Talk:Arkansas State Hospital

WordPress-hosted site as reference
An automated filter flagged my adding a WordPress-hosted site as a source for the exact demolition year (1963) of the State Hospital's original Kirkbride building. Though it was flagged because WordPress is commonly used for blogs, this site is more like a traditional informational website than a blog. Also, as a longtime Little Rock-area resident I can personally vouch for the validity of this source; it is consistent with the source of the previous language (which I left in its original place) that said it was demolished in the 1960's, and the image on the homepage correctly points out that virtually all of the Kirkbride-era buildings were between Hooper Drive (the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus was built in 1956 on the former east side of the campus between Hooper Drive & Elm Street; one small building was where Hooper Drive was rerouted during the 2001–11 expansion of UAMS Medical Center) and Palm Street (the Arkansas Department of Health headquarters was built in 1969 at the former northwest corner of the campus between Palm & Monroe Streets).

I did find one problematic claim on this site: It incorrectly claims the State Hospital left the Kirkbride campus in 1963 (when the original building was torn down) and didn't return until 2008 when the current administration building was built. In fact, the State Hospital never left the Kirkbride campus; new hospital treatment buildings, still in use today, were built just west of the main Kirkbride building (but still within the footprint of other Kirkbride-era buildings) around the same time, as well as a new administration building (called the Faubus Building after then-Gov. Orval Faubus, already nationally infamous for other reasons) on the old Kirkbride building site. The 2008 administration building, at Markham & Palm Streets just west of the 1960's treatment buildings, was a replacement for the Faubus Building which was turned over to UAMS as part of the 2001–11 expansion; UAMS retained the Faubus Building (though no longer called by that name, almost certainly due to its namesake's infamy) and built other buildings across Hooper Drive from the main campus. (Ironically, the 1960's-era campus was once said to be the only new mental hospital facility built in the entire country after the nationwide fall of the Kirkbride Plan.) --RBBrittain (talk) 12:16, 2 March 2021 (UTC)