SH Archive Insane Asylums of the United States, Canada, UK and the rest of the World

[Archive]

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Username: Red Bird
Date: 2019-06-25 14:07:55
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You may enjoy this book. It's only 48 pages but gives a history of the real reason for the witch hunts. Women healers were paid with chickens or goats, occasionally money. Anyway, they had real property. When the allopathic (modern medicine) started women were seen as competition for the available funds and were demonized. In some places, entire towns had all but one of their women killed as witches with the surviving one left to warn any imported replacement women to not practice the healing arts.

Yes I’ve read about this of course and while it could be true in instances I’ve recently been reading about how some were actually witches from Luciferian/satanic families. Knowing what is going on in the present I’m beginning to put more weight on the second theory.
Also psychological help has always been dark and light. The characture of evil drs in white coats doesn’t come from nowhere. In fact the mad professor character is even more believable now. I always wonder how Christian psychiatrists come to grips with HOW a lot of their knowledge was come by. Its getting much worse today. They don’t recognize the ability, and possibility, of outside manipulation either. Use in gun control and other controls (taking children away). Forgot to mention demon posession- which even Christians who believe this don't consider modern (?) silent weapons.

 

[Whitewave]

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Username: whitewave
Date: 2019-06-25 21:23:33
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Possibly, but I'd think that witches with Luciferian powers/protection would be able to escape the fate of being burned at the stake. Cast a "whammy" on their captors or put a curse on them that would frighten away any further persecutors. Odd how most of the "witches" had property (which was conveniently forfeited to the RCC). Not too many indigent people were accused of witchcraft unless they were also outspoken against the RCC.

Insane asylums are the modern equivalent of witch hunts. Living in a town that had the state mental hospital all but closed, I can assure you that poor people who are truly insane are running around on the streets whereas the rich afflicted are sent to "retreats", "spas", "resorts" "rehab" (at least until their insurance runs out). I once took my car to a mechanic as soon as his shop opened in the morning and, as we were outside discussing the issue of my vehicle, we were surprised by quite a sight. Some guy (obviously released too early from the mental hospital) was performing a high-stepping march-knees practically raised to his chest before smartly stepping in rhythm with his arms swinging far forward with each step. He was holding a scepter (or stick of some sort), had on cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and not one stitch of anything else as he marched down the road. The mechanic and I watched as he marched away then went back to discussing the car problem. Naked guy was crazy as a bed bug but harmless and, in Oklahoma, we're pretty much "live and let live". If he had money he would have been tucked away out of sight and doped to the gills.

The idea that it was mostly women who were persecuted is propaganda, there is not a single reliable source that allows for this interpretation, which only came up with the rise of feminism. Barbara Ehrenreich - Wikipedia is not a historian, but a political activist first and fore most.

I don't want to divert from the main topic but this needs to be said, because going the route of feminist interpretation of witch hunts is a dead end. Omitting a significant part of reality, even while containing some true points, paints a wrong picture, so while the book may have some valid points, it's primarily goal was to re-write and bury the true history as part of the feminist movement.
The Great European Witch Hunt

Women weren't the only victims of the Salem witch trials. But they were the overwhelming majority. "For the most part, the men of Salem Village were involved in blaming, trying, and convicting the young women whose unusual behavior and outlandish accusations were at the heart of the trials. But soon, men like Proctor were among those being accused, sometimes by neighbors who had longstanding resentments against them." According to this list of victims names, 1/3 of the victims were men. Almost all of the victims were elderly (50+ years old which in 1692 was elderly).

During medieval witch hunts over 70% of the victims/accused were women. "Well over 70 percent of the accused were women, especially widows, who often had no one to defend them. Victims included the poor, the elderly, and women who dispensed herbal remedies, especially if these failed. No one was truly safe—rich or poor, male or female, lowly or prominent. Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest who had accompanied many people judged to be witches to the stake to be burned alive, wrote that in his view none were guilty. And if witch hunting continued unabated, he warned, the land would become empty!"

Many of the men accused of witchcraft were due to political rather than religious reasons. Partial list of the accused and known numbers of those executed including the Knights Templar, Father Urbain Grandier, the Cathars, a bishop who tried to assassinate Pope John the XII; and the Malleus Maleficarum was published during a time when Protestant-ism was rising. Although men were also accused of witchcraft, about 75–80 percent of those executed during the witch hunts were women.
Some writers have also argued, with significant evidence, that many of those accused were single women or widows whose very existence delayed the full inheritance of property by male heirs. Dower rights, intended to protect widows, gave women in such circumstances power over property that they usually could not exercise. Witchcraft accusations were easy ways to remove the obstacle.

