How crazy is this? There are former "insane asylums" all over the U.S. that have been given new life as upscale hotels, art museums - even a medical history museum. Here are four:

INDY'S OLD PATHOLOGY BUILDING NOW MUSEUM OF MEDICAL HISTORY

Clocking a half century in 2019, the Indiana Medical History Museum (www.imhm.org) rises from the grounds of the former Central State Hospital in Indianapolis. Originally known as the "Indiana Hospital for the Insane," it was referred to as "Indiana Crazy House" in a circa 1880s broadside written as an expose by Civil War veteran Albert Thayer, a former patient.

Opened in 1848, the hospital treated patients diagnosed with dementia praecox, melancholia, hysteria and a host of other mental illnesses. The Pathological Department, whose purpose it was to research causes and treatments of these diseases, opened in 1896 in the Old Pathology Building - the heart of the museum and oldest surviving pathology facility in the nation.

The hospital was in operation until the 1960s, when it was transformed into the museum, preserving the Pathological Department's scientifically equipped interior. On the National Register of Historic Places, the Old Pathology Building has much to show visitors: teaching amphitheater; laboratories for bacteriology, clinical chemistry, histology and photography; library, reception room and records room; the autopsy room and anatomical museum which houses preserved specimens - mostly brains, organized by pathology.

In addition to guided tours of the Old Pathology Building, the museum offers special events, exhibits and programs on a range of topics, including the history of science and medicine, mental health care past and present, forensic science and others.

BUFFALO STATE ASYLUM NOW A HOTEL

Two famous names are connected to what was once the 600-bed Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane: Henry Hobson (H.H.) Richardson, one of "The Recognized Trinity of American Architecture," and Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture who famously designed New York City's Central Park. Back in 1880, the Richardson Romanesque-style campus of buildings set amidst beautifully landscaped grounds and gardens was a means to improve medical care for mental health patients in a therapeutic safe haven.

Today, the 88-room, full-service Hotel Henry Urban Resort Conference Center (www.hotelhenry.com) resides magnificently with a modern edge on the Richardson Olmsted Campus, a refuge of a different stripe in what is considered one of western New York's most iconic architectural landmarks. It sits on 42 acres squarely within Buffalo's museum district, having the surrounding parks and lakes; open-air cafes, historic pubs and locally-owned boutiques of Elmwood Village; and cultural assets, including the Buffalo History Museum and the Burchfield Penney Art Center, as its playground.

Guest rooms and suites within this National Historic Landmark hotel capitalize on the original footprint of the buildings. Each is an individually designed oasis offering a menu of amenities that may include 14-foot-tall windows, vaulted ceilings, local art, movable multi-use surfaces, indirect recessed LED lighting bordering the room, separate sitting areas and free-standing soaking tubs, among others.

FORMER PSYCHIACTRIC HOSPITAL NOW A CHIC HOTEL WITH PATIO OVERLOOKING ALBUQUERQUE

The locally-owned Hotel Parq Central (www.hotelparqcentral.com) in Albuquerque, NM, gives a nod to its past as a hospital and psychiatric facility with its Apothecary Lounge, a rooftop bar and patio serving Prohibition-era styled drinks and displaying a collection of vintage apothecary bottles.

Built in 1926, the hospital treated the employees of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company. In the 1980s, however, it became a psychiatric facility before closing, being gutted and then reemerging in 2010 - the repurposed, reimagined building now a luxury 74-room boutique hotel listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Still, the external architecture remains true to the building's original design and decorations, with influences from both the railroad and medicine, recall its past. Look for old maps, Depression-era glass and robe hangars made of reclaimed railroad artifacts. Fifteen suites and three cottages, showing off custom-designed contemporary furniture, are scenically arrayed among four buildings set amidst landscaped gardens and pathways.

Featuring Italian-inspired architecture and an inviting interior whose sleek stone is warmed with hardwood floors and fireplace, the hotel offers several perks, including complimentary gourmet continental breakfast and a free shuttle service anywhere within three miles - and that includes downtown Albuquerque and its outstanding museums: the Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico; 516 Arts; and New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historic Society, among others.

HOSPITAL FOR 'PERSONS OF INSANE, DISORDERED MINDS' PART OF VIRGINIA LIVING HISTORY COMPLEX

The world's largest living history museum has the distinction of having on its grounds the reconstructed "Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds," later called the "Eastern Lunatic Asylum" and today Eastern State Hospital. The historic "Public Hospital of 1773" building is on the campus at Colonial Williamsburg (www.colonialwilliamsburg.com) in Virginia and was the first such building in North America devoted solely to the treatment of the mentally ill.

Now the entrance to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg (the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum), the building is a portal to past treatments of mental illness that would be unheard of these days. According to history provided on Colonial Williamsburg's website, "treatment consisted of restraint, strong drugs, plunge baths and other 'shock' water treatment, bleeding, and blistering salves."

The original building burned in 1885, its cellar filled with the rubble so that a new building could be constructed in its place. In 1960, Colonial Williamsburg acquired the property and, in 1972, archaeologists made an important discovery: the foundations of the Public Hospital - still filled with the ashes and debris of the previous century's fire. Visitors can tour the hospital with its two exhibition cells reflecting the 18th and 19th centuries and view exhibits detailing mental illness treatments of early American history.

The Public Hospital of 1773 offers up a graphic slice of history relating to mental illness in a vast complex that showcases 40-plus sites and trades, several historic taverns and two world-class art museums. It is an intriguing if somewhat unexpected attraction at Colonial Williamsburg.

(Kathy Witt is the author of "Secret Cincinnati" as well as "Atlanta, Georgia: A Photographic Portrait" and "The Secret of the Belles." Contact her at KathyWitt24@gmail.com or visit www.KathyWitt.com..)

(c)2019 Kathy Witt

Visit Kathy Witt at www.kathywitt.com

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