The Richardson Olmsted Campus in Buffalo, New York, United States, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[2][3] The site was designed by the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson in concert with the famed landscape team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the late 1800s, incorporating a system of treatment for people with mental illness developed by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride known as the Kirkbride Plan. Over the years, as mental health treatment changed and resources were diverted, the buildings and grounds began a slow deterioration. By 1974, the last patients were removed from the historic wards. On June 24th, 1986, the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane was added to the National Historic Landmark registry. In 2006, the Richardson Center Corporation was formed to restore the buildings.
Today, the Richardson Olmsted Campus is being converted, beginning with the now open Hotel Richardson within the Towers Building and two flanking buildings (about one-third of the Campus). The Hotel Richardson also includes Cafe Calvert, Bar Vaux, and their new restaurant Cucina. The remaining buildings have been stabilized by the Richardson Center Corporation, with a plan by new developer Douglas Jemal to complete restoration.
Future plans for the site include the construction of a new museum in Buffalo's cultural corridor, known as the Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo. The museum will focus on the city's rich architectural history and collection of now-preserved buildings.
History
In 1865, Senator Asher P. Nichols introduced a bill for additional mental health asylums to be built in New York State, with one dedicated to servicing the western portion of the state.
Nichol's request was approved, and towns across Western New York began to enter bids to become the home of the new asylum. Buffalo was chosen from a group of possible locations that included Lockport, New York, Batavia, New York, and Warsaw, New York. The City of Buffalo promised to supply the future asylum with 100 years of free drinking water, and its location in a rural setting close to a bustling downtown was ideal for the Kirkbride Plan. Kirkbride had called for a patient population of around 300, but Buffalo physician Dr. John P. Gray (who was overseeing the project), increased that number to about 600.
Construction started in 1871, with the cornerstone being placed the following year in 1872. On November 15th, 1880, the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane admitted patients for the first time, although only the eastern wards had been completed (the western side would not be finished until 1895).
In 1889, New York State approved funding for the remainder of the asylum to be constructed. H.H. Richardson had died in 1886, so architects Green and Wicks (Edward Brodhead Green), and William W. Carlin finished the project. Certain elements changed, but the new architects attempted to emulate Richardson's distinct style for the remainder of the asylum.
The next year in 1890, the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane changed its name to the Buffalo State Hospital. That same year, New York passed new legislation establishing mental health treatment as the state's responsibility. A facility built for around 600, soon became overcrowded.
The remainder of the western wards were finished in 1895. Patients were now segregated by sex, with women in the western wings and men in the eastern wings.
In 1918, Richardson's iconic towers that were covered in clay-tile roofing, were re-covered in copper.
The 100 acre farm that existed on site and was once used for agricultural therapy was sold by New York State in 1927 to Buffalo State University. This decreased the campus's size from 203 acres, to around 100. Six years later in 1933, part of the Olmsted-designed green space (known as the South Lawn), was paved over to create a parking lot.
In the early 1960s, three male wards are demolished to make room for a modern rehabilitation center. The Strozzi Building was completed in 1964, essentially marking the final decline of the original asylum.
The towers building remained open as office space until 1990. Afterwards, the Richardson-designed structure sat unoccupied and decaying for almost twenty years (further out wards had already been abandoned much earlier). In 2006, the Richardson Center Corporation, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the campus, gained control of the property and completed initial stabilization.
Architecture
The man selected to design the Buffalo State Asylum in May 1870, was Henry Hobson Richardson. Although born on a plantation near New Orleans, he was an 1858 graduate of Harvard College. From there attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris. Afterwards, he started working as a draftsman in an architectural firm in France.
In New York City after returning from France, he became acquainted with Frederick Law Olmsted. They were neighbors on Staten Island, had offices near one another on Broadway, and the two had similar artistic tastes. When Olmsted was invited to Buffalo in 1869 to design a park for the city, he met with some of the city’s leading citizens. Among them was William Dorsheimer, a successful lawyer (and later Lieutenant Governor of New York), who asked Olmsted to recommend an architect to design a new house for Dorsheimer. Olmsted recommended Richardson, and the house he designed for Dorsheimer still stands at 438 Delaware Avenue.
