Monday, March 10, 2014

Northern State Hospital (Part 1)


This post is long overdue.  The pictures are from last September, but I had this post all ready to go not long after I took the pictures and somehow lost it: very frustrating.

On September 14th of last year, Northern State Hospital had an open house and tour of the grounds and I went hoping to see some of the areas that ordinarily are off limit.

Sadly, we were not allowed into any of the buildings except the chapel and were not even allowed to get close to many of the building because of the perceived danger.

Northern State Hospital Was building in the early 1900's as a state-or-the-art Psychiatric Hospital and was open from 1912 to 1976 when it officially closed.

The hospital is in the town of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, in Skagit County. There have been some efforts made to preserve it as a state historic site, thus far unsuccessful.

The hospital was meant to be self-supporting and included a farm, a dairy and a cannery which provided work, income and food for the hospital and its patients.

Today, the farm is part of a county park and the buildings are slowly falling down.  Some of the hospital and administration buildings are still in use by the Job Corps.

These pictures are all of the hospital and administration buildings, some still in use and other abandoned.  They were taken on a very gray day which made pictures difficult.

Rather unusual for this area, the hospital buildings were all in the Spanish Revival architectural style and the well-known architects were the Olmsted Brothers.

Pictures of the farm can be seen at this link: http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-state-hospital-sedro-woolley.html.

The Chapel












 The Chapel Interior












 Nurses Quarters











The Hospital








































 The Power Plant




Around the Grounds







Monday, February 17, 2014

Fort Casey


Fort Casey, now a state park is one of four forts originally built in the 1890's to guard Admiralty Inlet, a part of Puget Sound.  The other three forts are Fort Ebey, also on Whidbey Island, and two across the inlet, Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island, and Fort Worden near Port Townsend.  None of the forts were involved in an active defense of the inlet and were manned only at the beginning of the twentieth century and again during World War II.  The state park which includes the fort also includes the Admiralty Head Lighthouse, now a museum.

These photos were taken on a January 6th excursion to Fort Casey with our daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren who had not seen the fort before.  The fort is maintained to some degree as a state park and is a wonderful place for photos and for children to explore.  We spent several hours there, though the weather was not very nice, but cloudy and cold, nor were there many people around which was very nice for taking photos.

The Fort




















Details

















 Port Townsend and the Olympics




.  We had hoped to see the museum at the lighthouse and climb the lighthouse tower but it was not open.