This web site is an attempt to catalog and present the historic state hospitals (insane asylums) of the latter half of the 19th century. The site focuses on the facilities built on the "Kirkbride plan", but it is not necessarily limited to the Kirkbride hospitals.
Presented here are hospitals which are still in operation, hospitals which are still standing but are now closed, and hospitals that have been long since or recently demolished.
These hospitals with their imposing main buildings are quickly vanishing
from the American landscape.
Dr. Kirkbride's progressive therapies and innovative writings on hospital design and management became known as the "Kirkbride Plan," which influenced, in one form or another, almost every American state hospital by the turn of the century.
Dr. Kirkbride created a humane and compassionate environment for his
patients, and he believed that the beautiful setting described below
restored patients to a more natural balance of the senses."
- quoted from the Pennsylvania Hospital Newsletter of the Friends of the Hospital
See the following historic images of historic state hospitals from across the nation. Hospitals that are known for sure to be Kirkbride hospitals are indicated with an asterisk *. The images include photographs, sketches, and floor plans. Note: Image sizes range from 30K to over 300K: these larger ones may take some time to load.