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At a time when the mentally ill were confined to prisons, poorhouses or worse, Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride in the latter part of the 19^th century sought to spread his philosophy of moral and human treatment for the mentally ill through a publication called “On Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane.”

A Quaker physician, Kirkbride became superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane around 1840, and was also founder, and later, president of the precursor to the American Psychiatric Association. In his writings, Kirkbride advocated for a “linear” floor plan for asylums with a central administration building with patients wings on either side. Viewing the natural world was something Kirkbride thought was crucial to patient recovery, so he recommended divided and staggered wings to allow ample daylight and fresh air as well as views of the asylum grounds.

The influence of “On Construction…” on the medical community caused dozens of hospitals around the US to be designed and constructed according to the “Kirkbride Plan” between 1848 and 1890. Though his theories have since fallen out of favor due to a lack of evidence on patient recoveries, several Kirkbride-influenced buildings remain today across the country, some still in use, some abandoned.

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