Main Page

__NOTITLE__

Welcome to Asylum Projects, A historic asylum wiki anyone can edit. 2,325 articles and counting

We need your help! Click here to find out how.

Mission Statement

The Mission

The mission of this site is to archive both historical and current information on asylums across the United States and around the world.

The Statement

This site is dedicated to the history of asylums in all forms. The term of asylum is applied to not only what is commonly thought of: mental hospitals, but can also be applied to sanatoriums, state training schools, reform schools, almshouses, and orphanages. These institutions have and continue to play a major part in today's society.

Everyone throughout the United States and in many other countries has in one way or another felt the touch of these institutions. These places have both directly and indirectly affected people and their families. They have shaped lives and created many popular myths about them.

With all that in mind, this site was created to help in the historical research of any institutions that can be classified as an asylum. It was created for both serious researchers, those who are doing genealogical research, and people with an interest in asylums.

Featured Article Of The Week Provincial Hospital for the Insane Ponoka Before Alberta existed as a Canadian province, citizens of the North-West Territories deemed to suffer from mental illness were sent to an asylum in Brandon, Manitoba for treatment. However, in 1908, it became clear that the burgeoning population (alongside a growing number of psychiatric patients and "mental defectives") meant that a new institution must be built. The provincial government began constructing Alberta's first mental health institution in Ponoka. The site was deliberately chosen as a rural area - medical advice of the day required fresh air and immersion in nature as remedies for troubled minds. The hospital was also self-sustaining, using gardens to supply its own food. The hospital officially opened in 1911 as the Alberta Hospital for the Insane, and construction finished in 1912. During the early and mid-twentieth century, this institution was the primary mental health institution of the province. When the hospital first opened, very few nurses worked there, with little knowledge of psychiatric nursing. However, when Dr. Baragar was appointed Acting Superintendent of the hospital, he also established a nursing school. Dr. Baragar, a psychiatrist from Brandon Mental Hospital, strongly felt that nursing care of "the complexities of the mind" should be a profession in its own right. Click here for more... Archive, Future Featured Articles. Featured Image Of The Week The main building of the centre was built in 1913, and was meant to be an Alberta ladies' college. It was converted into a soldiers' sanitorium after World War I (WWI), before 1923 when the building was reorganized yet again. Many of the soldiers in care at the sanitorium were sent to Oliver Mental Hospital. The building then became the Provincial Training School. The school was necessary to meet a huge demand in Alberta to house "mentally defective" children and teenagers. Archive, Future Featured Images.

Asylum News   (news you can edit!) February 7, 2016 Clarinda struggles to fill former hospital The 128-year-old former mental health institute in the small southwest Iowa city of Clarinda isn’t your typical real estate opportunity, and so far no one is rushing to move in. More than seven months after the state closed the Clarinda Mental Health Institute, much of the sprawling building remains empty, including entire floors that haven’t been used in decades. February 1, 2016 Efforts continue to preserve other parts of former Peoria State Hospital grounds Christina Morris happily remembers Sunday morning breakfasts with her grandparents, followed by visits to the peaceful cemeteries on the grounds of the Peoria State Hospital, where some family members are buried. “My interest with the state hospital started when I was about 7 years old,” Morris said in a recent interview. “When I would come onto the grounds (my grandfather) would say that this was a place of special people. (By special) I thought he meant giants, because these buildings were so big and beautiful and immaculate to me. I just was enamored by how beautiful it was.” January 7, 2016 That Time The United States Sterilized 60,000 Of Its Citizens Not too long ago, more than 60,000 people were sterilized in the United States based on eugenic laws. Most of these operations were performed before the 1960s in institutions for the so-called “mentally ill” or “mentally deficient.” In the early 20th century across the country, medical superintendents, legislators, and social reformers affiliated with an emerging eugenics movement joined forces to put sterilization laws on the books. January, 6, 2016 Pa. hires firm to develop plan for Harrisburg State Hospital site Harrisburg, PA-The state has hired a Lancaster planning company to help it figure out what to do with the former Harrisburg State Hospital, which closed 10 years ago. Since closing in 2006, the hospital complex has housed state workers from the state police, Department of General Services and the Department of Human Services. It is now part of the larger DGS Annex property, which encompasses 303 acres across Harrisburg and Susquehanna Township.