Alabama Hospital for the Insane; AKA Bryce


First known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and later as the Alabama Insane Hospital, the building is considered an architectural model. The facility was planned from the start to utilize the "moral architecture" concepts of 1830s activists Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix. Dix's reformist ideas, in particular, are credited as the driving force behind the construction of the hospital. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the Italianate building using the Kirkbride Plan. Construction of the building began in 1853 but was not completed until 1859. The hospital was the first building in Tuscaloosa with gas lighting and central heat.


Size: 4096px × 6144px
Location: US
Photo credit: © The Protected Art Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: alabama, architecture, bryce, cupola, dix, dome, hospital, insane, medical, mental, tuscaloosa