![]() ![]() Death and suffering were commonplace, and that energy was surely imprinted on the property. With its long and, at times, horrific history, it’s no wonder that many people believe this place to be extremely haunted. Records reflect that it was used for admitting and housing up to 400 psychiatric patients, and it also provided living quarters for some employees. Today, the Kay Beard building (also known as “D” building), a five-story structure consisting of 150,000 square feet, is one of the last buildings from the complex which still stands – and it is a paranormal investigator’s dream. The Eloise cemetery is located across the street from the former complex and it is said to hold the remains of 7,000 – 8,000 people, identified with only numbered brick markers – no names. Over the years, stories of abuse and unsanitary conditions were widespread, including people being chained to walls and beaten, patients with tuberculosis living in close quarters with those who did not have it, and inhumane treatments being implemented, including performing lobotomies and electroshock therapy. They were referred to as inmates instead of patients, and it is believed that approximately 50% of the 8,300 people living there in 1934 were mentally ill. It was renamed the Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary at Eloise in 1945, and in 1974, the facility was broken down into two sections: the general hospital and the psychiatric hospital – and it remained in operation until the early 1980s.Īt the beginning, the poorhouse was where those who could not care for themselves found refuge: the mentally ill, the poor, the infirm – and everyone was housed together no matter what their mental capabilities, health status, age, sex or any other distinction. By 1913, it became known as The Eloise Hospital with three divisions including the mental hospital, the infirmary, and the sanitorium (T.B. In 1894, the post office was opened on the grounds and the complex was named Eloise after the postmaster’s daughter. The original poor farm became the Wayne County Alms House in 1872, and by 1886 it was simply called the Wayne County House. ![]() At one point, the facility treated between 8,000 and 10,000 patients a day and employed 2,000 staff members. It had its own zip code and was quite literally a city within itself, boasting its own bakery, firehouse, commissary, dairy farm, greenhouse, post office and cemetery, among other things. Located in Westland, Michigan, it was a massive campus which consisted of 75-78 buildings on over 900 acres. Built in 1832, the Wayne County Poorhouse was eventually turned into Eloise Psychiatric Hospital and the doors of the facility remained open until approximately1981. ![]()
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