History 21 The Podcast - 2.18 The Anoka State Hospital with Karen Siewert
The Anoka State Hospital housed and treated mentally ill patients from 1900 to 1999 and its large, three-story cottages standing next to the Rum River are a source of fascination. As part of an oral history project in 2014, Karen Siewert talked about her time working there in the early 1960s, conditions in the overcrowded buildings, and her continued work to transform the Hospital’s cemetery into one of remembrance and dignity for the patients buried there.
TW: Mental illness and outdated treatment practices
Host Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director
Vault Extras
Watch video of Karen Siewert’s full Oral History. Runtime: 59 minutes
View of three of the cottages on the Anoka State Hospital grounds, ca 1915.
View of a bedroom filled with beds in one of the Anoka State Hospital cottages.
Anoka State Hospital hand-drawn map that depicts the main campus of the hospital grounds, and identifies each building, 1948.
Hand-drawn map from 1948 depicting the Anoka State Hospital farm area just north of the main hospital campus.
Anoka County Library Minute
Further Reading:
Poems From the Asylum by Martha Nasch (921 NAS)
This book is an anthology of poems written by an inmate at the St. Peter State Hospital for the insane during the Great Depression. Accompanying Nasch’s poetry are photos and historical research edited, arranged, and introduced by the poet’s granddaughter/family historian, as well as her great-granddaughter.
This book, the winner of the 2019 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction, discusses some of the reforms that took place in Minnesota’s mental institutions in the mid-20th century, including to the Anoka State Hospital.
Shrinks: the untold story of psychiatry by Jeffrey A. Lieberman (616.89 LIE)
The author of this book, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, offers an accessible history of the profession of psychiatry, from its troubled infancy to the evidence-based medical profession it is today.
This book, written by a doctor who practiced at America’s first state hospital for the insane in the 1950’s, provides a first-person account of what it was like to treat patients during a pivotal turning point in psychiatric care.
We Hold This Treasure: the story of Gillette Children’s Hospital by Steven E. Koop (Q362.19892 KOO)
Gillette Children’s Hospital was the first state-funded hospital in the country to specifically serve handicapped children from poor families. The story is told from the perspective of nearly four hundred former patients, many of whom suffered with polio, via interviews and other correspondence.
In addition to mental health issues, many of these facilities also treated illnesses such as polio or tuberculosis. This book compiles information from interviews and diaries of TB patients in Minnesota and “looks beyond the common stereotype of enforced confinement,” and shows how other treatments were utilized, such as good food, fresh air, and sunshine.
This book highlights the architectural work of Clarence H. Johnston, the man behind Anoka State Hospital’s cottage plan design. In addition to designing the Anoka State Hospital, Johnston, as Minnesota’s State Architect, designed 42 of the Victorian-style houses lining Summit Avenue.
Bylines: a photobiography of Nellie Bly by Sue Macy (J921 BLY MAC)
This children’s book introduces young readers to the courageous female journalist who was institutionalized by choice to an insane asylum for women in order to expose the poor conditions there.