| September 26, 2003 |
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Danvers State Insane Asylum
The  unsettling facade of Massachusetts' old, state-run insane asylum, might make you wonder what mind could conceive of such a surreal place to confine the mentally infirm. Erected in the 1870s, when many of the state's mental hospitals were turning patients away, the benevolent Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride envisioned a "humane and compassionate" community tucked far, far away to cloister those considered insane. The good doc believed "beautiful settings" restored patients to a more natural "balance of the senses." His progressive ideas spread across the U.S. and influenced the eccentric, Gothic architecture of the Danvers compound. Controversial and costly, the project resulted in a brick and granite fortress in which advanced and contemporary treatments reigned. What remains today is a crumbling edifice with lead paint and asbestos warnings, off-limits areas, caved-in floors, and a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. (in Society & Culture) |
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