A planned one-day series of final public tours of Oregon State Hospital’s “Cuckoo’s Nest” proved to be a hotter ticket than anybody anticipated.

As of Tuesday, 210 people had registered for Saturday’s guided tours through obsolete sections of the 125-year-old J Building, best known as a primary filming location of the 1975 Oscar-winning movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

At least 15 more people who wanted to tour the creaking building were placed on a waiting list because the unpublicized event was booked to capacity. Officials said registrations will continue to be accepted on a state Department of Human Services Web site. If enough people sign up — at least 100 — agency officials said they might hold another round of tours.

“We honestly didn’t think we were going to have that much interest in it, but we’re finding that there’s a lot of interest,” said DHS official Jodie Jones. “I don’t know that we will be able to do another day, but we will certainly entertain the thought.”

Saturday, small groups will be guided through long-dormant sections of the J Building. They also will visit a tunnel system that extends under the massive building, and get a glimpse at a documentary film that looked back on the making of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Former hospital superintendent Dean Brooks is expected to attend the event and share his remembrances about the movie. It was Brooks who allowed Hollywood moviemakers into the hospital in the 1970s. About 90 hospital patients served as extras in the movie; Brooks had a speaking role as a weak-willed hospital administrator. Jack Nicholson starred as a rebellious mental patient.

Saturday’s event initially was designed as a reward for historical preservationists who waged a successful campaign to place the state hospital on the National Register of Historic Places. To satisfy activists, state officials agreed to preserve the oldest parts of the J Building and incorporate them into plans to build a new hospital on the grounds of the existing facility in central Salem.

Construction of the new $250 million psychiatric facility is to begin next spring and should be completed by the fall of 2011. Front sections of the J Building, including its distinctive tower, will be preserved; other parts will be demolished.

Remodeled portions of the J Building will house a museum on the history of mental-health care and a resting place for the cremated remains of more than 3,000 patients who died at the hospital during its first century.

Source: Statesman Journal, Alan Gustafson

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