Travel

Would You Sleep in These Asylum Hotels?

Otherwise often razed, these grand, historic buildings were saved and are newly hospitable
a collection of large white buildings with red roofs
Comwell Kellers Park, Børkop, Denmark.Photo: Courtesy of Comwell Kellers Park

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Historic asylums are perhaps among the more maligned yet mesmerizing forms of abandoned buildings. Vacant corridors and distressed walls paint untold stories of lost patients—and terrible times, truthfully—but the storied architecture wasn’t always so grim; in the 19th and early 20th century, psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride advocated asylums that embraced an architectural approach to both comfort and mental health. In direct contrast to the misguided overcrowded institutions of the past, Kirkbride popularized spacious institutions with handsome central halls along with airy wings rinsed in natural sunlight. Often surrounded by farmland where patients gardened and nurtured livestock, Kirkbride’s framework was more idyllic (yet still imperfect) on the surface, but surface area is one of the many reasons these buildings were razed: They're huge. Although these lofty buildings are a headache for most developers, a handful of hoteliers rework them (and a few from earlier, less hospitable times) with a fresh perspective and mindful luxuries that don’t quite smooth over history but give it new meaning.

Hotel Henry, Buffalo, New York
Photo: Kim Smith Photo

A shining red-brick and sandstone example of Kirkbride’s holistic-inspired architecture, the former Buffalo State Asylum now goes by a friendly name, Hotel Henry. Originally designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the campus opened in 1880 within a sprawling park by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. At the hands of Deborah Berke Partners, a $70 million renovation reimagined the massive institution as the brand-new 88-room hotel. The most coveted rooms rest high up in the attic with vaulted 20-foot ceilings—sufficient room for ample mind-space.

Hotel Parq Central, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Photo: Robert Reck Photographer

Its tenure as a psychiatric facility in the 1980s may have been brief, but the building itself, now the Hotel Parq Central, dates back to 1926 as a hospital for the local railroad’s workers. The bones of the Italianate structure, rounded out with arched windows and a $21 million renovation, are soothed with hushed, neutral palettes and lifted with sunset views from the Apothecary Lounge’s open-air terrace.

Blackburn Inn, Staunton, Virginia
Photo: Courtesy of Blackburn Inn

Better days—and names—are on the horizon for Virginia's former Western Lunatic Asylum, an 1828 institution built by Thomas Blackburn, a protégé of Thomas Jefferson (and thus rendered in Jeffersonian style). Opening this year as the 49-room Blackburn Inn, it aims to be Staunton’s most luxurious accommodation. The period’s architecture—vaulted ceilings and wide corridors—leaves more than enough room for guests while nodding to former patients (designers are reclaiming details like doors to patients' quarters now repurposed for guest rooms).

Hotel du Vin & Bistro, Edinburgh, Scotland
Photo: Courtesy of Hotel du Vin & Bistro

Though the building dates back to 1743—a time when institutions stocked more cells than soothing lines—Hotel du Vin & Bistro Edinburgh has survived a handful of personalities, starting as a city poorhouse, then asylum, and later a science lab. A stone’s throw from Old Town’s historic attractions, the hotel’s 47 guest rooms cozy up with soaking tubs and liberal use of tartan to warm up exposed brick. And, like its name suggests, a candlelit restaurant requires a lengthy meditation—thanks to its lofty wine list.

Clarion Hotel, Sligo, Ireland
Photo: David Cantwell

It cost a rough $55 million to transform Ireland's St. Columba’s Lunatic Asylum into the relaxed Clarion Hotel Sligo. The Elizabethan-style landmark, opened in 1847, was designed to house more than 1,000 patients at a time—and was graciously pared down to 162 guest rooms. Today, the hotel is a popular venue for tying the knot (the estate includes two chapels) but, above all, a historic setting to unwind.

Comwell Kellers Park, Børkop, Denmark
Photo: Courtesy of Comwell Kellers Park

Comwell Kellers Park—with its white-walled and red-roofed buildings tucked along a forested slope of Denmark’s Vejile Fjord—began as a mental institution in the late 19th century, set in its location, as the story goes, because the founder considered it one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Now, after architect Schmidt Hammer Lassen reworked the heritage Italian- and French Renaissance–inspired buildings, the campus is a bona fide wellness retreat with a dozen spa facilities and stylish guest rooms with Danish flair, where crisp air floods through large windows onto Hästens bedding for, at the very least, a mindful rest.