Oct 19 2007
Thomas Kirkbride: Architect of Mental Health Care
Thomas Kirkbride revolutionized the care of the mentally ill, when he was working in Pennsylvania. He conceived the design for mental health care that became the blueprint for the design and construction of the Oregon State Hospital.Thanks to http://uchs.net/HistoricDistricts/kirkbride.html for the below information:
The movement to improve the treatment of the insane during the nineteenth century is an outstanding chapter in the history of American social and humanitarian developments. Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride occupies a prominent position in that story, for he built a hospital for the mentally ill in Philadelphia prior to the Civil War that influenced the construction of similar institutions in thirty-one other states. Furthermore, the concept behind Kirkbride’s hospital, that the insane should be treated with the same personal consideration as other ill people, motivated a new understanding of, and regard for the mentally ill.
Wilbur F. Boothby, architect of the Oregon State Hospital’s “J” Building, was also a prominent designer and builder of many of Salem’s now historic buildings. He was the architect for the Asahel Bush House, the old State Capitol (destroyed by fire), the elaborate Italiante style Marion County Courthouse (now gone,) and the State Penitentiary. He also designed and built the entire 23 bay South Eldridge Building on Commercial St NE. Today only the southern-most seven bay section of the 1889 Eldridge block remains housing Greenbaums and The Art Department.The rest of the buildings were torn down in the 1970’s to create the Chemeketa Parkade.