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December 6, 2012 Old state hospital ready for action

It doesn't yet have the glamor of Tinsel Town, but The Hundredth Town may soon have some of the star power of the famous West Coast community. Film financier Anton L. Nel is hoping to create an East Coast version of Hollywood at the former Westborough State Hospital. Town Planner Jim Robbins said Mr. Nel outlined plans Tuesday before the Economic Development Committee to re-use a good part of the 120-acre former state hospital site as a movie production facility.

November 9, 2012 Medfield State Hospital Status Update

On Thursday, Nov. 8, representatives from the town's Medfield State Hospital Mediation Committee and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) provided a status update to the town regarding their efforts and the progress to date of trying to reach agreement on an adequate and appropriate cleanup for the construction and demolition (C&D) area on the state-owned property.

November 5, 2012 A future for the Kirkbride?

The former Fergus Falls State Hospital has more than 500,000 square feet of space, and from the outside it looks every bit that big. But inside, details grab attention: carved wooden filigree framing a fireplace; brass door hinges embossed with intricate rosettes; fantastical cast-iron creatures guarding the main stairs. Experts who have toured what is known as the Kirkbride building say it could stand for 400 years. So far, it’s been around a little more than a century, but the clock is ticking.

October 9, 2012 Mental health museum opens at 'Cuckoo's Nest' state hospital

David Nichols spent 27 years working in the Oregon State Hospital system from 1972-99, never at the Salem campus, but in Wilsonville and Portland as a clinical psychologist. His job was to talk with patients, learning about their histories, their families, their traumas, their lives, their stories. “This is what I did for a living,” he said. “I listened to stories.” But Nichols is part of a story as well. It's the story of the hospital and of mental health treatment in Oregon. On Saturday, that story was told more completely than ever, with props, videos, words and re-creations at the Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health, which opened last weekend in the historic Kirkbride Building.

September 3, 2012 Items from NY mental hospital on display in SC

A new exhibit at the South Carolina State Museum is taking a look at the lives of patients in a New York mental hospital. "The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic" is scheduled to open on Saturday. It runs through October 14. The exhibit that tells the tale of nine patients includes photographs of everyday items like books, needlework and letters, as well as china and postcards.

September 1, 2012 Tinley Park offers clues for Singer Mental Health Center closing

State officials are still on track to close Singer Mental Health Center in less than two months, and providers need only look about 100 miles southeast of Rockford to Tinley Park State Hospital for clues about the closing process. The state closed Tinley Park Mental Health Center in July, though that facility had been in the process of closing for several years after being decertified by the federal government.

August 31, 2012 Greil Psychiatric Hospital Closes Doors

Friday was the last day for workers at Greil Psychiactric Hospital in Montgomery, AL. Patients have already been moved out leaving more than 100 employees to move on. Some have jobs but more than half of them don't. It's a sad day for employees at Greil Hospital. Many will miss their work friends, some don't know where their next job will be and all are concerned for the patients they leave behind.

August 29, 2012 Working over time

The Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower is slowly being taken apart. Workers from Costello Dismantling Co. Inc. remove shingles off the tower roof. The project is being overseen by Gilbane Inc., which also is the construction manager for the recently completed Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.

August 18, 2012 Unforgettable icon: Stories sought for history book about State Hospital No. 3

Memories from the Nevada State Hospital, also known as the Lunatic Asylum No. 3, are quickly fading away, and Linda Chesnut is spearheading an effort to make sure its history is preserved, before it's too late. Chesnut is leading the charge to compile the stories of local residents -- tales of everyday history, what the facility was like, stories of the clients, family stories of workers and even ghost stories connected to the facility.

August 17, 2012 Central State site coming back to life

An Indianapolis neighborhood where the old Central Indiana State Hospital sat vacant for years is finally coming back to life. A bird's eye view from Chopper 13 reveals a sprawling development rising toward the sky on West Washington Street between North Tibbs and Warman Avenues. Below, steeples crown each entry where new residents hope to call the grounds of the Old Central State Hospital home.

August 16, 2012 Worcester Recovery Center opens with $302M price tag

Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov Tim Murray were on hand today to officially open the $302 million, Department of Mental Health Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. Built on the grounds of the former Worcester State Hospital, the facility is comprised of 320 residential beds.

