Debatable

In the very beginning of my exploration of Northern State Hospital during the mid 70s I began to see things that were a bit unsettling. Things that caused me debatable concern. I knew what this place was when we first arrived. I listened to plenty of firsthand accounts from workers that had been there in some facet or another since the late 40s and early 50’s. The stories were compelling, amazing and in some ways downright astonishing. I was regaled with tales of the doctor in the 1960s that had a pet monkey, a very destructive monkey that tore apart the staff quarters his master was assigned to, and was later forced to live in the morgue after the little critter did a memorable job on the plumbing system of the house. (This has to be the same mischievous primate I heard about at the Tulip Festival.) I also heard about the patient who believed he was of European nobility, and had his own private room down in the tunnel system under the steam plant. Evidence of that was still there when I was a child. I recall seeing peeling magazine pictures of the royal family barely clinging to the walls in his former quite space.  All of this enchanted me and caused me to want to find out more.

Some of my discoveries were not so enchanting though, and that was the evidence of children. Officially I have always been told that there were none. Unofficially is a different story. However, even as of 2006 there were childlike murals painted on the walls in one of the buildings. Then there was also the cribs. Whenever I’ve inquired about them in an official capacity, I’ve been told that a daycare was in operation at the hospital during the early 70s. But the cribs look institutional, like ones that are used in hospitals.

So I guess the debate goes on…

Northern State Hospital, by Jeanie Bennett-Packer, is on sale now through Createspace, Amazon and in stock at Village Books, The Tattered Page Bookstore and the Sedro-Woolley Museum.