Dorsheimer would later chair the ten member committee assigned to select the asylum’s architect. Based on Dorsheimer’s experience with him, he directed the committee in its meeting of May 1870, to hire Richardson.
The Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, the largest commission of Richardson's career, marked the advent of his characteristic Romanesque Revival style. When emulated by later architects, this style is referred to as Richardsonian Romanesque. It has been the subject of a long-term preservation campaign. Nevertheless, three pavilions on the east side were demolished in the 1970s to make way for newer psychiatric facilities.[5] In 1927, the northern farmlands were transferred back to the State for the development of what is today Buffalo State College.[6]
Architectural plans and drawings are in the H.H. Richardson Collection in the Houghton Library at Harvard University.[7]
Olmsted and Landscape Design
Plans for the asylum grounds were created in about 1870 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the partners who had designed Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. However, before they were implemented, the plans were lost and the partnership broke up. Olmsted then created another plan, and a partial record of which still exists today.
This plan shows the southeast corner of the front of the asylum, that is, the land south of the administrative (towers) building to Forest Avenue and everything east to Elmwood Avenue. On this ground was laid out an entrance road that looped from Forest Avenue to the front of the administration building and a large curving path in front of the east wing of the hospital in the angle of Forest and Elmwood Avenues. More paths ran in front of the hospital wing. A sunken carriage path was also intended in the southeast corner of the property, but this was never constructed.
On this ground, Olmsted’s plan called for the planting of 150 trees, and up to 2000 shrubs. Except in the far southeast corner, the trees were spaced well apart and created an almost forest-like environment. Early photos suggest Olmsted let trees that were already growing on the site remain. The trees and shrubs were selected for contrasting shapes, sizes, and leaf appearance. The overall intent was to create what was termed a “pastoral landscape”, and it was Olmsted’s intent that this open landscape allow the public to see onto the property and the buildings themselves, and for the patients to clearly see the outer world during their walks on the grounds and through their windows.
Today, all that remains of Olmsted’s plantings are two Swamp White Oaks that stand directly in front of the administrative building and a huge White Ash that stands near the property’s fence line along Forest Avenue. Until 2019, an original Silver Maple also stood in front of the east wing of the Buffalo Psychiatric Center property.
Mental Health Treatment in Early America
Now seen in a negative light by some, at the time mental health asylums were a revolutionary concept and a huge step forward in care for the mentally ill. Many asylums placed an emphasis not only on medical practices, but on architecture and design as well. Living at an asylum was not meant to only impact mental health issues, but to cure them. Before this movement, the mentally ill were often housed in almshouses and jails, and were often subjected to archaic practices like bloodletting, isolation, and restraintment.
The first hospital to focus solely on mental health opened in 1773 in Williamsburg, Virginia and was known as the Eastern State Hospital. In the early parts of the 19th century, more mental hospitals were established across the United States including McLean Hospital in Boston, Friend’s Asylum in Philadelphia, and the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut. While undoubtedly influenced by the treatment of the mentally ill in Europe, some historians believe that asylums in America grew out of the Jacksonian Era. This period was marked by financial fluctuation, social change, and growing interconnectivity, and historians believe the need for “order” saw with it an increased need for asylums.
The need to create livable places to house the mentally ill became apparent by the mid-19th century. Reformers like Dorothea Dix began to push for more funding and legislation aimed at creating mental health asylums across the United States. Dix travelled across both the United States and Europe, advocating for the importance of asylums and bringing the issue to the forefront of the American consciousness. Perhaps her greatest contribution to the effort, was the proposed Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane (1854). Later struck down by President Franklin Pierce, this bill would have set aside ten million acres of federal land for the construction of mental health facilities. Dix may have been unsuccessful , but her efforts directly correlated to the construction of 32 mental health hospitals across the United States.
At the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, a renewed focus on the construction of mental health facilities swept across America.
Thomas Story Kirkbride and the Kirkbride Plan
Thomas Story Kirkbride was born in Morrisville, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1809. Kirkbride was born into a Quaker family, and was the great-great grandson of Joseph Kirkbride, who was one of the original settlers in Pennsylvania in 1682. At 18, he began his formal education at The College of New Jersey. In 1831, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his surgeon's degree in 1832. Post-education, he became a resident physician at The Quaker Asylum at Frankfurt.
