Ypsilanti State Mental Hospital is a destroyed medical facility in York Charter Township, Michigan, that housed and treated individuals suffering from mental health illnesses. In 1991, the Ypsilanti State Hospital was shuttered and abandoned. Toyota purchased the land in 2005 with the intention of developing the Toyota Technical Center on the site, and all traces of the abandoned hospital complex have vanished.
The state of Michigan donated $1.5 million in 1930 for the construction of a psychiatric hospital to assist meet the loads of the other state hospitals at the time. The Ypsilanti State Mental Hospital’s construction began on June 16, 1930, and it took a year to complete. Because it was located in the Ypsilanti telephone exchange region, it was dubbed Ypsilanti State Hospital.
Albert Kahn, the architect of hundreds of structures on campus, including Angell Hall and Hill Auditorium, designed the Ypsilanti State Hospital facilities. The hospital welcomed its initial six patients on June 15, 1931, and by 1932, it was spending 80 cents per day on each of its more than 900 patients.
The initial enlargement, with more housing and the Occupational Therapy Center, took place in 1936. Needle showers, UV light, and electric shock therapy were all introduced as experimental treatments. The facility also performed prefrontal lobotomies.
The United States Army Epidemiology Board’s Committee on Influenza tested an experimental flu vaccination on 200 patients in Ypsilanti in 1941. During World War II, the hospital faced a dilemma that affected all non-military establishments: a lack of manpower. The overall number of employees fell by around 35%. Meanwhile, the patient population and turnover remained unabated. The use of 75 conscientious objectors provided some assistance, but only covered a portion of the gap.
During WWII, two more wards were built, increasing the hospital’s capacity to almost 4,000 patients. It also witnessed a surge in new research activities ranging from routine epidemiological investigations to “finger-painting as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool,” as well as work involving a drug known as “L.S.D. CID #527.” While testing flu vaccinations at Ypsilanti State Hospital, Dr. Jonas Salk refined the abilities that would ultimately lead him to produce the polio vaccine.
The building program continued after the war. Buildings B-5 and B-6 were finished in 1948; in 1954, the Administration part was refurbished and a third floor was added for more office space. YSH was Michigan’s first state hospital to include a chapel distinct from the other buildings.
Friends and Family Circle was established in 1951 at Ypsilanti State Hospital “to enhance the wellbeing of our patients, particularly those, of whom there are over 1,000, who lack personal touch with families or friends.” It was about this time that Ypsilanti State Hospital achieved its greatest notoriety. Milton Rokeach, a social psychologist, wanted to experiment with group therapy with three patients who all believed they were Jesus Christ. The logical inconsistency of having two additional Christs in the room was insufficient to cure the sufferers. Yet, “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti,” the ensuing book, was essential reading in many psychology schools for a generation.
By the end of the 1960s, YSH’s patient population had begun to fall steadily. The Governor of Michigan slashed financing for public hospitals in 1991, and Ypsilanti State Hospital shuttered shortly after. A forensic center operated on the site until 2001.
A tiny fraction of Ypsilanti State Hospital continued in operation as the Center for Forensic Psychiatry until 2005, when a new structure was erected immediately north of the old hospital. Toyota later purchased the land to build a technological complex, and the hospital was demolished in 2006 after being abandoned for many years.
Historical Photos of Ypsilanti State Hospital
