Building #40 / McKenzie Hall - Oregon State Hospital Historic District - Salem, Oregon
Posted by: 
ddtfamily
N 44° 56.502 W 123° 00.209
10T E 499725 N 4976474
Historic contributing Children's Ward at Oregon State Hospital
Waymark Code: WMGNK7
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2013
Views: 1
Designed by noted Northwest architect Albert Sutton, McKenzie Hall was constructed in 1948 and contains 68,706 square-feet of space. It is located on Oregon State Hospital's north campus. The building, now vacant, formerly housed Ward 40, where mentally ill children, from ages 5 to 18, were sent for treatment. As many as 60 children at a time lived at the ward.
News reports from 2004 chronicled reports of sexual abuse of a number of children by hospital staff, in part enabled by a lack of security cameras, standard in similar facilities. One state worked called the unit "A collection of suffering." The stories of abuse are heart-wrenching. In 2004, the state shutdown the program. The rotting wooden swing that remains near the building entrance today seems symbolic.
The future of the building is uncertain as the north campus is effectively a liability to the state; the buildings are mostly vacant and even with extensive renovation for seismic retrofit, asbestos and lead paint removal, and re-work of pluming and electrical systems, finding a suitable use for the buildings would be difficult due to their specialized design for specific hospital purposes. Instead, a recent consultant study suggests that the campus is best suited for redevelopment, primarily as a residential space.
Click a photo to enlarge