From 1835 to 1841, he opened his own practice in Philadelphia that focused on neurological and psychosurgical practices. In October of 1840, he was named Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, and began admitting patients the following year. In 1844 he helped found the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII). From 1862 to 1870, he served as secretary, and then president of the AMSAII.
The Kirkbride Plan was the approach to mental health care created by Thomas Story Kirkbride, and highlighted in his work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment. His concepts were revolutionary for the 19th century, and were rooted in a system of mental health treatment known as moral treatment. Moral treatment was based on humane psychological care and moral discipline. Moral treatment grew out of The Enlightenment, which promoted ideals like individual rights and social reform. William Tuke and Philippe Pinel are often credited with developing this form of treatment.
Kirkbride believed that in many cases, mental health problems could be treated as an acute issue. The asylum was intended to provide refuge from everyday life, and the environment a patient was in was just as important as the medical treatment they were receiving. Kirkbride placed a direct emphasis on fresh air, sunlight, and exercise, and believed they were directly involved in treating mental illness.
When it came to layout, the Kirkbride Plan prescribed a v-shaped grounds with one central administrative building. The Kirkbride Plan was also known as the “congregate plan” or “linear plan”. The plan is remarkable for being the first scientific architectural response to mental health care.
The Kirkbride Plan also gave recommendations for the interior layout and size of an asylum. In Kirkbride’s own words, “Each ward should have in it a parlor, a dining room with a dumb waiter connected with it, a speaking tube/telephone leading to the kitchen, a corridor, single lodging rooms for patients, a dormitory with no less than 4 beds, one or two larger patient rooms for those requiring an attendant, a clothes room, a bathroom, and a wash/sink room.”
Ward corridors were to be at least 12 feet wide. Patient rooms were to be 11 feet deep by 9 feet wide, and would include just one single bed. Rooms were to be 16 feet high with wood floors and soundproofing. Kirkbride also called for the max number of patients to be around 250 (the Buffalo State Asylum increased this number to 600).
Fireproofing was also important to Kirkbride’s plan. Every building connector was to have stone floors, and iron doors on one side that could be closed to avert fire.
In adherence to the Kirkbride Plan, the Richardson Olmsted Campus (Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane) consists of a central administrative tower and five pavilions or wards progressively set back on each side, for eleven buildings total, all connected by short curved two-story corridors. Patients were segregated by sex, males on the east side, females on the west. Patients that required the most attention were placed in the outermost wards. As their situations improved, they would be subsequently moved further in towards the administration building. Once there, patients could engage in more social activities. Some examples include agricultural therapy, baseball, and holiday parties.
By the 1900s, asylums gave way to “state hospitals”. This change in vernacular illustrated the shifting view on patient treatment and the overall declining stigma placed on mental health. More standard Kirkbride Plan asylums also gave way to the new "cottage plan" configuration. Instead of one sprawling asylum building, the cottage plan consisted of numerous out-buildings that each focused on one specific thing (tuberculosis building, surgery building, etc.). It is during this time that a collection of out-buildings are constructed at the Richardson Olmsted Campus.
In the mid-20th century, the Buffalo State Hospital (Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane), saw an unmanageable influx of patients suffering from chronic issues. What was once a facility designed to cure acute illnesses, quickly became overcrowded. By 1940, a facility designed to hold around 600 patients had seen their patient population balloon to almost 4,000. In 1963, the then-modern Strozzi Building was constructed on campus to address these concerns.
Patient records from 1881 to 1975 are in the collection of the New York State Archives in Albany, NY.[clarification needed][8][9][10]
Preservation Efforts
The Preservation Coalition of Erie County (renamed "Preservation Buffalo Niagara" in October 2008) filed a lawsuit resulting in New York State establishing the Richardson Center Corporation in 2006 to rehabilitate the site and the State committing $100 million towards rehabilitation. Both former New York State Assembly Member Sam Hoyt, and former Buffalo State College President Muriel A. Howard, were involved in plans for the restoration and reuse of the Richardson.[11]
Perimeter fencing and lighting were installed and a Peace Officer was hired to conduct regular patrols and prevent and deter further crime at the complex.[12] On March 5, 2008, stabilization began with the most severely damaged buildings, including the roof and down-spouts.[13] Stabilization was completed in 2012.[14]
On April 10, 2010, a fire occurred. The cause of the fire was under investigation. Damage was estimated at $200,000.[15]
In 2013, the South Lawn landscape on the property was completed.[16]
During the planning stages, the Richardson Center Corporation has used an active public process, aimed to help to inform the Master Plan during all phases of redevelopment for the Campus, including several public meetings. A Community Advisory Group includes representatives from the adjacent neighborhoods, business districts, cultural institutions, Buffalo Psychiatric Center, SUNY Buffalo State, and historic preservation groups.[17]
Currently[when?], the building is being restored by Douglas Development Corporation.
Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference Center
On January 25, 2013, Phase I plans were announced to redevelop one third of the Campus into Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference Center, 100 Acres: The Kitchens at Hotel Henry and the Buffalo Architecture Center, both within the Towers Building and two flanking buildings.[18]
This first phase of redevelopment was completed in 2016. Hotel Henry and the 100 Acres opened in May 2017. In 2020, due to the stress of the global covid-19 pandemic, Hotel Henry closed. [14][19]
Douglas Development and Hotel Richardson
In 2021, Douglas Development Corporation (Douglas Jemal) began leasing the property from the non-profit Richardson Center Corporation, with the intent to restore the remaining buildings on Campus.
As of summer 2023, planning continues for the construction of the Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo at the Richardson Olmsted Campus. The proposed cultural institution will focus on Western New York's rich architectural history.
Recently, the LACB opened two exhibits on the ground floor of the Hotel Richardson. One with a focus on general Buffalo architecture, and one that provides a brief history of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane.
In Popular Culture
Lizzie D. Cottier surreptitiously wrote a novel, The Right Spirit,[20] in 1885 while committed to the Buffalo State Asylum.[21]
In 1983 a portion of a ground floor hallway and one hospital room were prepared to appear as a maternity ward and used as a location for The Natural, where the character Roy Hobbs, as played by Robert Redford, was shown recovering from internal injuries. [citation needed]
Mount Massive Asylum, the main setting for the 2013 horror game Outlast, was modeled after the Richardson Olmsted Complex.[22]
Plans, Drawings, Images, Records
Architectural plans and drawings, and internal records from the Buffalo State Hospital are found in several places. Most are offline and undigitized.
Henry Hobson Richardson drawings, including the Buffalo State Hospital/Richardson Complex, are at Harvard University. They are not digitized.
Job #612, New York State Asylum for the Insane: Flickr album of sketches and drawings for the grounds of the Buffalo State Hospital, fully digitized courtesy of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Park Service Site.
St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The hospital opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States.
The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings, were constructed during the mid-to-late-19th century in the United States.
The Danvers State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, and The Danvers State Insane Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts. It was built in 1874, and opened in 1878, under the supervision of prominent Boston architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts. It was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital designed and built according to the Kirkbride Plan.
Bryce Hospital opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is Alabama's oldest and largest inpatient psychiatric facility. First known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and later as the Alabama Insane Hospital, the building is considered an architectural model. The hospital houses 268 beds for acute care, treatment and rehabilitation of full-time (committed) patients. The Mary Starke Harper Geriatric Psychiatry Hospital, a separate facility on the same campus, provides an additional 100 beds for inpatient geriatric care. The main facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Taunton State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located on Hodges Avenue in Taunton, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it was originally known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton. It was the second state asylum in Massachusetts. Most of the original part of the facility was built in a unique and rare neo-classical style designed by architects Boyden & Ball. It is also a Kirkbride Plan hospital and is located on a large 154-acre (62 ha) farm along the Mill River.
The Athens Lunatic Asylum, now a mixed-use development known as The Ridges, was a Kirkbride Plan mental hospital operated in Athens, Ohio, from 1874 until 1993. During its operation, the hospital provided services to a variety of patients including Civil War veterans, children, and those declared mentally unwell. After a period of disuse the property was redeveloped by the state of Ohio. Today, The Ridges are a part of Ohio University and house the Kennedy Museum of Art as well as an auditorium and many offices, classrooms, and storage facilities.
Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital referred to both the former psychiatric hospital and the historic building that it occupied in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Built in 1876, the facility was built to alleviate overcrowding at the state's only other "lunatic asylum" located in Trenton, New Jersey.
Agnews Developmental Center was a psychiatric and medical care facility, located in Santa Clara, California.
Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem with a smaller satellite campus in Junction City opened in 2014. Founded in 1862 and constructed in the Kirkbride Plan design in 1883, it is the oldest operating psychiatric hospital in the state of Oregon, and one of the oldest continuously operated hospitals on the West Coast.
The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, also known as Kirkbride's Hospital or the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, was a psychiatric hospital located at 48th and Haverford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It operated from its founding in 1841 until 1997. The remaining building, now called the Kirkbride Center is now part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital located in Weston, West Virginia and known by other names such as West Virginia Hospital for the Insane and Weston State Hospital. The asylum was open to patients from October 1864 until May 1994. The new hospital in Weston has been named for William R. Sharpe, Jr. who was a member of the West Virginia Senate. After closure, the hospital once again became known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum after reopening as a tourist location in March 2008.
The New York State Inebriate Asylum, later known as Binghamton State Hospital, was the first institution designed and constructed to treat alcoholism as a mental disorder in the United States. Located in Binghamton, NY, its imposing Gothic Revival exterior was designed by New York architect Isaac G. Perry and construction was completed in 1864. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997. In 2015, Binghamton University announced it had taken stewardship of the building and will proceed with plans for rehabilitation of the building.
Asylum architecture in the United States, including the architecture of psychiatric hospitals, affected the changing methods of treating the mentally ill in the nineteenth century: the architecture was considered part of the cure. Doctors believed that ninety percent of insanity cases were curable, but only if treated outside the home, in large-scale buildings. Nineteenth-century psychiatrists considered the architecture of asylums, especially their planning, to be one of the most powerful tools for the treatment of the insane, targeting social as well as biological factors to facilitate the treatment of mental illnesses. The construction and usage of these quasi-public buildings served to legitimize developing ideas in psychiatry. About 300 psychiatric hospitals, known at the time as insane asylums or colloquially as “loony bins” or “nuthouses,” were constructed in the United States before 1900. Asylum architecture is notable for the way similar floor plans were built in a wide range of architectural styles.
The Hudson River State Hospital is a former New York state psychiatric hospital which operated from 1873 until its closure in the early 2000s. The campus is notable for its main building, known as a "Kirkbride," which has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building. It is located on US 9 on the Poughkeepsie-Hyde Park town line.
Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital, commonly known as Royal Park is a former Receiving House and Psychiatric Hospital located in Parkville. Operating for over 90 years, Royal Park Hospital was the first psychiatric hospital established in Victoria after the Lunacy Act of 1903, and was intended for patients with curable disorders. Built on the north-western edge of the 181 hectare parklands known as Royal Park, Royal Park Hospital along with Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Children's Hospital and Mount Royal formed the Parkville Hospital Precinct. Following the hospital's closure in the 1990s, several of the hospital's original buildings have been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register for their historic and architectural values.
Worcester State Hospital was a Massachusetts state mental hospital located in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is credited to the architectural firm of Weston & Rand. The hospital and surrounding associated historic structures are listed as Worcester Asylum and related buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute was a psychiatric institution located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA. Originally known as the Iowa Lunatic Asylum, it opened in 1861. It is located on the same campus as The Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. There was also a labyrinth of tunnels which connected every building. It was the first asylum in Iowa and was built under the Kirkbride Plan.
The Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center is a former hospital located in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. It was built in the Kirkbride Plan style and first opened to patients in 1890. Over the next century it operated as one of the state's main hospitals for the mentally ill and also worked with people with developmental disabilities and chemical dependency issues. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center is a psychiatric hospital operated by the state of Maine. It is located at 656 State Street in Bangor, and was previously known as the Eastern Maine Insane Asylum and the Bangor Mental Health Institute. It was established in 1895, and the main building on its campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Maine Insane Hospital, later the Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI), was a psychiatric hospital in Augusta, Maine. It was the principal facility for the care and treatment of Maine's mentally ill from 1840 to 2004, and its surviving buildings represent the oldest surviving complex of mental care facilities in the United States. The complex is located on the east bank of the Kennebec River, immediately south of the former Kennebec Arsenal, and now primarily houses state offices. In 2004, the hospital was replaced by the Riverview Psychiatric Center, located just to the south. The hospital's core complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, with the listing enlarged to encompass the entire campus in 2001.
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