It was also true that most of those accused and executed were among the poorest, most marginal in society."

 

[anadentone]

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Username: anadentone
Date: 2019-06-25 22:46:59
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world mud flood- these came out at the time of the mud flooding. I wonder if those who were deemed "crazy" were men,women and children who refuse to keep quiet about it. And one main reason they were torn down was after the generation who lived during the time of the flooding had died out and they got rid of the buildings and destroy the records of "reasons" the crazies were in there.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Recognition
Date: 2019-06-26 11:25:08
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Anyone read this book? Puts a whole new spin on the topics we are discussing!

The Memory Code

Here's what someone said in their review:

The author makes a plausible if highly speculative proposition. Namely *that many of the artifacts and monuments of prehistory were used to enhance memory of important knowledge in an oral tradition*. Drawing from Cicero's Ad Herennium and the memory palace described in it in addition to indigenous peoples *use of ritual and song to hold on to traditions and histories of their people and knowledge of plants and animals, the author argues that ancient monuments and artifacts had the same purpose*.... Update 3/10/17 after watching Lynne Kelly give a talk I am much more impressed with her argument. Here is a youtube video of her argument it is about an hour and twelve minutes.

*asterix are mine couldn't get it to bold

 

[trismegistus]

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Username: trismegistus
Date: 2019-07-01 21:48:21
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Found this quote in a Miles Mathis article referencing a quote from Dr. Julia Shaw on an episode of NOVA called Memory Hackers. Thought it was relevant to the idea that these insane asylums were reeducation facilities for the particularly strong willed individuals who still remembered the old world.

First is creating an atmosphere of trust by establishing expertise and authority. Follow with interviewing the participant about real memories, reinforcing and encouraging vivid recollection upon the next session. The third step is to introduce a false memory. The fourth step is to commence imagination inflation, where subjects are guided to focus attention on retrieving a memory using actual details from their past. The fifth step is to apply social pressure indicating that the technique works for most people, thus making the subject try harder to recall details. Finally, ask leading questions.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Robinl17
Date: 2019-07-19 03:57:33
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"That beautiful, sprawling, splendid, palatial old wonder of architecture over yonder? Oh, that's the place we put the crazy people. You don't want to go there."

Who would believe what any of the medical institution-stamped whackjobs had to say about what they saw in there, or what was done to them? On a symbolic and practical level this is a rather brilliant power move - associate the history we want forgotten with literal insanity - marinate the places in the reputation of illness and craziness - something we'd rather not think about. My sci-fi imagination wonders at the poor schizoids and others being "tested" on the ancient technology within the buildings, as the undiagnosed sociopaths in the white coats try to reboot the systems they've seized and only vaguely understand. For most of the 20th century, regardless of their sanity entering these places, patients were generally driven mad by the time they left, if they ever did.

When I worked in film in Vancouver, BC, one of the most popular sites for all the shows in town to shoot in was Riverview Mental Hospital (formerly Essondale). In 2019, every safe-to-film building was booked for every shooting day of the year. Its splendor falls short of your examples, but otherwise, it matches the profile perfectly:

I just finished a book on the house arrest of the Romanov family--I'll add the book later, and it strikes me that maybe these 'asylums' were the homes of the defeated Tartarians. Maybe they were kept under house arrest and tortured until they died or were killed. This happened to the Russian royalty of 1917, just 100 years later. Where they the last hold-outs of the Tartarians? These 'asylums' are far too grand for their stated-use. Ridiculous to the extreem. I would guess that they were the homes of the royals. Any ideas?

 

[Archive]

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Username: universer
Date: 2019-07-22 16:49:22
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As horrible and incomprehensible as it is, one possible explanation for the opulence is that some of these places were meant to be amusement attractions where rich people paid to gawk at the mentally ill. At least we can say that was true of Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital in London.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Robinl17
Date: 2019-08-12 22:28:33
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Be kind first time post, but I remembered one in Dunedin, New Zealand, the Seacliff Mental Asylum.

View attachment 23628

Apparently opened in 1884 when the regional population was ~149,154 to house circa 500 patients. [0.0034% of population], the population apparently tripped from ~50,255 during its 10 year build.

View attachment 23629

View attachment 23630

A similar sized region circa ~150,000 in the South Island; the modern day Nelson Hospital currently provides only approximately 140 beds for Nelson and Tasman patients, though this is for physical illness not mental.

But back in the same era, the Nelson Lunatic Asylum was developed for a regional population of 22,558 which was a converted barracks that had ~36 beds [0.0015% of population], this was one of the first areas settled in New Zealand and the style is more fitting to the time in my opinion.

