Christian Church Hospital - Haunted Asylum

 Christian Church Hospital opened in 1916 at 2697 West Paseo in Kansas City Missouri, the hospital served Veterans of WW1, the poor of the city, and later the criminally insane. A second building on the property around on 27th St., housed the doctors, nurses, and other staff for the hospital, later the building was used as a home for unwed mothers.

 In 1927 internationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Robert Patterson purchased the property, and used the facility as a mental hospital. Dr. Patterson, though well educated, and innovative in his practice, chose to use archaic, and questionable techniques on his patients such as keeping patients in cages, wet blanket treatments, and most notably the dreaded ice pick lobotomy.  Countless numbers of patients died under Dr. Patterson's care, whether due to his treatment plan, or natural causes remains unknown.
 The Dr. performed these horrific treatments on his patients for 30 years, until 1958 when as a perfectly healthy individual, he himself was overtaken by insanity.  Over a period of time the doctor was subjected to his own questionable treatment, and eventually his very own ice pick frontal lobotomy. Dr. Patterson died shortly after.

  The city took over, and ran the facility, even continuing to use many of Dr. Patterson's techniques until 1975 when it was shut down, and left to rot away.
  The building since has been purchased, and turned into a retirement apartment complex. Much care has been taken to restore the exterior details, the limestone corbels, consoles, and beautiful ionic columns.

  Stories have been told of hauntings during the renovation such as doors and windows slamming shut, and tools hurling through the air. Some of these events were enough for some workers to even walk of the job, and refuse to come back. Neighbors claim to have seen ghostly apparitions wandering the grounds, and peering out the windows. Another Kansas City building with so many stories to tell still stands with a new chapter, and many more stories to come thanks to a caring renovation.

 

The Dorm around the corner on 27th St. that was used for housing the doctors, and nurses that worked at the hospital