Interlochen Public Radio on Building 50

From the Kirkbride Blog:

http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/blog/points-north-traverse-city-state-hospital

Points North, a show on Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan, recently produced a program about Traverse City State Hospital: listen here. The program is 50+ minutes and full of personal history told by hospital employees and patients of the hospital. In the beginning you even get to listen in as former employees tour the Kirkbride building and tell stories of their experiences—the mundane and unusual, the humorous and sad.

What’s particularly fascinating is the contrast between the patients’ feelings and the those of the employees. The former almost exclusively express a fondness for the hospital, while the patients interviewed express good and bad feelings about the hospital.

The end of the program is about Heidi Johnson and her connection to the hospital. It tells a sad side of her story that I personally hadn’t heard before and was surprised to learn.

A story of Discovery



A story of Discovery, originally uploaded by patrick j garrett.

My wife worked in the tasting room at Chateau Grand Traverse on Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City in the summer of 2002. One cool summer evening, the assistant wine maker asked some of the staff to come into the bottling room to help with a special project to bottle by hand – for these bottles did not fit the assembly!! ……

Read the whole story! It’s wonderful