When we hear the word asylum, most of us imagine gigantic facilities with overcrowded conditions. Northern State Hospital, in Sedro-Woolley, Washington was no exception to that rule. That asylum operated from 1909 to 1973, and it was the largest mental health facility in the state during that time.
Asylums in America have become a thing of the past. The very last one closed in West Virginia in 1994. De-institutionalization began in the 1960’s during the Kennedy administration. It got a lot of community support. The horror stories coming out of these asylums meant that they were increasingly unpopular, and the expense of keeping them operating was prohibitive. Also, with new drugs on the scene, fewer patients would need long-term care. Popular assumptions about mental health were (supposedly) changing, and people were no longer feeling the need to hide their mentally ill relatives away and/or pretend that they were dead.
In 1963, Kennedy implemented the Community Mental Health Act. It was supposed to provide federal funding for community mental health centers, so that patients could be treated while living and working at home. It was a nice idea in theory, but not in practice. Only half of the proposed centers in the country were ever built, and the federal government really dropped the ball, because none of those facilities got the funding to operate long-term.
Many states closed their asylums under the assumption that these centers would exist, and thus began the mental health crisis that we see today. President Carter attempted to come to the rescue with the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, which was designed to fundamentally reform the mental health care system in this country and infuse much-needed money for mental health care into communities. This was considered landmark, innovative legislation.
And then along came Reagan in 1981. He put the final nail in the mental health coffin. He repealed most of the provisions of Carter’s act just 10 months after it had been implemented. The bottom line is that, in America, 90 percent of all the beds for mental health patients have disappeared. This is why we see so many mentally ill homeless people on our streets today.
Northern State Hospital was considered to be on the cutting edge of mental health hospitals (granted, with questionable results), but after its closure in 1973, things rapidly deteriorated. Today, statistics show that Washington State ranks 48th in terms of access to youth mental health care, and 31st in terms of access to adult mental health care. That’s pretty pathetic for such a progressive state.
Make no mistake: asylums lost support for some very valid reasons. But they should never have been closed without having a secure mental health safety net in place, and that never happened. What follows is a timeline to give you a sense of how one asylum, Northern State Hospital (NSH), experienced mushroom-like growth, then became overly cumbersome and found it all but impossible to provide adequate care, until it collapsed under its own financial and reputational weight. I’m sure that all the asylums in this country have similar histories.
If you ever get a chance to tour the grounds of the former Northern State Hospital, I suggest that you stop by one of Sedro-Woolley’s museums and get a guidebook first. I wish I had one during my visit. It would have greatly added to my understanding of the place. But here’s a timeline for the various buildings and an overview of the facility’s population expansion.
1909: 110 patients/inmates arrived to develop a 700 acre plot of land, and build what was then called the Western State Hospital Farm for the Harmless Insane.
1912: Denny, the administration building, was the first permanent structure. It’s one of the few buildings without bars on the windows. It contained wards, x-ray, hydrotherapy, staff quarters, and staff kitchens and dining. It was later expanded (see 1938).
1915: Coleman was built, and was initially the violent ward for women, but later became the disease isolation building. The kitchen was constructed, and later renovated. Elliot (which is no longer standing) became the senile ward for men. That year, NSH had 485 patients. Wards Fraser and Gray, connected by an above ground tunnel, were built for men. Eventually, that tunnel also connected Elliot and Horton, so you could pass from one male ward building to the next without going outside.
1916: The assembly hall/chapel, popularly known as “the Hub” was erected. It is arguably the most beautiful building on the campus.
1917: Four wards at Barkley, for the women, were built, and Horton was built to house more of the men’s wards. Horton became the Tuberculosis ward in the 1940’s. It also housed admitting, intensive care, offices, and rehab for men and women. Horton is no longer standing.
1918: Thompson was built, with two wards for semi-violent and senile women.
1920: A commissary and warehouse was built to store goods, and a railroad spur stopped here.
1921: NSH had 1,084 patients.
1922: Rogers was built, which housed two wards for men. That same year, Smith was built to provide two more men’s wards, plus a special privilege ward (which makes one wonder what the “unprivileged” residents were deprived of). Part of it was a ward for patients who worked on the grounds or the farm, and later it was an open ward for women. In the 1950’s it became a place for “disturbed patients.” Rogers is no longer standing.
