The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States (Architecture, Landscape and Amer Culture)

206 Pages·2007·20.47 MB·English

by  Carla Yanni

The Architecture of Madness
Architecture, Landscape,
and American Culture
SERIES EDITOR
Katherine Solomonson
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and
the Shaping of American Youth, 1890–1960
Abigail A. Van Slyck
The Architecture of Madness:
Insane Asylums in the United States
Carla Yanni
The Architecture of Madness
Insane Asylums in the United States
Carla Yanni
ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND AMERICAN CULTURE
University of Minnesota Press
MINNEAPOLIS • LONDON
Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Santa Fe,
New Mexico, and Staunton, Virginia. www.americanplaces.org.
This book is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for
Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
The author and the University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledge
the support of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the University
Research Council of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in the
publication of this book.
An earlier version of chapter 2 was previously published as “The Linear
Plan for Insane Asylums in the United States to 1866,” Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians62, no. 1 (March 2003). Reprinted with
permission of the Society of Architectural Historians.
The architectural plans in Appendix D were redrawn by Kevin Bell.
Copyright 2007 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yanni, Carla.
The architecture of madness : insane asylums in the United States /
Carla Yanni.
p. cm. —(Architecture, landscape, and American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-4939-6 (hc : alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-8166-4940-2
(pb : alk. paper) 1. Asylums—United States—Design and construction—
History. 2. Psychiatric hospitals—United States—Design and construction—
History. 3. Hospital architecture—United States—History. I. Title.
RC445.Y36 2007
725´.520973—dc22
2007003766
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother,
Joan K. Yanni,
the docent with the mocent
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Transforming the Treatment 17
ARCHITECTURE AND MORAL MANAGEMENT
2. Establishing the Type 51
THE DEVELOPMENT OF KIRKBRIDE PLAN HOSPITALS
AND HOPE FOR AN ARCHITECTURAL CURE
3. Breaking Down 79
THE COTTAGE PLAN FOR ASYLUMS
4. Building Up 105
HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
Conclusion 145
THE CHANGING SPACES OF MENTAL ILLNESS
APPENDIX A. NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY 161
APPENDIX B. OCCUPATIONS OF PATIENTS IN 1850 163
APPENDIX C. COST OF LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN 1877 165
APPENDIX D. COMPARATIVE SIZES OF ASYLUMS, 1770–1872 166
Notes 169
Bibliography 179
Index 187
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Acknowledgments
Architectural historian Joseph Siry suggested I write and we were on the edges of our chairs.The other par-
my undergraduate honors thesis at Wesleyan Uni- ticipants were wonderfully responsive, Sarah Ruther-
versity on H. H. Richardson’s Buffalo State Hospital ford,Jane Kromm,and Christine Stevenson,especially.
for the Insane. An unusually dedicated thesis supervi- Jeanne Kisacky’s research on hospital architecture has
sor, he learned that I had been raised in Rochester, helped me understand the key issues of ventilation and
New York, near Buffalo, and that I was interested in access to nature.
social history and science. When I went to graduate Annmarie Adams lavished attention on an early draft
school at the University of Pennsylvania from 1988 to about the linear plan; my writing on this topic would
1994,I dropped the subject entirely,perhaps because I be far less nuanced without her care.I thank the Soci-
felt overwhelmed by its grimness.But I maintained an ety of Architectural Historians for permission to re-
interest in science and architecture,and I pursued these produce parts of an article published in the Journal of
interrelated endeavors in my first book on the architec- the Society of Architectural Historians in chapter 2. Car-
ture of natural history museums.The towers of Buffalo oline Elam read a draft of chapters 3 and 4,and Anne
still loomed in my memory,and I was happy to return Cotterill cast her knowing eyes over the introduction.
to the subject for this, my second book. Therese O’Malley kindly offered her knowledge of land-
I have received generous intellectual guidance from scape history. Cynthia Field encouraged me to rent a
titans in the history and sociology of medicine.Gerald flat in her home,from which we shared many delight-
Grob’s enthusiasm for the project meant a great deal ful conversations about buildings and cats.Robert Woz-
to me; readers will find frequent notes to a selected niak read early drafts and allowed me to peruse his
few of his twenty-odd books on the history of medi- extraordinary collection of one thousand postcards of
cine.Andrew Scull read drafts of two chapters,and his insane asylums in the United States; it was a pleasure
advice helped me shore up the chapters that were most to view this wonderful repository in the company of
dependent on detailed knowledge of psychiatry in the his friendly golden retriever. Maureen Meister, Jeffrey
nineteenth century. I thank Leslie Topp and Jonathan Ochsner,and Frank Kowsky helped me understand the
Andrews for inviting me to speak at “Space,Psyche,and smaller points of H.H.Richardson’s most massive build-
Psychiatry,”the best conference I have ever attended;it ing.I thank the anonymous reviewer for the Center for
was a symposium designed with one session taking place American Places and James E.Moran,who generously
at a time,so that all speakers were present at every talk, reviewed my book for the University ofMinnesota Press.
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