August 9, 2012 Demolition continues at former Mayview State Hospital

The slow process of preparing the site of the former Mayview State Hospital in South Fayette for redevelopment may take another year. Work has been ongoing for more than a year to tear down much of the nearly 1.4 million square feet of existing structures on the site. Aloe Brothers LLC of Pittsburgh eventually will build a light industrial and mixed-use commercial campus, but specific plans won't begin progressing until at least a year from now, project manager Dennis Regan said Tuesday. So far, 10 of the 39 abandoned structures have been demolished, he said. "Every building that we've had to deal with to this point has been abated for asbestos," Mr. Regan said. "That's one of our challenges."

July 27, 2012 Video: Vanishing Mayview

Mayview State Hospital closed at the end of 2008, ending its 115 years as an institution for the mentally ill on its grounds in South Fayette and Upper St. Clair townships. It was the last such facility in Allegheny County. Many of the buildings are so close to Mayview Road that passing motorists can’t help but see their deteriorating condition, or the vegetation that has been overwhelming the property.

July 2, 2012 State hospital campus has conundrum

With construction of the new Oregon State Hospital completed, state officials have turned their attention to the remainder of the campus. Officials are in the preliminary stages of determining what will become of the 47-acre Oregon State Hospital North Campus along Center Street NE. “You rarely get a shot like this. It could make a really big difference in the area, or it could be a big disaster,” said Darrin Brightman, a planner with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. State officials haven’t yet made the fundamental decisions about the North Campus’ future, said Brightman, who is part of the team looking at options. The process of creating a plan could take six months, he said.

June 27, 2012 Wernersville State Hospital museum covers 119 years

The archives at Wernersville State Hospital start in a medical room, with a decades-old dental chair and an oxygen tank. Then, visitors go further back in time to a superintendent's bedroom with sparse furnishings and another room filled with the farm equipment for patients' "work therapy." The tour ends in a room filled with photos, old medical implements like lobotomy instruments and patient ledgers from the late 1800s. Hospital librarian Leslie Pirl-Roth has spent about two years creating the archival museum. Her timing is just right; last fall, remnants of Tropical Storm Lee flooded parts of the hospital grounds, including the underground tunnels where the artifacts were stored.

June 25, 2012 Filming begins in Ionia on state hospital documentary

Once upon a time, the Ionia State Hospital was one of the most successful institutions of its kind in Michigan.Or the most notorious. Like so many things, it depends on whom you ask. Joshua Pardon, a film maker with Vantage Point Visual in Ann Arbor, is now doing the asking. With his crew of three, Pardon is in Ionia interviewing people who have had some relationship with the Ionia State Hospital – former employees, patients, teachers, social workers and family members – for a documentary he is making about Michigan state hospitals. Fifteen people filled interview slots.

June 22, 2012 Artist group fashions apologies to patients buried at Eastern State Hospital

At ceremonies held in Lexington on Friday to remember an estimated 4,400 patients at Eastern State Hospital Lexington who were buried on the mental hospital's grounds years ago, 4,400 small cards fashioned into a necklace represented 4,400 apologies for what some people say was a disregard for the bodies. "It's recognizing an injustice that was done to those who were buried in the cemetery, and that is specifically the fact that many people there have been reburied at least three times, ashes are mixed and it is essentially a mass grave," said Bruce Burris, co-owner of Latitude Artist Community, which led the events.

June 21, 2012 Judge allows closure of mental hospital to proceed

A judge on Thursday denied a motion that could have delayed Gov. Pat Quinn's planned closure of a mental hospital in Tinley Park. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Nancy Jo Arnold agreed with state officials on key elements of the case. That means Illinois can close Tinley Park Mental Health Center on July 1 as planned. The plaintiffs had argued that state law requires $19.8 million in savings from the facility closure to go toward other mental health services in the community.

June 8, 2012 A.G. Holley TB patients must go by July 2

In an unexpectedly quick move, A.G. Holley Hospital’s last 36 tuberculosis patients will be transferred out of the Lantana facility by July 2, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday. Less than a week ago, state health officials, who have repeatedly tried to persuade other hospitals to take the patients, said they were still in negotiations with providers. Plans for closing the facility, released late last month, remained short on specifics. And federal permission enabling Medicaid to pay for TB patients’ extended hospital stays was up in the air.

May 28, 2012 Volunteers honor forgotten veterans

Jane Weber has seen the notations “worry over the war,” “gassed during the war” on patient records from the former Toledo State Hospital. She knows some returning soldiers likely suffered from what is known today as post-traumatic stress disorder, but she also knows many veterans who were admitted to the psychiatric hospital in the late 1800s and early 1900s were undoubtedly brought there for physical ailments or age-related conditions like dementia.

