UE - Fulton State Hospital | Full Video

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• published: 28 Nov 2015
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Read description for the history. Opening in 1851 and serving the state of Missouri for more than 160 years, Fulton State Hospital in Fulton, Missouri is the oldest mental hospital west of the Mississippi River and continues its operations still today. In total, Missouri was once home to four Kirkbride complexes. Fulton State Hospital was the first of four Kirkbrides in Missouri and thus is often referred to as “Hospital for the Insane Number 1” or “State Lunatic Asylum Number 1” among other names. Let’s start with some background. Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, creator of the Kirkbride plan, was born to a Quaker family in 1809. Although this was a time when the science of mental health was in its infancy, Dr. Kirkbride strived to find a cure for mental illnesses by developing standardized treatments and standardized building plans based on moral treatment and seclusion. Moral treatment sought to decrease the use of inhumane treatments previously practiced on patients. As for seclusion, Kirkbride buildings were constructed in rural areas where patients would often help farm the land and perform daily chores to ensure a completely self-sufficient complex. The seclusion was thought to improve mental health by removing the stress and theorized causes of insanity that city life presented. On January 6, 1844, Missouri Governor Thomas Reynolds committed suicide. Ironically and tragically, this may have been key to the erection of Missouri’s first mental hospital. In the absence of Governor Reynolds, Lieutenant governor Meridith Marmaduke assumed power and championed the idea of a Missouri state lunatic asylum. At the time Missouri did not possess the ability to aid the mentally ill in any humane manner. The insane wasted away in jail cells as a way to get them off of the streets, or if families had sufficient wealth, they were sent out of state to the asylums in the north east. This also meant that if offenders were not convicted because of an insanity plea, they were simply released back into the community because no in state institutions existed to help them. According to the 1840 census, there were 270 insane persons in Missouri, however more accurate estimates were over 1200. In 1845 Governor Marmaduke borrowed over $30,000 for a 100 patient asylum and Callaway County promised 500 acres and $12,500 to build the asylum there. The city of Fulton was chosen, which at the time had only 700 residents. This was an ideal location because being in central Missouri, it was accessible to people all over the state. The rural location also allowed staff to implement new methods of treatment which included isolation from theorized causes of insanity. Dr. Turner RH Smith was appointed as the first superintendent of the asylum, and as was common with much of the staff in new Kirkbride asylums, he had no experience at all treating the mentally ill. This should not come as a surprise seeing as treatment of the insane was a new science and no medical schools taught courses in the subject. Dr. Smith began attending meetings with the superintendents of 13 asylums who together formed the American Psychiatric Association, the first national society of physicians in the United States. In 1851 the hospital opened its doors and admitted 67 patients. The most common causes for admittance were epilepsy and tuberculosis but other cases ranged widely from indigestion to jealousy. According to reports written by the Missouri Department of Mental Health, initial treatments were cruel and included sensory deprivation, fast spinning chairs, and strait jackets. These practices were quickly abandoned and a theory of Moral Treatment was adopted. In 1861, only 10 years after opening, the American civil war forced the hospital to close. Patients were sent away and the buildings were used as barracks for union soldiers. After closure for 2 years, the hospital reopened and by 1865 had admitted its first black patients. Patient population soon soared over 1000 by the early 20th century and the hospital consequently expanded and renovated in accordance with the ever so popular Kirkbride Plan. A special unit was even built to segregate the criminally insane, which had not previously been done at this location. In 1940 a new state maximum security correctional facility was opened for the criminally insane, and today it is the only maximum security mental facility west of the Mississippi River. New minimum and medium security facilities were opened along with facilities to aid juveniles and also services for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. On March 15th 1956 a fire badly damaged the original Kirkbride building and what remained of it was demolished. Today the Kirkbride no longer exists, and neither do any of the buildings pictured in this video. In the near future, the maximum security Biggs building too will be demolished. This is all to make way for a brand new state of the art mental facility.