I’ve been on the tour twice and found it educational and not in poor taste. The tour guide did his masters thesis oral history project talking to patients, families and staff, so he brings a strong research background to the talk. And participants asked thoughtful questions the times I was there.
The tours are weekly on Friday evenings. I highly recommend the tour if you’re interested in local history and looking for something unique.
Personally I hope they don’t erase the history completely. It’s part of what makes the park unique and authentic.
It was the last two years before transitioning to Butner. They had some security and safety issues with the new campus, so it took longer to move. The job was through NC State’s temporary solutions where I would get college credits for summer work, they needed someone who could drive a manual delivery truck and was also forklift certified. ZERO experience in mental health LOL.
Right across the street from the Spruill building is where we kept the housekeeping supplies and delivery trucks.
It looks better now, but before the Spruill building had huge sets of barbwire fences around the building and their outdoor area. Inside the building were jail cells smaller than I had seen on WW2 Navel ships for captures, it was very small.
Most of my deliveries and the vast majority of patients lived here at the McBryde building, which I think holds the best potential for repurpose. Especially if they remove the recent addition on the front and convert back to the original awnings.
The whole campus was very antiquated, to be expected, but every door needed to be opened with a key and then immediately turn around to lock it back. New campuses have automatic locking doors, I made this mistake the first week and an elderly patient escaped on to the front lawn.
I always thought the steam house also had lots of potential.
It was a female, and she didn’t make it very far. She was one of the patients who weren’t allowed to have shoes in fear of hurting herself or others. By the time I figured out what happened I looked out the window, and she had flung off both gripsocks and was across the front lawn with sirens blaring.
She was tackled on the other side of this gazebo, not kidding.
“guilty by reason of insanity”. She was always accompanied by guards. Later she transferred to the Geriatric Unit, as some of her early training was in elder care and thinking it might be safer. It wasn’t. Many patients were medicated or “restrained for their own safety”, and she was hit several times when they were released. She later transferred to Men’s Central prison (death row), then Women’s Central and back to Men’s Central. Oddly, she often felt safer there than at Dix.
Worth the visit. It is right beside my Doctor’s office and I have stayed there a few times. Not creepy at all. Just interesting and cool. I would support “Dorothea”.
