14 Facts About Kirkbride Plan

Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century.

Structural features of the hospitals as designated by Kirkbride Plan were contingent on his theories regarding the healing of the mentally ill, in which environment and exposure to natural light and air circulation were crucial.

The hospitals built according to the Kirkbride Plan would adopt various architectural styles, but had in common the "bat wing" style floor plan, housing numerous wings that sprawl outward from the center.

At least 30 of the original Kirkbride Plan buildings have been registered with the National Register of Historic Places in the United States, either directly or through their location on hospital campuses or in historic districts.

Kirkbride Plan asylums tended to be large, imposing institutional buildings, with the defining feature being their "narrow, stepped, linear building footprint" featuring staggered wings extending outward from the center, resembling the wingspan of a bat.

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The standard number of wings for a Kirkbride Plan hospital was eight, with an accommodation of 250 patients.

The center complexes of the Kirkbride Plan buildings were designed to house administration, kitchens, public and reception areas, and apartments for the superintendent's family.

Kirkbride Plan suggested a total of 71, all of whom were required to live within, or in the immediate vicinity of, the hospital.

General psychiatric and medical opinion of Kirkbride Plan's theories regarding the "curability" of mental illness were questioned by the medical community.

Total of 73 known Kirkbride Plan hospitals were constructed throughout the United States between 1845 and 1910.

Highest concentrations of Kirkbride Plan hospitals were in the Northeast and Midwestern states.

Fewer Kirkbride Plan hospitals were constructed on the West Coast: In California, the Napa State Hospital was a notable Kirkbride Plan hospital, though the original structure was severely damaged during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and was ultimately demolished.

Several facilities originally established as Kirkbride Plan hospitals are still active in the 21st century, though not all have retained the original Kirkbride buildings on their campuses.

The Oregon State Hospital, the longest continuously-operated psychiatric hospital on the West Coast, retained the majority of its original Kirkbride Plan building during a 2008 demolition, seismically retrofitting and repurposing it as a mental health museum in 2013.