Central State Hospital Louisville

Central State Hospital
Construction Began	1868
Construction Ended	1869
Opened	1869
Closed	1986
Current Status	Demolished
Building Style	Kirkbride Plan
Location	Louisville,KY
Peak Patient Population	2,400
Alternate Names	Third Kentucky Lunatic Asylum Lakeland State Hospital Central State Hospital

History

With Eastern and Western State Hospitals seriously overcrowded the state opened the Third Kentucky Lunatic Asylum near Anchorage. Originally known as the House of Reform for Juvenile Delinquents at Lakeland. Several years later the hospital began to house patients of all ages. By the 1920s allegations of abuse and neglect became an issue and beginning in the '30s the hospital began to perform lobotomies electroshock therapy and other methods to treat patients. In 1941 A grand jury label Lakeland an overcrowded fire trap and describe the stench in the wards as "awful" and denounced the practice of committing those that were neither insane or psychotic. There were 2,400 patients in buildings designed to house only 1,600.

Director A. Lyon reported in 1950 that many people at the hospital shouldn't be there, among them a 103 year old black man that had been committed for spitting on the courthouse stove. In 1969 the state finally releases many patients considered not mentally ill. In 1974 the hospital now known as Central State was privatized under the River Regiori Mental Health Board as a part of a short term joint venture the merge in-patient and community based care, but 3 years later the state resumed control. In 1986 the old hospital closed and moved into new buildings, then in 1996 the state spent $2.8 million to demolish all of the old original buildings on the 900 acre site, turning it into a state park.

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Main Image Gallery: Central State Hospital Louisville

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Links & Additional Information

• Genealogy Site