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| Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital
The water tower was constructed in 1895 and quickly became a landmark. It played prominently in the history of the city. In time, two working farms were opened for the care and rehabilitation of patients and were located about three miles to the north and south of the main campus. Later, a former state tuberculosis sanitorium on Blakeslee was taken over by the hospital and utilized for the treatment and care of elderly patients. Another landmark on the main campus is the "gate cottage" situated near Oakland Drive at the entrance to the hospital grounds. The gatehouse is "carpenter gothic" in style, featuring board and batten siding, a steep roof and "gingerbread" ornamentation. The house has been furnished with Victorian furniture and serves as a museum. When first built, it was used as the porter's residence and later housed a dozen women patients for a time. By
1959 the State Hospital had a patient load of 3,500 and 900 staff
that included doctors, nurses, attendants and service personnel. It
became almost a city in its own right with a power plant, water
system, bakery, laundry, library, canteen, garage, cannery, general kitchen and greenhouse.
For many years
the hospital was one of the largest employers in Kalamazoo. From
the outset, the hospital pioneered improved medical treatment of
mentally ill patients. Before the Michigan Asylum opened, it was
common for the insane to be locked in attics, log pens or cellars.
Others were placed in county houses, jails and strong rooms. Those
considered harmless were permitted to wander about the country
sleeping in straw stacks and empty buildings. The Asylum pioneered metrozol and insulin shock treatments
and took advantage of the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the
University of Michigan. In 1906, Dr. Alfred I. Noble, then
superintendent, abolished all forms of mechanical restraints. This was an important step forward because it eliminated
the use of cuffs, camisoles, cages and similar immobilizing devices
long associated with mental hospitals. The
hospital also was a pioneer in the creation of nursing and
occupational therapy programs in the persons of Linda Richards and
Marion R. Spear. Linda
Richards had the honor of being the first student to graduate from
nursing school in the United States. She developed an interest in
psychiatric nursing and came to Kalamazoo from Massachusetts. From
1906-1909 she served as the Superintendent of Nurse Training at the
State Hospital. The Linda Richards Memorial Home for Nurses was
built in 1931 to serve as a dormitory for students
enrolled in the nursing program. The nursing school was accredited
in 1892 and operated until 1947. During its 55 years of operation,
the program graduated a total of 733 nurses. Marion
R. Spear was a pioneer occupational therapist at the State Hospital
and became head of occupational therapy at the hospital in 1917. The
Kalamazoo School of Occupational Therapy, which she founded in 1922,
was one of six such schools that were approved by the
American Medical Association. She remained at the school she founded
until it was moved in 1945 to Western Michigan University. All
was not sun and roses at the institution, however. Sometimes
death reared its ugly head in a violent manner. In November of 1954,
an 18-year-old male inmate with a record of sex deviation
confessed to killing an attractive 21-year-old student nurse,
Marilyn Kraai. Louis Smith lured the girl from her post in the main
floor of the receiving hospital to the basement, where he attacked and
strangled her. Fifty years earlier, a resident doctor was stabbed to
death. At times patients would die also, but never was the
institution accused of improper treatment or neglect in those cases.
Ironically, these deaths only pointed up a chronic complaint of
understaffing according to hospital officials. Because it was a
state funded hospital, it was ever at the mercy and whims of state
legislators and governors, who often were more concerned with
budgets than necessities. Also, since the employees were union
organized, the hospital often faced labor problems. But throughout
it all, a high level of innovative treatment for patients was
maintained under sometimes staggering odds. Increased
budget cuts by the state and improved treatment methods and medication for
patients led to an inevitable decline in patient population. The
hospital began to shrink, dropping steadily from a high of 3,500 patients in
1954-1955. Then in 1973, new treatment
measures, such as rapid screening and intensive treatment, and early release into the community for
other local agencies to take over, shrank the patient population even more. In
1980, the facility started laying off 88 employees and releasing 160
patients in response to the bare bones budget provided by the state.
Finally, in 2000, then-Governor John Engler's administration
decimated the state-run psychiatric hospitals in favor of
community-based care at private agencies and hospitals. Just
a ghost of its former self, the Kalamazoo Psychiatric
Hospital now has turned over most of its holdings on Oakland Drive
to Western Michigan University, which has developed it as a health
care corridor and research facilities, as well as the home of its
current School of Nursing. The Linda Richards Building
is now the home of the Kalamazoo Corrections Center, which runs
a program for prisoners nearing parole. No
matter, the contributions to the world of mental health and
treatment, to our city and to our wider community, we are forever indebted to
the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital.
Written by Fred Peppel, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, April 2005. Last updated 21 November 2007.
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Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital 
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