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By: Kim Campbell
This essay will only briefly look at how the Bull Street Campus grew.[1] Instead, this narrative focuses on the continued renovations of Bull Street’s buildings, despite the declining patient population. Annual reports and statistics form the skeleton of this story of adaptation, but two interviews with longtime Department of Mental Health (DMH) employee Mike Mefford fleshed out this narrative with details about what functions the buildings took on after the patients moved out. Contrary to the accepted historical narrative that implies the slow death of mental hospital facilities as soon as deinstitutionalization was accepted, DMH first adapted buildings for reuse, before vacating them.
Bull Street’s relatively compact growth patterns played a role in what functions buildings later took on. In 1821, the act establishing the Lunatic Asylum became law in South Carolina, but the Mills Building was not complete until 1827.[2] This original asylum building occupies an entire city block, which is today bounded by Elmwood Avenue in addition to Pickens, Calhoun, and Bull Streets. Although the state constructed additions on Mills and used wooden structures behind it, the asylum remained contained in this single block.[3]
Mills was a progressive solution to caring for the mentally ill in the early republic, but by the Victorian era, asylum physicians believed a different structure, which would allow for greater classification of patients by type of illness, would cure insanity.[4] Started in 1857, asylum officials designed the Babcock Building to fulfill the curative tenets of the Kirkbride plan.[5] However, the slow progression of work on the structure meant that the institution had to construct a variety of wooden buildings to house the quickly growing patient population, particularly after the Civil War.[6] By the time of Babcock’s completion in 1885, asylum physicians in the United States believed most forms of insanity were incurable; thus, the asylum completed this main structure in a manner better suited to the needs of long term patients.[7] Already, Babcock was adapting to the changing needs of the time.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, asylum doctors considered having an independently functioning campus vital to the well being of their patients. Most institutions failed abysmally in this goal; however, the South Carolina State Hospital attempted to provide for all its needs internally, despite the challenges this goal caused.[8] Structures such as the Bakery, Laundry, and Ice Factory date from this period.[9] They grew off the center of Babcock and behind it, forming a vital spine of support. More patient ward buildings continued to grow during this period as well, and they tended to spring up near the category of patients they served.[10] Although asylum doctors no longer believed patient categorization to be curative, they felt that it was important to segregate patients by sex and race, reflecting the social standards of the early twentieth century.
During the Great Depression, the State Hospital served the largest patient population in its history to that point, and Bull Street’s expanded facilities reflect this fact. The Williams Building, and other smaller wards, housed more people, but the Hospital also designed Williams to change its public perception.[11] The classically inspired Williams Building not only rejects the Victorian Babcock in style, but also in its positioning on the site. Whereas the primary façade of the early asylum was Mills and the entrance to the Victorian asylum was the imposing Babcock, the new admissions unit in the 1930s was located where Pickens Street ran into Williams. Following public pressure regarding human rights after World War II, the 1950s saw the construction of a library, auditorium, and new wards with the most modern amenities for the criminally insane.[12] The culmination of the State Hospital’s growth occurred during the 1960s, with a massive public relations campaign that included a building program and led to a new administration building slightly removed from the campus, the Chapel of Hope, and the Hall Institute.[13]
In 1962, the State Hospital had not yet completed the Chapel of Hope or the Hall Institute; however, the Engineering Division was already busy adapting historic structures to meet new needs.[14] In addition to renovating ward space, they constructed offices in Williams and Ensor and added an area to Mills for nursing education. “Preventive maintenance” was the buzzword in 1964, and this program continued with painting and minor repair projects throughout the decade.[15] Williams also underwent extensive renovations in 1965, though these were primarily to bring the building up to code rather than to change its function.[16]
By 1966, deinstitutionalization was an official policy. The Governor’s Advisory Group on Mental Health Planning laid out goals to improve the quality of mental health care in South Carolina. The first goal was the establishment of community mental health centers, three of which were operating by 1966, with a fourth underway. Another major goal set out by the Advisory Group regarded building improvements.[17] Ward renovations were to continue, though they were intended to be more extensive than the painting and installation of air conditioning units that had been occurring since the 1950s. Furthermore, construction continued on the new administration building, which was designed with thought toward the important role it would play in coordinating the efforts of the community mental health centers spread throughout the state.