1923: A gate house, only half of which still stands, was erected, despite the fact that the campus was never fenced. It was mainly to prevent local residents from coming up the main drive onto the campus to harass the patients. The gatehouse used to have an iron gate.
1925: A morgue was established, allowing staff to observe autopsies for educational purposes. (This building is no longer standing.)
1926: A powerhouse with a 120 foot smokestack was erected. Powered by coal, it provided heat, hot water, and electricity for the campus. The superintendent’s house, a mansion complete with in-ground swimming pool, bathrooms with fireplaces, walk-in closets with windows, two living rooms, a covered car entrance, and stables, was built. It is no longer standing.
1928: Valdes was built to serve the women who were able to work in the community, and also housed “the quiet senile.” Winfield was bult to provide housing for nurses, married staff and attendants. Later, Winfield became a “quarterway program” for patients with full time jobs who still required a supportive environment. Winfield no longer stands.
1932: The paint shop was destroyed by fire. (I’m not sure when this shop was built.)
1933: Wilkes was built to accommodate two violent wards for women. Occupational therapy kicked into high gear.
1935; The first greenhouse was added. More greenhouses were added over the years, along with a water reservoir and a bakery (dates unknown).
1935/1936: A narcotics colony for drug addicts was added, but it was discontinued in the mid 1940’s.
1937: An insulin coma ward was established.
1938: Trevennen Hall provided some much-needed housing for nurses. In addition, the Denny administration building was expanded to provide a receiving ward, a clinic, observation rooms and a hospital.
1941: Due to WWII, employees numbers fell to 500 while patient numbers rose to 2,062, causing extreme overcrowding and understaffing. (Maximum capacity at this point, and all years moving forward was supposed to be 1560.) All the buildings donned war blackout curtains and used blue bulbs at night.
1945: The original laundry was destroyed by fire. (No idea when it was established.)
1947: The patient population increased to 2,108. Tuberculosis gained a foothold, and 99 patients had to be isolated. In addition, a new laundry was built.
In the 1950’s, the patient population remained at its peak capacity in the 2,100’s, and all the wards with no fire escapes were fitted with large evacuation chutes. One ward was designated for epileptic and chronic patients.
In the 1960’s men and women started occupying the same buildings.
In 1962: Douglas building, by far the ugliest building on the campus, was built. It obscured the mountain view and the landscaping. It was a receiving and treatment ward, and also housed admissions, conference and classrooms, a medical library, a surgical ward, recovery rooms and 2 isolation rooms.
1963: The Kennedy Community Mental Health Act was established.
1968: Sedro-Woolley residents began protesting the closure of NSH, as it was the largest employer in the county.
In 1970, with de-institutionalization looming on the horizon, NSH began discharging patients and stopped taking new patients. Only 700 residents were left.
In 1973 Northern State Hospital was closed. Its last 173 patients were released into the community, the streets of Seattle, other institutions, and nursing homes. Some of these patients had lived at NSH for decades.
By 1978 the State of Washington already ranked 45th out of 50 states for the lowest mental health care spending.
Mental health is largely invisible, but that doesn’t justify it being ignored. With increasing societal pressure and the polarization in this country, mental health issues will surely be on the rise. Something’s got to give, Dear Reader.
This is but one of several blog posts that I have written (and will write) about Northern State Hospital. You can start with the first one here.
Sources for all my NSH posts:
- Documentary: Northern State Hospital and the quest for answers
- Ghost Hunters S03E13 – Northern State Hospital & Underground Tunnels
- Northern State Hospital Galleries
- Wikipedia-Northern State Hospital
- Sedro-Woolley Museum, where you can also get: 1) Northern State Hospital Guidebook by A. Muia, 2)Northern State Hospital Calendar, 2025, 3) An Era of Chage: Memories of Northern State Hospital by Ardella Harris Douglas
- The lost patients of Washington’s abandoned psychiatric Hospital, by Sydney Brownstone, Seattle Times
- This creepy Asylum in Washington is Still Standing and Still Disturbing by Nikki Cleveland
- Northern State Ghost Town- Washington Trails Association
- www.northernstatehospital.org
- Friends of Northern State Hospital Facebook Group
- Northern State Hospital Cemetery Facebook Page
- Find-a-Grave
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