Anna’s Choate State Hospital

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015The state mental institution in Athens, Ohio, built in 1868, is an example of the Kirkbride building style that was popular in the late middle 1800s for mental hospitals, so Curator Jessica was excited to hear that a similar building – Anna’s Choate State Hospital – was of similar age and architecture. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Almost palatial looking

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015A website documenting Kirkbride buildings (worth a look) said they were “once state-of-the-art mental healthcare facilities. Kirkbride buildings have long been relics of an obsolete therapeutic method known as Moral Treatment. In the latter half of the 19th century, these massive structures were conceived as ideal sanctuaries for the mentally ill and as an active participant in their recovery. Careful attention was given to every detail of their design to promote a healthy environment and convey a sense of respectable decorum. Placed in secluded areas within expansive grounds, many of these insane asylums seemed almost palace-like from the outside. But growing populations and insufficient funding led to unfortunate conditions, spoiling their idealistic promise.”

Plagued by fires

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015It’s hard to tell how many times the institution was plagued by fires. One account said the north wing caught fire from unknown causes in 1881, destroying it and killing one patient. In more recent history, the top two floors of the main administration building caught fire and were removed.

Patients are encouraged to work on crafts and projects. Some are on sale in the admin building. THIS patient carved the  Great Speckled Bird in the 1960s.

Made some staffers uncomfortable

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015The patient, who died in the early 1970s, labeled the piece with many biblical references and the names of staff members he didn’t like, making them somewhat uncomfortable.

“Crib bed”

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015The “crib bed” was used for patients who needed to be restrained for their own safety or the safety of others. We were told it was rarely used. To my claustrophobic eyes, it looks like a coffin with slats. If I wasn’t mentally disturbed going into the bed, I would be when I was released.

Despite things like this, the hospital got good reviews. An 1893 report on Charitable Institutions of the State of Illinois said “the general appearance of this Hospital is not so neat, and the discipline is not so strict, as in the other State hospitals, but the medical results, in the way of recoveries, have been superior.”

20 percent of patients died

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015The 1893 report said that the rate of recoveries to total discharges has been 36%; improved, 22%; unimproved, 22%; deaths, 20%. The average per capita maintenance cost in 1892 was $166.63. The average number of inmates in that year was 802 (although the number was probably smaller because of re-admissions and transfers).

Many of the dead before 1939 are buried in unmarked graves in this hilltop cemetery near the hospital.

Newer graves are marked

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015Some newer graves are marked with simple concrete stones. We were surprised to see no flags are any other indication that an individual had served in the military, unlike the Athens cemetery, where the graves are decorated.

Choate Cemetery at sunset

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015The sun was starting to dip below the horizon as we were leaving the graveyard.

Anna State Hospital administration building

Anna Choate State Hospital 11-18-2015We had a chance to take one last look at the admin building. The American flag is flying at half-mast because of the killings in Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken at the Kennedy

Kennedy Museum of Art 05-08-2014Curator Jessica said we needed to go to the Kennedy Museum of Art at The Ridges to see a couple of my photos that are on exhibit.

I fit in well there because the Kennedy is housed in what was once the administration building for the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Within two years of its opening in 1874, it was rebranded The Athens Hospital for the Insane.

That was only the first in a long list of names it would wear as public sensibilities changed until the facility closed in 1993. The hospital would be called, among other things, the Athens Asylum for the Insane, the Athens State Hospital, the Southeastern Ohio Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, the Athens Mental Health and Developmental Center, and then (again) the Athens Mental Health Center.

It is still a stunning building

Kennedy Art Museum 05-12-2014Despite the fact that parts of the facility have been allowed to deteriorate, you can see how ornate the fixtures were. The patient rooms were designed so that each would have a window. The original plan was to make the rooms so small – roughly 100 square feet – that they wouldn’t house more than one patient. Curator Jessica said that overcrowding forced them to put two and three to a room at times.

I’m uncomfortable with the A-Word

Kennedy Art Museum 05-12-2014Even though I went through Ohio University under a fine arts program, I was never comfortable using the Art-Word in connection with my photos. I saw them as news when they were taken, though they have become history now that they’ve acquired some whiskers.

Part of that reticence is that art galleries like to search for hidden, deep meanings, and expect art to make bold statements. This, for example, appears in the room that houses my two prints.

I have always contended that my photos are straight-forward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get frozen slices of time converted to ink squirted on toilet paper and pitched in a puddle in front of your house.

Two shots from the protest era

Kennedy Art Museum 05-12-2014The two photos the museum elected to display as examples of testing boundaries aren’t what I would consider to be my strongest images from that sequence, but I’m honored that they made the cut at all, I suppose.

The picture on the left is of graffiti on the Main Green’s War Memorial. The boundary it was stretching was polite discourse: one of the words written on the statue was a less euphemistic term for male bovine excrement.

The second photo was of a line of male and female protestors linked arm in arm marching exuberantly down the town’s main drag.

You can see the photos in this Kent State era post. The first shot is number 9 of 86; the marchers are in number 15 of 86.