1967 was a year of “consolidation and adjustment at the state hospital” as it was the first full year where Bull Street was designated to accept all patients under the age of 65 and Craft-Farrow accepted all those 65 and older.[18] Craft-Farrow, originally known as State Park, was built during the early twentieth century to segregate the African-American patients away from the white patients at Bull Street.[19] After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, DMH changed this policy to meet federal requirements, hence the new roles for each campus.
In 1968, deinstitutionalization took its first small toll on Bull Street’s built environment. Although structures had been demolished around the State Hospital almost since its inception, DMH considered the demolition of “the last wooden frame building at S.C. State Hospital used for patient care” an important enough event to include it in that year’s annual report.[20] In the Annual Reports of the late 1960s and early 1970s, DMH did not seem to consider the specific activities of the Buildings Maintenance Branch important enough to list in any detail.[21] To be fair, DMH underwent a major rebranding a few years earlier, completely changing everything from the size and look of the annual reports to their content.
As the 1970s wore on, renovations continued throughout the campus, listed in more detail some years than others, to adapt the infrastructure to changing needs. 1974 proved an eventful year, as the North Building was the “first major building to be demolished at the hospital in approximately 20 years.”[22] Common sense would seem to dictate that demolition projects would increase from this point in Bull Street’s history forward; however, renovations remained more prevalent than demolitions at the State Hospital, and even the North Building was only demolished because it proved too expensive to update.
Continued renovations remained a priority because DMH opted for a gradual process of deinstitutionalization. One annual report states, “We do not intend to repeat the mistakes of California and New York and Alabama – and others – by discharging patients back into communities which are not equipped with staff or programs to serve those patients.”[23] How well they managed this goal can be debated, but maintaining the central hospital undeniably called for the program of renovations to continue. The incredibly active Buildings Maintenance Division is likely why DMH employee Mike Mefford recalled the Bull Street Campus as a “full operation,” despite deinstitutionalization being the official policy.[24]
In 1976, the Commissioner of the DMH tried to answer an expose in The State from October of that year claiming thirty-two separate complaints of patient abuse.[25] Although this expose focused more on abuse by attendants than neglect caused by the building facilities, as the 1909 General Assembly investigation did, the article does reveal the popular perception of the State Hospital in the mid-1970s.[26] However, this expose is not mere ill will toward DMH; the following year, the adult psychiatric program failed to receive full accreditation, indicating some serious deficiencies within the hospital.[27] The records indicate that renovations of patient wards simply could not keep pace with the wear and tear they suffered, even with the declining patient population of the 1970s.[28] In fact, the Talley Building was demolished in 1976 because DMH believed it, like the North Building before it, could not be updated in a cost efficient manner.[29]
The adult psychiatric program regained full accreditation by 1978, but the building program continued to stagnate.[30] The only completed project listed for that fiscal year is the repair of fire damage at Dr. Doskocil’s residence; the re-roofing of the Maximum Security Wards was not complete, and the Budget and Control Board of the General Assembly had held up two other projects.[31] The Mental Health Commission refocused DMH toward developing “regional decentralized psychiatric hospitals” in 1979, but the most visible indication of this refocus did not become evident until the following year.[32] In 1980, the hospital demolished both the Parker Building and the Thompson Building.[33] Annual teports leading up to 1980 indicate that the engineering division remained concerned that the renovation of Thompson would prove too expensive to be feasible; however, there is no mention as to why they demolished Parker.[34] One can safely infer that whatever the physical problems with the Parker Building may have been, no one questioned the decision to demolish it, as it was a visible reminder of segregation since it was the first permanent structure purpose-built to house African-American males.[35]
