Wyatt v. Stickney

Bryce Hospital
Front of Administration Building, the first and oldest building on campus, completed in 1859.
Geography
Location	Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
Coordinates	33°12′59″N 87°32′18″W / 33.21626°N 87.53831°W / 33.21626; -87.53831Coordinates: 33°12′59″N 87°32′18″W / 33.21626°N 87.53831°W / 33.21626; -87.53831
Organization
Care system	Public
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Beds	268
Speciality	Psychiatric hospital
History
Founded	1861
Links
Lists	Hospitals in Alabama
Alabama Insane Hospital
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	University Blvd., Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Area	17 acres (7 ha)
Built	1853–59
Architect	Sloan, Samuel, et al.; Stewart
Architectural style	Mixed (more than 2 styles from different periods), Italianate, Roman Revival
NRHP reference #	77000216
Added to NRHP	April 18, 1977

Bryce Hospital, opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, is Alabama's oldest and largest inpatient psychiatric facility. First known as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane and later as the Alabama Insane Hospital, the building is considered an architectural model. The hospital currently houses 268 beds for acute care, treatment and rehabilitation of full-time (committed) patients. The Mary Starke Harper Geriatric Psychiatry Hospital, a separate facility on the same campus, provides an additional 100 beds for inpatient geriatric care. The main facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

The plans for a state hospital for the mentally ill in Alabama began in 1852. The new facility was planned from the start to utilize the "moral architecture" concepts of 1830s activists Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix. Dix's reformist ideas, in particular, are credited as the driving force behind the construction of the hospital. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the Italianate building using the Kirkbride Plan. Construction of the building began in 1853 but was not completed until 1859. The hospital was the first building in Tuscaloosa with gas lighting and central heat, "all clad in a fashionable Italianate exterior."

The Alabama Insane Hospital opened in 1861. It was later renamed for its first superintendent, Peter Bryce, who had first begun as a 27-year-old psychiatric pioneer from South Carolina. Bryce had been brought to the attention of the hospital trustees by Dix. He had studied mental-health care in Europe and worked in psychiatric hospitals in New Jersey, as well as his native state of South Carolina. His tenure was marked by absolute discipline among the staff of the hospital. He demanded that patients be given courtesy, kindness and respect at all times. The use of shackles, straitjackets and other restraints was discouraged, and finally abandoned altogether in 1882. Various work programs and other activities were encouraged, including farming, sewing, maintenance and crafts. Between 1872 and the early 1880s, some of the patients wrote and edited their own newspaper, called The Meteor. These writings provide a rare inside look at life in a progressive mental institution in the late 19th century. At that time, Bryce's management and commitment to "scientific treatments" was recognized around the country as in a class of its own.