Saint Joseph Missouri

Glore Psychiatric Museum

More From Saint Joseph More From Missouri

Unhappy former spectral mental patients are trapped in the basement area.

Other spirits attached to the other floors make themselves known.

DESCRIPTION / HISTORY

The Glore Psychiatric Museum can be found in a three story, 1968 brick building which once housed the clinic which serviced the patients who lived at the mental hospital. It also has a large basement. The older buildings located on the prison side of the fence show the various building styles of the era in which they were constructed. The old admissions building is the oldest one, probably dating back to the 1872 time period.

The oldest buildings were there at the beginning, as part of The State Hospital for the Insane No.2, with beds for 275 patients. It became home to 25 patients on November 9th, 1874, with great things in mind. The first superintendent described the goal of the hospital; To do “The noble work of reviving hope in the human heart and dispelling the portentous clouds that penetrate the intellects of minds diseased.”

There was plenty of land to expand the facilities. The hospital quickly filled its 275 beds. As more hopelessly mentally ill people needed to be there, more buildings were added, growing the patient population. In its early years, the hospital was nearly self-sufficient, using patients to become involved in working on a farm, raising crops and livestock, providing food for all in the hospital.

In 1899, the name of the hospital was changed to St. Joseph State Hospital, which continued to grow in numbers throughout the years. By the early 1950s, the hospital was home to almost 3,000 mentally ill people, ranging from the mildly depressed, to patients who could be rehabilitated, to the criminally insane, considered to be very dangerous indeed.

Throughout the years of his hospital, a variety of experimental, cutting edge treatments were provided for its patients. Some were progressive and some were harmful, perhaps causing deeper mental illness.

With the use of new drugs, many of the patients were able to be released back into the society by the early 1990s. In 1994, the now sprawling asylum and hospital was turned into a correctional facility, known now as The Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, which opened in 1999. A smaller mental hospital was built across the street.

In 1967, The Glore Psychiatric Museum was started in a building in the old hospital by George Glore, who had a 41 year career with The Missouri Department of Mental Health. George put on display “full-sized replicas of 16th, 17th and 18th century treatment devices.” The exhibits grew, showing the progress made in treating mental illness. In 1997, the museum moved outside the prison, into its current brick building. The Glore Psychiatric Museum today offers three floors of exhibits, which tell the the story of the treatment of mental illness through the years. The second floor has on display the art work of the patients over the years.

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS

Many of the patients never had visitors, and died alone and forgotten, their bodies dumped in unmarked graves.

The three story, brick building which houses the museum, used to be the health clinic for the patients, perhaps a place of hope.

The basement was the morgue, because it was close to the cemetery.

The entities who haunt this building perhaps are still hoping to be cured of their mental illness, so they could go home.

The art work on display may have some entities attached to various items.

MANIFESTATIONS

Floors of the Glore Psychiatric Museum

A male entity in sharp dress clothes has been seen walking around the third floor.

An entity of an old man is seen meandering around the hallways.

THE BASEMENT – Entities seemed to be trapped here!

The Motion detector goes nuts when no one alive is down in the basement.

Auditory Activity

A soft, woman’s voice asking for help has been reported by visiting tours.

Whimpering, crying has also been heard.

Muttering coming from a shadow of a man was reported.

A Screamer!

A scary apparition of a man runs down the basement hallway, toward the elevators, screaming, “Why are you here? GET OUT!!!!!!!!!

STILL HAUNTED?

Yes indeed, according to reliable eye witnesses.

LOCATION

3406 Frederick Avenue,
St. Joseph, MO

The Glore Psychiatric Museum, and its former campus which has been turned into a “correctional facility”, can be found one mile west of I-29, on Frederick Boulevard, which is exit 47.

It is east of downtown Saint Joseph, in the outskirts, near the Moila Golf Course. Looking at the area from the front, The Glore Psychiatric Museum is in the brick building on the southeast corner. The old part of the former hospital which is quite big and sprawling, sits farther back, and is surrounded by a prison fence topped with the customary barbed wire.

saint-joseph