The History of Searcy Hospital
Photograph, taken in 1933, of the old barracks building at Searcy Hospital.
Photograph, taken in 1933, of Mount Vernon Arsenal's main building.
Searcy Hospital, also known as Mount Vernon Insane Hospital or Mount Vernon Hospital for the Colored Insane, located in Mount Vernon Alabama was a mental health facility established in 1900 by the Alabama Legislature for the treatment of non-whites who were claimed to be insane. The original building of the hospital was used previously and was known as the Mount Vernon Arsenal until 1895 when the U.S. Congress turned over the building to Alabama for public usage. The building already possessed a rich history as The Mount Vernon Arsenal as it was one of only fourteen arsenals in the United States during the Civil War but remains one of two still standing. It was then, in 1899 that the Alabama Legislature decided to make the building into a Hospital. According to the hospital officials, the number of blacks who were mentally unstable was increasing so in return to this so-called trend, the hospital was established to take care of the overflow of non-whites in Bryce Hospital, located in Tuscaloosa Alabama. After the Arsenal was renovated for hospital use, it was named after Dr. J. T. Searcy who was the superintendent at Bryce Hospital at the time of renovation. The hospital remained for colored people until its desegregation in 1969 after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and put into order. After its closure in 2012, nearly thirteen buildings remain after almost 200 years of use, yet sadly most are rapidly decaying and are beyond repair. Many patients remain buried on the land of the hospital and are protected underneath the Alabama Burial Law and are guarded by a 12-foot-high brick fence as well as security officers. These buildings associated with the hospital are, after all this time, listed as some of the most endangered historic places for 2019 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Alabama Department of Mental Health Functional Analysis & Records Disposition Authority.” Functional and Organizational Analysis of the Department of Mental Health , 27 Apr. 2011
Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2019: National Trust for Historic Preservation.” Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2019 | National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Natural Trust for Historical Preservation, 30 May 2019