St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital
Updated: Dec 4, 2022
The forgotton memory of the St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital, located in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, right off of Sunset Drive.
The St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital (Figure 10, 11) is located off of Sunset Drive in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, and it “sits [on] a complex of vacant, inter-connected Queenston Limestone, Art Deco buildings, done in a Pavilion Plan style, on a 650-acre property” (Forsyth, 2020). Back in 1939, the site only had 460 acres of land and produced much of its own food (Summer, 2013). The abandoned building is heavily blocked off to the public, although that does not stop urban explorers from taking control and appreciating these fantastic, obscure spaces that might otherwise go completely neglected (RomanyWG & Potter, 2011) (Fassi, 2010).
The hospital opened its doors in April of 1939 as the Ontario Hospital; The facility had around 1100 patients by September of 1939 (Forsyth, 2020). Also in September 1939, “the Department of National Defence took over the hospital grounds for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for their Technical Training School,” resulting in the patients being relocated for the duration of World War II (Forsyth, 2020). The building served as a school for aero-engine mechanics, instrument makers, fabric workers, electricians, sheet metal workers, carpenters, propeller specialists, safety equipment workers, parachute riggers, and fright engineers (Forsyth, 2020). As the war came to an end, in November of 1945, the property was returned to the Ontario Government, and it was reverted to being a psychiatric hospital (Forsyth, 2020). By April of 1958, the hospital housed around 2300 patients, and it was supposed to provide patients with innovative approaches to patient health and well-being. But it was not until the 1970’s that “it was decided that rather than confine people to institutions, that through mental health transformation patient care should shift from that of an institutional model to helping patients learn to live productive lives in the community. It offered patients hope and recovery” (Lalonde, 2020); This transition allowed patients who were confined for years to be de-institutionalized and integrated into a community living-based support model – for those deemed suitable of course. However, on March 31st, 1988, two patients were given day passes to leave the premises in order to work a job to help integrate them into societal processes; One of the men told his boss that he wanted to “leave early and get laid,” so the two men drove around until they found a 14 year old girl. The girl was waiting for a bus, and she was abducted, beaten, then thrown into a river here she walked to a nearby house for help (Lalonde, 2020). In January of 2001, St. Joseph’s Health Care in London, Ontario, took over governance of the St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital, as a part of the reorganization of mental health care ordered by the Health Care Restructuring Commission (HSRC) in 1997 (Forsyth, 2020). 12 years later, in 2013, a new hospital facility was built resulting in the closure of the old one which cut ties with the unfortunate history of “physical and sexual abuse of patients whom were referred to as “imbeciles,” “lunatics” and “idiots.”” (Forsyth, 2020).
The old building still holds history through the left behind building itself as well as the furniture, signage and other abandoned items inside (Figure 12, 13, 14, 15). Walking through the hospital gives an eerie feeling as it holds the dark memories of the former residents, “some of whom were abandoned by their families’ years previously and spent their final days confined within the walls” (Forsyth, 2020). Blue and green colours, materials, and textures (Figure 17) were often used around the space because they created a calming atmosphere for patients. Exploring this post industrial landscape creates a portal into the past; One is walking on the same tiles, and down the same halls (Figure 17, 18), as the patients, nurses, and faculty once did. Knowing the scary stories that have gone on within the walls of the hospital are consistently running through ones mind each time they walk into a different room (Figure 15, 16) – Did something bad happen here? Documenting post industrial ruins like this building allow urban explorers to “recall theories foundational to the fields of urban studies and cultural geography” (Fassi, 2010).
