This medical building, on a former Georgia State Hospital campus, was constructed between 1928 - 1929 and named after the hospital's superintendent at the time. It closed in 1979 and has been abandoned since.
Photo: "Operating Suite"
Operating Room at Central State Hospital.
This building was constructed between 1928 - 1929 and named after the hospital's superintendent at the time. It closed in 1979 and has been abandoned since.
(Dark room. Lit with a warm LED panel and cool LED flashlight.)
Photo: "Operating Room"
The California Hospital for the Chronic Insane at Agnews was constructed following the Kirkbride plan and opened in Santa Clara, California in 1888. It was the third mental health facility in the state of California at the time. Sadly, a short 21 years later, most of the hospital was damaged during the 1906 earthquake, which wound up killing 101 patients and 11 employees.
Dr. Stocking was superintendent at the time and he helped develop a new plan for the hospital, following the cottage plan. Buildings 3 and 4 were constructed in 1908 and designed as wards for men (Bldg 3) and women (Bldg 4). Both these buildings connect to Building 30, the clock tower building, was also known as the "Treatment" building. The building contained three drug laboratories and 2 dispensaries, an electro-theraputic treatment room, hydrotherapy room, photography lab, large solarium, nurses' rooms, massage room, dental ward and operating room. Naturally, the basement of this building also contained a morgue.
By the 1940's, Agnews suffered overcrowding, as did many mental health hospitals in the country, and three new wards of a Spanish Colonial Revival style were constructed to accommodate the influx of patients. The hospital began to grow well into the 1960's when much of the campus was repurposed to treat mentally retarded patients and by 1971 that was the primary function of the hospital.
In 1995, Agnews was scheduled for closure and the hospital now site abandoned and for sale.
Photo: "Autopsy Room"
(From the archives, 2010)
Laurelton State Village for the Feeble-Minded Women of a Child Bearing Age was constructed in 1914 and was the first facility of its' kind. It was designed to detain and provide mental health care for women between the ages of 16 and 45 and was a self-sufficient institution.
In 1969, males were being admitted to the hospital which forced the hospital to take a new direction and it became the Laurelton State School and Hospital.
The site closed in 1998 and relocated the 193 patients.
Photo: "Clinical Operating Room"
Western State Hospital in Tennessee, also known as West Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, opened it's doors in 1889, admitting patients on November 22nd into the Kirkbride Building. For over 30 years, this one building provided adequate space for the number of patients admitted, however, overcrowding resulted in the need for an additional Psychopathic Hospital. In 1932, the four story Polk Building (shown here) was erected as a new residency for 400 patients.