Insane Asylum

The former St. Louis Insane Asylum is a monumental red brick institution set on a hilltop lawn, laid out on the symmetrical, wing-stepped Kirkbride plan. Its central block, five stories over a stone base, is fronted by a classical portico of tall columns beneath a pediment and carries a heavy bracketed and dentiled cornice; long wings step back and down to either side. Rising from the center is the building's landmark — a domed lantern of a white columned drum with arched windows, capped by a ribbed copper dome, now green, and a finial. Round-arched openings mark the lower floors, with cast-stone trim and brick quoins throughout.

The St. Louis County Lunatic Asylum opened on April 23, 1869, at 5400 Arsenal Street, then on open ground outside the city, beside the City Poor House and the Female Hospital. It was designed by the architect William Rumbold — who had designed the dome of the Old Courthouse — on the Kirkbride plan, with stepped wings flanking a central block behind a columned portico. Rumbold crowned it with a cast-iron dome, visible for miles and built in part to draw ventilation up through the building. Its bricks were made on the site, and cost overruns made it, at about $750,000, the most expensive institution of its kind west of the Mississippi. Later known as the City Insane Asylum and the St. Louis State Hospital, it operates today as the St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, a state facility.