Return to The Old Bryce Hospital (The voices are real...)

2 years ago
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Today, we venture back to the Old Bryce Hospital, also known better as the Jemison center, and out buildings, to explore the alleged haunting and mysterious light anomaly.

From AbandonedSoutheast.com: The Jemison family settled near Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the 1830s and became one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the state. Robert Jemison Jr. was a Confederate senator, businessman, and entrepreneur. His business empire grew to encompass toll roads and bridges, a grist mill, a sawmill, livery stables, a hotel, and six plantations totaling over 10,000 acres. Jemison was one of the leaders who built support for the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane, later renamed Bryce Hospital, which opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa.
After his death in 1871, Jemison’s largest plantation, known as Cherokee Place, was bequeathed to the State of Alabama Board of Mental Health. During the Segregation Era, a separate facility was established for African-American patients. The building known as the Jemison Center was constructed a short drive from the main campus in Northport on what was once Cherokee Place and named for Jemison’s generosity. Before the Jemison Center was built, African-American patients were housed in the lofts of the barn at Bryce Hospital.
In 1970, the Jemison Center made headlines after a journalist from the Tuscaloosa News visited the facility and reported on the abhorrent conditions. “Human feces were caked on the toilets and walls; urine-soaked aging floors; many beds lacked linens; patients were sleeping on the floor. One small shower served 131 male patients; the 75 female patients only had one shower too. Most of the patients at Jemison were highly tranquilized and appeared to have not bathed in days. All appeared to lack any semblance of treatment. The stench was almost unbearable.” In 1971, the lawsuit was expanded to include patients at Alabama’s other inpatient mental health facilities. The resulting court-ordered agreements formed the basis for federal minimum standards for the care of people with mental illness who reside in institutional settings known as the Wyatt Standards. The standards are founded on four criteria for evaluation of care: humane psychological and physical environment, qualified and sufficient staff for administration of treatment, individualized treatment plans, and minimum restriction of patient freedom.

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