Another sign of deinstitutionalization in the built environment of Bull Street was the closing of Babcock for residential use.[36] Though patients would move back into the building from 1983 to 1987, the effort to close this building and demolish it indicate a rejection of the custodial style of mental health care Kirkbride style asylums now embodied.[37] Renovations continued on the other buildings housing patients, and even on Babcock when it was again needed for residential space. Though the hospital population had fallen dramatically from the 1960s, DMH continued to update facilities to retain accreditation.[38]
According to Mike Mefford, the 1980s saw Bull Street “really start to downsize,” and 1985 showed the first of many building adaptations.[39] The Cooper Building, previously used to house patients, became the home to the consolidated forensic program.[40] DMH completed the renovation of Trezevant as the new Pharmacy in 1987, but in 1990 they officially about-faced.[41] The annual report for that year states, “the buildings are so antiquated that they are beyond repair and renovation.”[42] Despite this official decree, Physical Plant Services continued to beautify and update wards to maintain accreditation standards. In an interesting twist of fate, Physical Plant Services, which only became its own department in 1983, seemed to grow as patient services shrank.[43] Although DMH wrote its last annual report in 1997, Physical Plant and other entities on campus continued to adapt buildings to their needs.[44] The Parker Annex became an HVAC workshop, while all the buildings behind Babcock took on functions such as locksmith shops and storage.[45] Although they were not serving their original purposes, the Bakery and others like it continued to support the hospital until after 2000, as they did when first constructed.[46] Even Ensor, which had housed the morgue for as long as anyone could remember, was revitalized to house Volunteer Services around 2004, showing that even after experiencing death and darkness for years, buildings can experience a new and brighter life.[47]
Annual reports and casual interviews indicate that Bull Street’s buildings have a long history of adaptation. Although they are vacant today, the history of these structures demonstrates they lie in sleep, rather than in death. Given the chance, Bull Street’s buildings could once again adapt and serve people today.
[1] For more information on that topic, please consult the Master Narrative.
[2] It was a year later in 1828 that the first patient moved into the structure. Peter McCandless, Moonlight, Magnolias, & Madness: Insanity in South Carolina from the Colonial to the Progressive Eras (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 67.Benjamin Hugher and Patrick Noble, “An Act to Authorize the Erection of Suitable Buildings for a Lunatic Asylum, and a School for the Deaf and Dumb” (South Carolina General Assembly, December 20, 1821), Container 2, Series 190011, Permanent Improvement Files, South Carolina State Archives; Inez Nolan Fripp and Richard R. Earl, “Correction of Mills Diagram with Construction Dates,” October 17, 1978, Box 1A, Series 190018, State Dept. of Mental Health Office of the State Commissioner Administrative, correspondence, and speech files of the superintendent/state commissioner ca. 1919-1973, “Buildings Information,” South Carolina State Archives.
[3]Fripp and Earl, “Correction of Mills Diagram with Construction Dates.”
[4]D. H. Trezevant, Letters to His Excellency Governor Manning on the Lunatic Asylum (Columbia, S.C: Steam-power press of R.W. Gibbes & Co, 1854), 15.
[5]Board of Regents, Annual Report of the Regents of the Lunatic Asylum to the Legislature of South Carolina for 1857 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, 1857), 1857: 4, Box 1, Series S190002, Mental Health Commission Annual Reports of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, 1838-1903, South Carolina State Archives.
[6]Board of Regents, Annual Report of the Regents of the Lunatic Asylum to the Legislature of South Carolina for 1870 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, 1870): 7.
[7]Board of Regents, Annual Report of the Regents of the Lunatic Asylum to the Legislature of South Carolina for the Fiscal Year 1884-85 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, 1885), 1885: 23, Box 1, Series S190002, Mental Health Commission Annual Reports of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, 1838-1903, South Carolina State Archives.
[8]Peter Gordon Cranford and Lois White Lane, Damnation Hospital (Milledgeville, Ga.: Old Capital Press, 2009): 51-93; McCandless, Moonlight, Magnolias, & Madness, 233-246.
[9]Board of Regents, Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane for the Year 1915 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane, 1916), 1895-96: 30, Box 2, Series S190002, Mental Health Commission Annual Reports of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, South Carolina State Archives.