View attachment 23631

Not sure what to make out if this, but back in the same time period a Medical Officers Report for the Nelson Lunatic Asylum during this time also record the rapid increase in patient numbers which in turn had caused significant overcrowding. The Report for 1872 reported that the number of patients had quadrupled from 11 in 1867 to 43. Of concern was the number of patients being referred from the West Coast. By 1872 they made up half the asylum population and the main cause for their condition was spirit drinking.

Robert Arthur Lawson was the architect, note he is an architect of over forty churches and easily a dozen plus schools, halls, banks and chambers.

View attachment 23632

So while the build time seems legitimate, the setting and characters do not, Robert must have had high speed internet and a private jet to achieve and champion the builds he completed, all this while at the same time working ten years on one mega project; though not necessarily the case here, it beats me how the narrative allows key people to hop between the commonwealth and other countries [I'm assuming by sea], like we might travel to various towns and cities by a car, though maybe even today you might not go overseas for a year or two because logistically or economically its not viable,

So not to mention the fact that even current regional policy making is time consuming, [even with the internet] the setting, which is where a country, settled for only about 20 years, has a requirement to manage mental health; from drunkards to the mute, during a time where people still lived in tents and further more provides a building quality that in some cases was better than what was available 100 years later...

..makes you question the history.

Also the Seacliff plan bears kind of a resemblance to the layout of the New Jersey one in the OP..

View attachment 23634

Korbin, you mentioned once that someone would write a fictional account of this story, and I've thought about it since and have been working on an outline. Any new info you might have, or anyone else, I'd love to see. I am a writer and have a book out now, and one upcoming, and was looking for a great new idea. I think the reset is it. Most people find it easier to handle the truth in a fictional way. "Fiction is a lie that tells the truth"

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-09-28 22:07:15
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Did not want to create a separate thread, though if they have more of these, I probably should have. Anyways, apparently, they also had institudtions for inebriated people. Correct me if I'm wrong but they do mean drunkards, right?

Source

 

[Archive]

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Username: Manwich
Date: 2019-10-04 05:37:08
Reaction Score: 12

Hello everyone. This is my first post. There is so much information on this website. I'm really enjoying it.

I used to work at the St. Peter State Hospital in Minnesota. The oldest building on grounds is the center part of the huge complex. After looking into the history It always seemed fishy that they would need to open up so many insane asylums across the newly acquired regions within a few years. It's almost like they needed asylums to put all the people who knew what happened or didn't want to go with the flow of the new hierarchy.

The wings of this building were destroyed due to a fire.

This is what's left.

When I worked there I was campus security so I had to patrol the buildings, grounds, tunnels, etc. In this building they have tunnels in the basement that lead to other buildings on grounds and one tunnel leads out to the river but that was blocked off.
Now below those tunnels are older tunnels that have a gravel floor, red brick walls and arched ceilings. We were not allowed to go in those tunnels. I was only able to see about 20 yards and it looked like it had never been touched. Supposedly these tunnels went all the way into town (about 1 mile) to the old temporary asylum building.

They said the tunnels were built to hide women and children from the Indians during the Minnesota Indian war of 1862.

I was also able to explore the attic of the main building and the joists were huge at least 18" x 18" wooden beams. It was pretty amazing.
I noticed in the older pictures, some of them had a center steeple on the main center building and then it was removed.

One last picture, not from St. Peter but Fergus Falls, MN. It also looks like it fits this mold.

 

[Archive]

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Username: HiStoryBoost
Date: 2019-10-04 20:49:17
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First Post, so I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.
Close to home I found the Lancaster County Almshouse. Construction began in 1799.


This building appears too good to be true. And it was built primarily to “control” the poor. How many poor were walking around in the 1800’s in Lancaster, PA?



We even have information on the architect including a photo - Lancaster’s first architect! (which would seem to push back construction to at least when photography existed.)




This structure, for the most part, was demolished long ago. But oddly enough the part of the building that was built first, building 1, from 1799, still stands tucked away in Lancaster today. A very interesting find. Seeing as there is the whole city of Lancaster built on top of this land today!




And a quilt made in Lancaster from “way back then” depicting the Almshouse in all its glory. The building was one of the major features of Lancaster for quite a long time. For a small community there sure was a lot of poor and sick!

 

[Archive]

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Username: Casimir
Date: 2019-10-07 14:57:10
Reaction Score: 1

It's not like there was some Insane Asylum template everyone was working from but the similarities of the buildings sure make it look that way- everyone posting them from around the world is crazy. If these buildings were leftover and re-purposed, I think it would be an exquisite opportunity to launder tons and tons of money into the "building" of them.

