Sep 14 2008
Over 200 People Tour State Hospital
Public tours of Oregon State Hospital’s “Cuckoo’s Nest” received rave reviews Saturday from participants, including history buffs, movie fans and curiosity-seekers.
State employees guided about 200 people through vacated, decaying sections of the J Building, as well as into sprawling tunnels that extend beneath the facility.
Advance publicity about the tours created a huge demand for more, officials said. At least 600 more people have signaled interest in touring the antiquated facility. It remains to be seen whether the state Department of Human Services will sponsor more tours.
Agency officials who organized Saturday’s event expressed concerns about devoting more state staffing and work time to J Building tours.
“Right now, resource-wise, I don’t know how we can possibly continue to do tours,” said Jodie Jones, a DHS official. “The demand is so great that one more day isn’t going to do it. Then where do you stop?”
Many of Saturday’s tour participants said they considered themselves lucky to get a detailed, inside look at a Salem landmark that earned a niche in cinematic history when it was used to film the 1975 movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
“It was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity,” said Vickran Harinau, a self-described history buff who traveled from Seattle with a friend to take a tour that lasted about an hour. “A lot of times, these kinds of tours can be very perfunctory, but they really put their heart into making it interesting and informative.”
Members of each tour group got a chance to pose questions to Dean Brooks, the retired hospital superintendent who gave movie makers permission to film “Cuckoo’s Nest” inside the hospital.
Harinau said his favorite part of the tour came deep inside the J Building, during a stop at a long-dormant shower room. That’s where tour organizers displayed a hydrotherapy machine, used as a key prop in the movie’s climactic scene.
The Oscar-winning movie, based on the novel by Oregon author Ken Kesey, starred Jack Nicholson as a rebellious mental patient. After his character is left docile by a lobotomy, another patient, angered and empowered by his friend’s demise, hoists the heavy hydrotherapy machine over his head and throws it through a screened window, clearing the way for his escape from “Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Like many tour participants, Willamette University freshman Halley Arneson said she felt a desire to watch the movie again.
“This really brought it to life,” she said. “I really want to watch it now.”
Arneson said the tour also provided history lessons. She was surprised to learn that about 3,800 patients were packed into the psychiatric facility during the 1950s, compared to about 600 today. During the hospital’s peak population, excess patients had to be housed in the hospital’s tunnel system.
For John Ritter, Saturday’s tour was a memory-triggering kind of homecoming. In the 1970s, Ritter taught science and social skills to children who were patients enrolled in a treatment program housed in the J Building.
“It’s been 30 years since I’ve been here,” he said. “It’s amazing. A lot of memories come back.”
Ritter recalled how many of the hospitalized children ran errands for the Hollywood movie crew that worked on “Cuckoo’s Nest.”
He remembered how he and the children raised frogs for science experiments in bathtubs in the old shower room.
And he remembered how then-superintendent Brooks called on him one day to conduct a tour for a special state hospital visitor. The guest turned out to be famous writer Norman Mailer, who was conducting research for what turned out to be an award-winning book, “The Executioner’s Song.”
“Very nice man,” Ritter said. “He bought me lunch later.”
The guides for Saturday’s tours said they were gratified to hear many positive comments from participants.
“So far, we’ve gotten very positive feedback,” Jones said. “Nobody has had a negative comment yet that I’ve heard. Some people have been amazed at how patients did, and still do, live in this facility.”
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.
Plans call for front sections of the J Building, including its distinctive tower, to be preserved. Other sections of the building will be demolished to make way for new hospital construction.
Construction of the 620-bed state-of-the-art facility is scheduled to start next spring and be completed in 2011.
StatesmanJournal.com PhotoGallery (click)
Source: StatesmanJournal
Photo by Thomas Patterson, StatesmanJournal
This is interesting to me. I used to work in the geriatrics department in the early 70s. My instructor was Hazel Brown. I was being trained through my high school and received school credit. It was called the PAN program and I got my CNA license. I toured the vocational rehabilitation department and the kitchen and woodshop. It brought back memories of the hospital and the staff when I read these articles.