Polk Building - Western State Hospital Historic District - Bolivar, TN - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

County of district: Hardeman County
Location of district: US-64, Old Hwy 64 & JJ Neely Rd., Bolivar

Note: There are signs at both front entrances (all others are blocked closed) that read no entrance without police approval and excort, EVEN TO TAKE PICTURES
They mean it. I was challenged by a Deputy Sheriff who tried to tell me I could not take pictures from across the road.

"Overcrowding resulted in the need for a new institutional building and in 1932 the Psychopathic Hospital (now known as the Polk Building) was built. Wyatt C. Hedrick, Inc., Architects and Engineers of Memphis were contracted to design the building. Constructed of reinforced concrete and brick, the four story building cost $500,000. It is surmounted by a tile hip roof with three gable roof projections visible on the facade. Small gable roof dormers are found on the roof. The center entry is situated under a five bay portico that is embellished by two story fluted stone columns with capitals, corbel trim, and stone balustrades. In the gable end, paired segmental arch windows are set below a Palladian window and encased with stone. Windows are multipane and have stone segmental arch lintels with keystones. Two gable roof projections are located near the edges of the building. Five bays wide, they contain paired round arch windows in the gable field. To each side of these projections, the fenestration changes at the fourth story. Here the windows are segmentally arched and have a continuous lintel. A similar pattern of windows and wall projections is displayed on the rear of the building. Eight wards were added to the rear of the Polk Building in 1942. This large addition replicates the plan of the original, but with jack arch window openings." ~ NRHP Nomination Form