Sept 6 Glore Psychiatric Museum
Ah St Joe - not really knowing what to expect coming to this place but we were absolutely blown away. Not unlike Atchinson, the buildings and the feel of a ‘River Town” was very prominent. We saw some absolutely stunning old homes, and even got to tour/investigate one at the end of the Echoes Paracon on Saturday. But let’s just jump in right away and talk about Glore.
The original ‘State Lunatic Asylum No. 2’ opened in November 1874 with 250 patients on land located east of the City of St. Joseph. The original 275 beds filled quickly to over 3,000 by the 1950’s. The hospital was pretty much self-sufficient, raising everything patients consumed. The only thing that was purchased for the meals was salt and sugar. A devastating fire in 1879 only temporarily slowed the hospital's growth.It reopened in 1880 and was quickly filled by patients and members of society that were deemed ‘unwanted’. The hospital was renamed St. Joseph State Hospital in 1899.
By the early 1950s, treatment was virtually non-existent: there were too many patients and insufficient staff to provide more than custodial care.
In 1968, George Glore, an employee of the St. Joseph State Hospital, helped construct a series of full-size replicas of primitive 17th, 18th, and 19th century treatment devices for a Mental Health Awareness Week open house. Those exhibits impressed the hospital officials and sparked the idea to create the Glore Psychiatric Museum. Today, George’s treatment device replicas remain an integral part of the museum’s exhibits.
The St. Joseph State Hospital in St. Joseph, Missouri moved in 1997 when mental health services were relocated to the Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center across the street from the original hospital. The original hospital grounds were then turned over to the Missouri Department of Corrections. Yep you heard it right - the original ‘Kirkbride” Building is now part of the State Prison.
The grounds are interesting and HUGE. Not only is the Glore Museum on the grounds, but the prison takes up a huge chunk of property. There’s something eerie about pulling up and looking at the museum building while seeing razor wire next door. And other buildings that are in a state of disrepair.
If there is anything more impressive than the museum itself, it is the man who cares for it and runs the events and investigations there. Jerrad is an absolute encyclopedia on this place and on St Joe. Again, the fact that the CITY owns not only this property but one of the most haunted mansions in town is amazing to us. Cities that actually EMBRACE their haunted history!! We chatted for awhile and he gave us the brief overview of the State Hospital and how things came to be. He also told us some of the experiences he has had and continues to have. Then he basically opened up the doors (except to the 3rd floor…because well….it’s the 3rd floor) and turned us loose.
We were waiting on our friends Marcus and Tina from Journey into the Haunted to join us, so we decided to drop all our gear and just walk around each floor to get a feeling of the place.
Our first stop - you guessed it…the basement and the morgue. Then up to 2 and finally up to 3. Suffice to say that when we got into the darkened hallways and listened to the quiet it hit us both what we were doing. For us, this was a first. First time investigating a place like this, first time really being “alone” in a big space and just trying to feel our way around. It was absolutely one of the most thrilling feelings. But also - a little creepy! Neither of us had been inside an old Psychiatric Hospital so this was totally new, and it definitely was an overwhelming sadness and a manic-like state. We traveled across the open walkway to the next building. The Tunnels. Unfortuneately, there used to be two tunnels people could investigate but one has since been totally shut down due to squatters entering the tunnel from an abandoned building. Since it was easier to batten down the hatches at Glore, that’s what they did. So one tunnel remains, and the GREAT thing is the end, a large concrete blocked-in wall is the only thing that separates you from the Kirkbride Building…aka the maximum security prison.
Jerrad was outside when we emerged after pretty much spooking ourselves a bit in a dark tunnel. He said he has to come outside every once in awhile because the noises and activity in the building…well…freak him out. So we laughed that maybe we stirred them up. Headlights appeared and here were our friends. We loaded gear up, checked batteries and headed out.
We went up. To make what could be drawn out into a VERY long blog post, we’ll just highlight some of the little things that happened throughout the journey.
Floor 2
The second floor of the museum houses the original replica (and some actual) ‘treatment’ devices that were used at the facility. Plus the Treatments and Psychosurgery area showed recreations of what lobotomy surgery rooms, hydrotherapy and even dental surgery rooms would have looked like. We put several music boxes and REMPODs out up and down the hallway. JITH put a music box at the end of the hall near where the restrooms are facing down the long dark walkway by the recreation rooms. As we were standing at the far end near the lobotomy display, the music box went off. We wrote it off at first to one of us walking by the beam. Marcus being ever the tech guy, tested it out. We had to get a lot closer than what we were to set it off. So. Score one for the GWP-JITH crew tonight! We set up in the display area, putting catballs out and setting up a SpiritChat. We only caught a few things - one voice said it wanted us to “Come Play” and we politely declined. Sitting there looking at a replica of someone burning at a stake was enough to say no to that idea.
We ventured down the hall into the additional museum exhibits and holy moly….the Archeology, Doll Museum (gross) and the Native/Black Archives/World displays were absolutely amazing. We really didn’t do much investigating in this area, it was too cool to stop and try anything to be honest. But there was an entrance to a doll room that felt off - it was a display of beautiful Native American Dolls (think Barbie size, not Annabelle size) All of us had a weird feeling upon entering that room. We had left a Music Box at the end of the long hall and it never peeped. Whatever was normally out and about on the second floor only showed itself briefly in the Surgical Displays.