[10] Patients tended to be separated into categories by sex and race and then kept in a particular part of campus. African-American women lived in the Mills Building and behind it; white women lived in the north wing of the Babcock Building and in the North, Talley, and Trezevant Buildings to name a few that were also to the north of Babcock. The Asylum confined African-American men to the corner southeast of the Babcock Building in the Parker Building and Parker Annex, as well as some wooden structures, and white men lived in the south wing of Babcock and a few smaller buildings near that wing. Inez Nolan Fripp, “Dormitory Capacity as of 1964,” February 25, 1964, Box 1A, Series 190018, State Dept. of Mental Health Office of the State Commissioner Administrative, correspondence, and speech files of the superintendent/state commissioner ca. 1919-1973, “Administration Building,” South Carolina State Archives.
[11]Ibid.
[12]South Carolina State Hospital, One Hundred and Thirty Third Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital For the Year Ending June 30, 1956 (Columbia, S.C, 1956): 14, 37, Box 2, Series 190002, State Dept. of Mental Health Agency History Record, South Carolina State Archives; Robert S. Lafaye, “Letter from Robert S. Lafaye (architect) to L.W. Shelley (hospital Business Manager),” 25 1949, Maximum Detention Building Folder, Box 1, Series 190012, State Dept. of Mental Health Agency History Record, South Carolina State Archives.
[13]“Chapel Cornerstone Ceremony at S.C. Hospital,” September 1946, Scrapbooks 2, Location 375M04, Box 1, Series 190093, State Dept. of Mental Health Agency History Record, red scrapbook, South Carolina State Archives; Fripp, “Dormitory Capacity as of 1964.”
[14]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1961-1962 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1962): 179, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[15]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for the Fiscal Year 1963-1964 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1964): 148, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1964-1965 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1965): 159, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1965-1966 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1966): 7, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1966-1967 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1967): 19, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1969-1970 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1970): 25, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[16]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1964-1965, 159.
[17]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1965-1966, 7.
[18]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1966-1967, 24.
[19] The State Hospital constructed the State Park Campus after 1910 near where the State Department of Archives and History on Parklane Road is located today. According to the records, this campus only housed African-American patients until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. State Park contains many structures very similar to those at Bull Street, including a library and auditorium built the same year as Horger Library and Benet Auditorium; however, some “matching” structures at the two campuses have major differences, such as the chapels.
[20]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1967-1968 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1968): 19, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[21]Ibid.; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1969-1970: 18; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1970-1971 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1971): 25, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives; Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1971-1972 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1972): 55, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[22]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1973-1974 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1974): 40, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[23]Ibid.
[24]Mike Mefford, Telephone Interview 1 Conducted by Kim Campbell, March 25, 2014.
[25]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1975-1976 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1976): 6, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[26]“Inside The State: Patient Abuse Examined,” October 3, 1976, Sunday Edition edition, 9B.
[27]Board of Regents, Annual Report, 1976-1977 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1977): 32, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[28]Department of Mental Health, Annual Statistical Report Hospital Services, Fiscal Year 1998-1999 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, n.d.): M-3, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[29]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1975-1976: 50.
[30]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1977-1978 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1978): 32, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[31]Ibid.
[32]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1978-1979 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1979): 31, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[33]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1979-1980 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1980): 26, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[34]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1978-1979: 28.
[35]Fripp, “Dormitory Capacity as of 1964.”
[36]Mefford, Telephone Interview 1 Conducted by Kim Campbell.
[37]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1981-1982 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1982): 51, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[38]Department of Mental Health, Annual Statistical Report Hospital Services, Fiscal Year 1998-1999, M-3.
[39]Mefford, Telephone Interview 1 Conducted by Kim Campbell.
[40]Mike Mefford, Telephone Interview 2 Conducted by Kim Campbell, March 26, 2014.
[41]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1986-1987 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1987): 216, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[42]Ibid.
[43]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1983-1984 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1984): 33, Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[44]Annual Report of the Department of Mental Health for Fiscal Year 1996-1997 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Hospital, 1997), Box 3, Series 190002, State Department of Mental Health Annual Reports 1958-2000, South Carolina State Archives.
[45]Mefford, Telephone Interview 2 Conducted by Kim Campbell.
[46]Mefford, Telephone Interview 1 Conducted by Kim Campbell.
[47]Ibid.