- 1869 Danville State Hospital, Danville, Pennsylvania
- 1872 Northern Illinois State Mental Hospital, Elgin, Illinois (later known as Elgin State Hospital), demolished in 1993[5][6]
- 1873 Winnebago State Hospital, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (now known as Winnebago Mental Health Institute, original Kirkbride demolished in parts between 1950–1969)
- 1873 Independence State Hospital, Independence, Iowa (Still in operation and preserved.)
- 1874 Athens Lunatic Asylum, Athens, Ohio (renovated and reused by Ohio University)
- 1874 Warren State Hospital Warren, PA[7][8] (still in use as Warren State Hospital)
- 1875 Broughton Hospital, Morganton, North Carolina (Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Changed to The State Hospital at Morganton in 1890. Changed again in 1959 to Broughton Hospital)[9] (still in use)
- 1876 Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, Hanover, New Jersey (Kirkbride closed in 2008, fate undetermined. Hospital facilities moved to newer building directly behind "Kirk")
- 1876 Napa State Hospital, Napa, CA Original Kirkbride demolished in 1949, hospital with new buildings still in use
- 1877 Worcester State Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts (Partially Demolished in 2007 - Currently being rebuilt as a non-Kirkbride Plan hospital)[10]
- 1878 Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, Massachusetts (demolished in 2006)[11]
- 1878 Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, Pontiac, Michigan (demolished in 2000)
- 1880-1890 Buffalo State Hospital, Buffalo, New York (designed by H.H. Richardson)
- 1883 Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon (Partially still in operation; health care operations transitioning to new facility as of 2010.)
- 1883 Arkansas Lunatic Asylum, Little Rock, Arkansas (Renamed the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Diseases in 1905, it was changed to the Arkansas State Hospital in 1933. The original building was demolished in the 1960s.)[12]
- 1884 Clarinda State Hospital, Clarinda, Iowa (Still in use and preserved)
- 1885 Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, Traverse City, Michigan (partially renovated and in use as condos and businesses)[13]
- 1890 Cherokee Mental Health Institute, Cherokee, Iowa (still in use)
- 1891 Sheppard Pratt Hospital, Towson, Maryland (still in use)
- 1891 Eastern State Hospital, Medical Lake, Washington (building torn down, hospital with new building still in use)
- 1895 Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center, Fergus Falls, Minnesota (not in use, owned by city)[14][15]
[edit] References
- ^ Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007, 55-59
- ^ Yanni, Architecture of Madness, 55.
- ^ http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/jacksonville/
- ^ 36°51′53″N 87°27′04″W / 36.864678°N 87.451118°W
- ^ http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/420.html Retrieved Sept. 22, 2006
- ^ Briska, William H. (1997). The History of Elgin Mental Health Center: Evolution of a State Hospital. Crossroads Communications. ISBN 0-916445-45-3.
- ^ 41°52′46″N 79°08′46″W / 41.879503°N 79.146028°W
- ^ http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/Family/MentalHealthServ/StateMentalHospAndRest/003670893.htm[dead link]
- ^ Broughton Hospital
- ^ *Worcester
- ^ *Danvers
- ^ http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2238 Retrieved Aug. 21, 2010
- ^ * The Village at Grand Traverse Commons
- ^ Minnesota Historical Society. Fergus Falls State Hospital Papers
- ^ Fergus Falls Daily Journal. (September 13, 2008). State Hospital: The Early days
[edit] External links
- Kirkbride Buildings — history and photography
- Historic Asylums — history and photography
- Danvers State Hospital — history and photography
- Northampton State Hospital — hospital history and photography
- Asylum Projects — historical wiki archive
- Hudson River State Hospital — hospital history and photography
- Athens Lunatic Asylum — hospital history and photography
- Kirkbride Hospitals at Architecture of the State
- Dixmont State Hospital — History and photography
- Danvers State Hospital — History, photography, archives
[edit] Further reading
- The Art of Asylum-Keeping by Nancy Tomes
- Yanni, Carla. The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007.