So the 1800s were full of orphan trains shipping kids across the USA and around the same time, we had these multi-million dollar mansions for the clinically insane being built to be filled with tons of adults

 

[_harris]

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Username: 0harris0
Date: 2019-10-07 17:55:47
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If the previous reset triggered a mass stress response as it surely would then a lot of asylums would have been needed to shut up all the people who kept saying, "this isn't right. this isn't the world we had".

BAM! cogs are turning.... what if most of the adults had gone/ been "got rid of" (cataclysm/ mud/ war/ disease)?
guess that would only leave a certain number of survivors... the kids all shipped off to workhouses, and the adults who don't agree with societal norms (that could be a change of history/ alteration of events) can quite easily be labelled as crazy!!

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-07 18:04:55
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In the below thread there was something about people going insane during the so-called earthquake:

• 1908 Messina destruction: earthquake or guns?

And if there was insanity involved, may be it was not caused by your traditional average earthquake:

• Single image: 1783 Messina Earthquake

I guess, what I’m getting to... what if there was a reason for so many insane people suddenly emerging?

 

[_harris]

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Username: 0harris0
Date: 2019-10-07 18:06:00
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the asylum thing is gonna take me a while to get my thoguhts in gear, LOADS of them around north somerset/ bristol (some have become rehab centres). i've done construction work in one (that's now, ironically, a university building for nurses) and it was creepy in there!
also, hopefully not too off topic but there's an old 19thC. orphanage complex in bristol too, it's MASSIVE!! (mostly mentioning because all were built in the "same" time frame)

so you've got a bunch of crazy people, maybe having kids they can't look after(?) and getting locked away all conveniently in the same time as wars, disease, earthquakes... all the while the empire is expanding and huge fancy construction projects being undertaken in smashing time!

 

[Archive]

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Username: universer
Date: 2019-10-22 19:11:56
Reaction Score: 3

This topic is close to my heart because my great-great grandfather was incarcerated at Central State Hospital (then known as Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane)...another of these improbably huge and ornate buildings...in Indianapolis in 1895. The state archives were able to provide me with some of his paperwork, in which his oldest son basically said he completely lost his marbles after his wife died pretty young from Typhoid fever, going from kind and gentle to rabid. He was born in 1835 and I wonder what other kind of shenanigans he lived through.

This may call for a separate topic but on a few of my harder to trace ancestry lines from the Midwest, nobody seems to want to mention on documents who their parents were. It just didn't seem important for some reason. I wondered how this might have aligned with the orphan trains, but the dates don't align in this case.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-10-23 01:14:23
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They'll be rounding us up again soon.
Creepy big old buildings.
Either for the rebels or those driven crazy by the comet and cataclysms.
Weird.

 

[anotherlayer]

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Username: anotherlayer
Date: 2019-10-23 01:48:17
Reaction Score: 12

I cannot believe I let this thread go so long without posting Buffalo's Insane Asylum:

The large Medina red sandstone and brick hospital buildings were designed in 1870 in the Kirkbride Plan by architect Henry Hobson Richardson with grounds by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.[5] The campus consists of a central administrative tower and five pavilions or wards progressively set back on each side, for eleven buildings total, all connected by short curved two-story corridors. Patients were segregated by sex, males on the east side, females on the west. The wards housed patients until the mid-1970s. The central administration building was used for offices until 1994.[1]

It's a glorious beast and it still has half of the renovation left. Buffalo woke up early (or ran out of money) and stopped tearing these things down:


And I took this picture flying in the other day, down in the bottom left:

 

[mifletzet]

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Username: Mifletz
Date: 2019-10-23 01:53:58
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And in Woodford, Essex , near London UK, the 1889 Claybury Lunatic Asylum. I visited an inmate there in 1978, and was lucky to get out!

The London E11 Wanstead 1841 Infant Orphanage Asylum

 

[Archive]

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Username: HiStoryBoost
Date: 2019-10-24 02:30:26
Reaction Score: 6

universer,

I’m glad to see your post, as I’ve recently stumbled into another epic hospital that once existed in Indiana.

It was known originally as “Woodmere” - which meant tranquility in the forest. Built in 1890 in Evansville, Indiana on 900 acres. Woodmere was self sufficient and had farms and gardens, with livestock on the lands.

In 1927 the name was changed to Evansville State Hospital. The building was nearly completely burned down in 1943 (what a surprise). Woodmere had a pretty epic design!

I wonder if all these insane people realized they were living inside the nicest buildings of their times?