This tunnel connects Western State Hospital with a bus stop across the street in Fort Steilacoom Park. While smoking and loitering is forbidden, evidently graffiti is okay.

Tags:   Fort Steilacoom State Park Lakewood, WA Pierce County signs graffiti tunnel

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Several flocks of honking geese flew over the tree tops in the distance at Fort Steilacoom State Park.

Tags:   Fort Steilacoom State Park Lakewood, WA Pierce County flock of geese trees clouds

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Western State Hospital does not allow photography on the grounds. So we stood across the street in Fort Steilacoom State Park and attempted a few shots of the hospital buildings.

Tags:   Western State Hospital Patient Education Fort Steilacoom State Park Lakewood, WA Pierce County deteriorated windows

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This area was homesteaded in 1844 and became Fort Steilacoom in 1849. In 1865 the fort was discontinued and became the Insane Asylum. The name was changed to Western State Hospital in 1915. Meanwhile the area was intensively farmed to support the hospital residents and staff. Orchards, crops, dairy and chickens were tended by the mentally ill. With the advent of drug therapy, it became impractical to use the hospital residents to operate the farm so it closed in 1965.

Tags:   Fort Steilacoom Park Lakewood, WA Pierce County barn path trees clouds historic Western State Hospital Insane Asylum windows doors

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From a hundred years after Western State Hospital was opened in 1865 as the Insane Asylum for the territory, the grounds now Fort Steilacoom Park were farmed to provide food for the hospital inmates and staff. After drug therapies rendered the patients unable to work, the farm closed in 1965. Some of the historic farm structures still stand.

Tags:   Fort Steilacoom State Park Lakewood, WA Pierce County Western State Hospital farm silo historic decay deteriorated sunstar trees

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