May 25, 2012 Senate gives Taunton State Hospital a reprieve

State senators voted on Thursday to give a reprieve to a psychiatric hospital that Gov. Deval Patrick had planned to close as they made progress toward voting on the Senate’s nearly $32.3 billion budget proposal. After passing 55 of the 250 budget amendments they discussed Wednesday, the state Senate resumed debate on the remaining proposals Thursday. It’s unclear when the chamber will vote on the bill. Sen. Marc Pacheco said no one ever gets exactly what they want in the budget. The Taunton Democrat pointed to the amendment that would keep Taunton State Hospital open by maintaining 72 beds. The proposal passed, despite efforts by Gov. Deval Patrick and the state’s House of Representatives to close the over 150-year-old facility.

May 21, 2012 Fergus Falls officials selling off portion of Regional Treatment Center

Fergus Falls city officials are selling off part of the Regional Treatment Center as it continues to look for options to avoid the wrecking ball. The city has made a deal with a group for a section of the former state hospital that currently has six houses on it. They plan to refurbish them and rent them out.

May 15, 2012 Residents say state plan for hospital site falls short

Near a sleepy bend in the Charles River, below the moldering wards of the shuttered Medfield State Hospital, there are broad fields that are anything but bucolic. Buried beneath the tall grass and shrubs across more than 200 acres rests the detritus from another era: ash filled with arsenic, lead, and cadmium from a former coal-fired power plant on the property, along with demolition debris filled with asbestos and decomposing medical supplies such as syringes, bandages, catheters, and intravenous solution bags

May 8, 2012 Former Harrisburg State Hospital grounds on list of state properties that could be for sale

Department of General Services Secretary Sheri Phillips told the Senate State Government Committee that the state could generate up to $9.3 million through the sale of five unused properties, including a piece of the former Harrisburg State Hospital and the Scotland School for Veterans Children.

May 8, 2012 Pennsylvania seeks to sell Allentown State Hospital

Pennsylvania is seeking to sell Allentown State Hospital in Allentown and the Weaversville Secure Treatment Facility in East Allen Township, both of which are closed and vacant. They are among five unused properties the state hopes to sell as part of a plan to generate $9.3 million and save $3.6 million in annual maintenance costs.

April 27, 2012 Demolition continues at former state hospital site

Demolition at the former site of the Brainerd State Hospital is continuing this spring, bringing an end to a facility that once employed many workers and in 1967 cared for an average daily population of 1,294 residents. Opening in 1958, the state hospital saw its patient numbers steadily decline from the early 1970s until the early 1990s, when smaller, community-based treatment facilities became more prevalent. The state campus was a landmark at the junction of Highways 25 and 18.

April 26, 2012 Fate of Taunton State Hospital remains uncertain

The House has supported the Patrick administration's plan to close Taunton State Hospital but approved an amendment requiring some privately run mental health beds in Southeastern Massachusetts. "We're not done with this issue yet. This is just a first step," said Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford. "We have secured at least an initial number of 30 beds to remain in the region, and that's important." But Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said he is disappointed in the House and the fact that the amendment passed late Tuesday by a voice vote. The Patrick-Murray administration stunned SouthCoast in January by announcing it would close the state mental hospital in Taunton on Dec. 31. The plan calls for moving most of the hospital's beds to a new facility in Worcester and the rest of them to Tewksbury Hospital. The roughly 400 employees at Taunton State Hospital will have job opportunities at the new center in Worcester, according to the administration.

April 25, 2012 Developer has big plans for old State Hospital in Bartonville

The old building is still filled with asbestos, but Richard Weiss is already booking overnight stays in the genuinely creepy building that was once called the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane. "I'm thrilled," Weiss said Wednesday. "The city seems happy, too, but it was still 50/50 and the mayor had to break the tie. But everything's good news now that we have the approval." The Village Board agreed to use tax increment financing money to remove asbestos inside the 50,000-square-foot Bowen Building, one of the last remaining buildings on the grounds of the old State Hospital that closed in 1973.

April 5, 2012 Last patients to leave Dorothea Dix in August

Dorothea Dix Hospital will close its doors to its last patients in August, the Council of State voted Tuesday, ending an era of treating the mentally ill that began in 1856. State officials agreed to transfer the last 30 beds, including 22 patients, that are part of the forensic minimum security unit to Central Regional Hospital in Butner. It was expected to be the final step in what has been a decades-long process of closing the psychiatric hospital located just south of downtown Raleigh.