Abandoned Northern State Mental Hospital
The institution was established in 1909 on a tract of land at sedro woolley and was originally a farm for harmless patients under the direction of the superintendent of the western hospital at fort steilacoom.
Abandoned northern state mental hospital. Of northern state hospital old timers used to say that sedro woolley s economy in the first half of the 20th century sat on a four legged stool. Now known as northern state ghost town it has been reduced to a series of dilapidated structures covered in graffiti and a few mementos of the times. The northern state hospital for the mentally ill was established in 1909 on a 700 acre farm. It also happens to be home to the remains of northern state hospital one of those most well known and most controversial mental institution in pacific northwest history.
It is located just north of the skagit river near the town of sedro woolley. The great unknown by audionautix. The new hospital opened april 1 1911. Once the largest hospital for mentally ill people in washington state northern state mental hospital was a town unto itself.
After it closed down in 1973 the property was handed over to the county to turn into a recreation area. My boyfriend max i explored the grounds of an abandoned asylum in sedro woolley washington. Established in 1909 the hospital was a self sufficient facility with a number of production buildings including a 700 acre farm. Interim maintenance superintendent mike caling right and david jefferson from skagit county public health inspect the old northern state main hospital building abandoned 44 years ago.
Parts of the site are still in use and off limits but the farm is now a recreation area. Stroll along the wide pastoral trails amongst the buildings and cemetery. The first leg was the logging industry the second was agriculture the third was skagit steel and the fourth was northern state hospital four miles northeast of town. Northern state hospital a mental institution just outside sedro woolley shut down decades ago.
In 1911 the hospital was separated from the western hospital and quickly became the largest in the state. But its buildings still tell stories.