|
|
 |
|
|
KPH Northwest Unit
The
structure stands atop a hill overlooking Kalamazoo in the Fairmount Neighborhood at 1500 Blakeslee Avenue. In spite of being
surrounded by chain link fencing with barbed wire at the top, it
attracts neighborhood youth who enter the building to explore or
vandalize as the spirit moves them. Broken windows provide easy
access for the elements or curious humans bent on the thrill of
exploring the dangerously neglected building. It was not always this
way. In
1954 the Southwestern Michigan Tuberculosis Sanatorium was
constructed at a cost of $2.5 million dollars. A four-story, 45,000
square foot building set on several rolling acres, it held 200
beds for tuberculosis patients who were housed in a modern facility on
Kalamazoo's Northwest side. The surroundings, overlooking the
city, were pleasant, and treatment methods for the disease
were the most up-to-date and successful for the day. The
Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital had housed its own
tubercular patients in a special facility at the Oakland Drive
campus. In December of 1965, all mental patients from around the
state who had tuberculosis were transferred to the sanatorium in
Kalamazoo. This included the patients from KPH. The transfers also
enabled the mental hospital to eliminate a waiting list for adults
who needed admission to the facility. In
1966 the sanatorium housed 40 patients under treatment for TB only,
29 with TB transferred from mental hospitals all over Michigan, and
108 custodial cases transferred from the KRPH who were all elderly
and required no psychiatric treatment. These last had been confined
to the state hospital for many years. They no longer needed
treatment, but were not able to return to the community and needed
bed rest and care. By
1969, treatment of tuberculosis had improved so dramatically and had
been so successful that the State of Michigan ordered the sanatorium
shut down as a treatment center for the disease. Since
so many patients from KPH were already housed there, it was decided
that the facility would be taken over by the Michigan Department of
Mental Health and turned over KPH. It operated as a unit that held
100 senile, partially bed-ridden patients and almost 100 ambulatory
geriatric patients. The State of Michigan had provided funds in its
1969-70 state budget for the state hospital to run the facility. The
main focus of treatment for the geriatric patients was an
involvement program designed to help the patients return to
"normalcy." Dr. James Curran, head of the gerontology
program at the hospital, said of this focus, "If a patient will
become more aware of himself, his environment, and others, he has a
better chance of coming out of that little dream world where no one
bothers him." By
1990, because of the lowest patient count in recent history , it was
decided to close the Northwest Unit. Only 26 patients were housed
there, down from 120 in 1987. The total patient count at the
hospital had shrunk to 367. The
fate of the building, which was still in excellent condition, was to
be determined by the State Department of Mental Health, which owned
it, and the Department of Management and Budget. When the closure
was announced, several private and public organizations expressed
interest in acquiring it, but no action was taken. One
serious offer came in December of 1990 when the Kalamazoo Probation
Enhancement Program (K-PEP) wanted to leave the Vine Neighborhood
and relocate its program to the empty hospital. K-PEP is a private,
non-profit program that offers an alternative to jail for
non-violent criminal offenders between the ages of 17 and 25. Opposition
to the move came from the West Douglas Neighborhood (later
Fairmount) Association,
which cited the struggle with deteriorating housing
stock, a decline in owner-occupied homes and increased drug
trafficking in the area. The association felt the K-PEP program
would not be a positive addition to the neighborhood. The
last serious offer to utilize the building came in 1997 from Western
Michigan University. WMU administrators were looking at the building
as a possible site for research offices, library storage and other
possible uses, including consolidating the Center for
Developmentally Disabled adults there. Eventually, negotiations for
the transfer to the university fell apart over liability for
environmental contamination. Now, though it sits on one of the city's highest points, few except those who live around it notice the vacant building.
Written by Fred Peppel, former Kalamazoo Public Library staff member, April 2005.
|
return to the 
 |
|