Up North! The Traverse City Blog

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.

http://www.wallpapermaven.com/cat/architecture/Traverse-City-Insane-Asylum-7.html

 

A Discovery in the Walls, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

http://flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/sets/72157606977431970/

July 20, 2004
Heidi and I had lunch at Cuppa joe and then walked through some of the areas under renovation. While passing through a room, Heidi caught a glimpse of something in a hole in the wall. I turned out to be bundles of newspapers and magazines from long ago – probably put there by a patient.

Later, we visited the Dwarves painting and she snapped me looking out a window on the third floor Men’s ward.

All photos in this group by Heidi Johnson.

Heidi Johnson in Building 50, originally uploaded by Philosopher Queen.

PhilosopherQueen writes: Heidi is a photographer who has done a book documenting the history of the mental hospital in Traverse City that is now being renovated for use as condos and shops. She will have her own condo and studio in this building when it is finished. She took us on a tour there last fall (we had to wear hard hats).