My grandfather was the superintendent of a Kirkbride Plan hospital for a number of years -- the one in Traverse City. My mother was raised there . . . she used to say that being born in the loony-bin explained much.
OoOoOo...thanks for keeping us updated with that Harlequin/RWA announcement! That definitely changes the playing field for us aspiring romance authors.
Oh, thanks for putting the link up for the Kirkbridge Plan buildings. I'm a student in Cornell's Historic Preservation Planning program (I'm working on getting my masters in saving old buildings) and someone in my program is actively working on saving a Kirkbridge Planned Asylum - somewhere in Pennsylvania.
One of my professor's mentioned that this student was getting a lot of mail about his role in trying to save the building - a lot of hate mail. These buildings are hard to preserve because so many people suffered in them. I know one woman sent him her mother's autopsy that the doctor's at this asylum did on her. It was apparently pretty gruesome and complete with pictures.
So, its nice to see something about people liking and WANTING to save these buildings.
I admit, my feelings about Kirkbride buildings are mixed. They are beautiful, and I think they are an important piece of history that needs to be preserved (seriously--few things tell you more about nineteenth century American idealism, and its failures, than a Kirkbride building), but--for instance--I would be incredibly uncomfortable LIVING in one. (And not just because, well, you know, we've seen that movie.) Really, the ideal would be to make them museums of psychiatric history, so that both their beauty and the dreadful suffering that that beauty failed to prevent would be commemorated and preserved.
Also, what an awesome master's degree program. I wish you--and your colleague with the Kirkbride--the best of luck.
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Date: 2009-11-19 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 08:42 pm (UTC)I see the Traverse City State Hospital is one of the ones that hasn't been destroyed.
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Date: 2009-11-19 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 10:54 pm (UTC)One of my professor's mentioned that this student was getting a lot of mail about his role in trying to save the building - a lot of hate mail. These buildings are hard to preserve because so many people suffered in them. I know one woman sent him her mother's autopsy that the doctor's at this asylum did on her. It was apparently pretty gruesome and complete with pictures.
So, its nice to see something about people liking and WANTING to save these buildings.
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Date: 2009-11-19 11:32 pm (UTC)Also, what an awesome master's degree program. I wish you--and your colleague with the Kirkbride--the best of luck.
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Date: 2009-11-20 04:11 am (UTC)*swoons with geological love*
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Date: 2009-11-20 07:10 am (UTC)...did you see..the ...
...oh man, an underwater, underwater river. That's frickin' fantastic.
*mind* *blown*