Floor 3
Oh the third floor. Where to start on that one. The third floor is like walking into a different world. To use a diving term, its like coming into a thermocline. Where warm water and cold water crash together and its visibly jello looking….and cold. Weird comparison….but you get the idea. Jerrad had specifically left the door to the third floor shut as he doesn’t like leaving it open for ‘whatever is up there to come down and bother everyone’. That’s SUPER comforting.
The third floor is in a nutshell the Art/Music/Spiritual Therapy Floor. There are multiple pieces of artwork on the walls that are amazing and honestly scary at the same time. Knowing that someone who was in this facility painted them. What goes through the tormented mind… What drew our attention were the works of Arthur Kraft. Arthur spent 5 weeks in the State Hospital #2 in 1971 and created some very memorable pieces. Visit The St Joseph Museum Page to get more info on Arthur.
This is the area we decided to sit down and do an EVP Burst session (with JITH NEW device!) and record a live (go check out our YouTube Channel for videos) We also had multiple devices going. Catballs, Music Box and REMPOD along with a K2 Meter.
The K2 was getting hits right away, we debunked any interference with other devices and phones, etc. It wasn’t really interacting with us - more just like a child that sees a pretty light and keeps touching it to see it light up. The one thing that kept happening was we all were hearing whispers of conversations. It would be brief and intermittent, but it seemed like every few minutes on all the floors one or two of us would say “Do you guys hear that? Like a voice or voices?” And footsteps - that was constant. Anything that came across the SpiritChat or Burst Session was literally trying to get us to move. They would say “Go Down” or “Go Up” or “Right” “Over” it was like they were prodding us along to where they wanted us to go.
After about an hour on the Third Floor, we decided it was time for the basement and the morgue.
The Basement & Morgue
The basement has a display of how it all started, and various farming utensils and pictures. The State Hospital ran a “Poor Farm” here, the patients worked the farm in order to harvest food for all their meals. The only thing they shipped into the facility was salt and sugar.
It’s a short walk once you hit the bottom of the stairs to the Morgue. We decided this would be a great place to test out the XLS. After a few times of it mapping the cabinet and scaring the HELL out of us, we settled in to record and see what happened. Imagine our surprise when ANOTHER figure mapped and this time it was standing on the gurney. We double and triple checked, there was nothing there that would cause the XLS to map a “mistaken” figure. It was only there for about 20 seconds. (There is another live on our YouTube from the Morgue) No one climbed into the body boxes, it was roped off but after chatting with Jerrad he said we could have. So - note for next time!
The spirits at Glore were being deceivingly quiet tonight for us. But we could tell they were there. Sometimes investigations deliver some amazing evidence, sometimes its trial and error. For us, this experience was AMAZING. Even though we didn’t get a ton of interaction or “notable” evidence it was still a great experience and we would whole heartedly go back. The history alone of the place would draw us back again and again. And to be VERY fair to the spirits of Glore, we were only there for about 4 hours. Multiple cold spots, feeling cold areas on your back or neck happened a TON. Shuffling noises, on one floor we swore we heard a door close but couldn’t find it. For now our tour inside the building was at an end, and we geared up to head to the Tunnels.
The Tunnel
Since there is only one tunnel left to investigate after Tunnel 2 was shut down a few years ago, we just dove right in. We set up in the tunnel staggered, in the total darkness. Michelle stayed at the front entrance where the original “cage” door was, then Marcus, then Tina and Charity at the end closest to the concrete block wall that separated the tunnel from the prison (yes the REAL prison that is functioning today)
Had a but of interaction with the SpiritChat - video on YouTube for that as well (Here is the Link) Other than some good back and forth on that the strangest thing that started to happen was towards the end of the time we had at Glore. The area between Marcus and Michelle started to get VERY dark - it was a very noticeable heavy almost solid feeling darkness that came in and hung around. Michelle was getting the distinct impression and sounds of a lot of people yelling - almost like a patients yelling and trying to get away or even a prison riot. (We did watch the news and make sure there was NOT one that night right next door)
All in all - the time spent at Glore was a great time, we enjoyed our first trip to an old “asylum” so now we’re ready for Trans-Allegheny or Wavery (or are we?) Jerrad hung in the whole night and we chatted before we headed out. Not a bad way to spend our very first night in St Joe, MO! We headed back to the airbnb and of course had some rather interesting things happen there - Charity had the only bedroom with a TV that randomly decided to flip on at 4am, Michelle had tapping noises above her head in the sloped attic style roof in her bedroom and Tina had her leg grabbed. (Funny thing was twice during the night we got LEG and LOWER LEG on the SpiritChat….one of those ‘put it in your back pocket’ things that made some sense later. We also got “Right Hand” at the end of the evening at Glore. Didn’t make any sense then but in a weird moment during the Echoes Haunted Object Panel both ladies doing the Double Estes Method had searing pain in….their right hands. Was it a warning by the spirits of Glore or just a coincidence? Only the spirits know, and sometimes they like to keep those little bits of fun to themselves.
