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Welcome to Asylum Projects, A historic asylum wiki anyone can edit. 2,385 articles and counting

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Mission Statement

The Mission

The mission of this site is to archive both historical and current information on asylums across the United States and around the world.

The Statement

This site is dedicated to the history of asylums in all forms. The term of asylum is applied to not only what is commonly thought of: mental hospitals, but can also be applied to sanatoriums, state training schools, reform schools, almshouses, and orphanages. These institutions have and continue to play a major part in today's society.

Everyone throughout the United States and in many other countries has in one way or another felt the touch of these institutions. These places have both directly and indirectly affected people and their families. They have shaped lives and created many popular myths about them.

With all that in mind, this site was created to help in the historical research of any institutions that can be classified as an asylum. It was created for both serious researchers, those who are doing genealogical research, and people with an interest in asylums.

Featured Article Of The Week

Mt. Vernon Insane Hospital

Constructed by the US Army in 1828 for making munitions originally. In the late 1880s the arsenal was used to confine captured Native Americans including Geronimo. The land was deeded to the state of Alabama in 1895 and the hospital was built in 1902 to relieve overcrowding at Bryce State Hospital.

Mount Vernon Hospital for the colored insane, now known as Searcy Hospital, was opened in May 1902. Prior to the opening of the Mount Vernon facility, African American patients were maintained in segregated quarters at Bryce State Hospital in Tuscaloosa, which opened in1860. The 1863 annual report reflects an all white patient population. However, by 1868 annual reports indicates a payment of $1900 by the Freedman’s Bureau to care for the twenty-six African American patients at the facility. By the end of 1902, four hundred African American patients were at the Mount Vernon facility.

It served African-Americans exclusively until 1969, when it was desegregated after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted. On May 26, 1988, the Mount Vernon Arsenal/Searcy Hospital Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District. The current site is made up of 25 buildings over 360 acres. The modern-day Searcy Hospital currently has 408 extended-care beds and a 124-bed intermediate care unit for patients with severe mental illness. It also serves the female forensic in-patient psychiatric center for the southern 1/3 of Alabama. Click here for more...

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Featured Image Of The Week

The planning for a state hospital for the mentally ill in Alabama began in 1852. The new facility was planned from the start to utilize the "moral architecture" concepts of 1850's activists Thomas Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the imposing Italianate building after Kirkbride's model plan. The construction was an important source of employment in Reconstruction-era Tuscaloosa. The facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

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Featured Video

The following is a 1954 training film for psychiatric aides. It was filmed at Fairfield State Hospital.

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Recent Message Board Posts

For everyone asking genealogical questions, please read this message from the administrators.

Hello,

In this space you normally would see our forum. This had been a hold over from earlier days before we had a Facebook page. Just prior to our server issues regular users had been barely using the forum with the majority of new posts from anonymous users asking genealogy questions or spammers. The old forum software does not work with our new version while the new forum software does not carry over old comments to the new forum. As a result, the forum will be discontinued in favor of our Facebook page. If you have questions or comments you can ask them there.

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