Kirkbride asylum cemetery with 913 recorded burials from 1891–1954, briefly opened for haunted tours after a paranormal TV show put it on the map
Medical Lake, WA, Medical Lake, WA 99022
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active state facility; visiting hours allow access to authorized areas. The former haunted ghost tour program ended in 2018.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat campus grounds; active psychiatric facility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1891 · Kirkbride Plan Architecture · 913 Recorded Patient Burials 1891–1954 · Washington State Psychiatric History · Built to Relieve Western State Hospital Overcrowding
Washington Territory established Eastern State Hospital in 1891 at Medical Lake, a small community about 15 miles west of Spokane, specifically to relieve the chronic overcrowding at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom. The site was chosen in part because of Medical Lake itself, whose waters were believed to have therapeutic value — a common 19th-century rationale for siting psychiatric institutions near natural water sources.
The original building was constructed in the Kirkbride Plan tradition, a 19th-century architectural philosophy that held that the physical design of an asylum — light, space, ventilation, and natural beauty — was itself therapeutic. The Eastern State building was an imposing four-story red brick structure stretching 400 feet, designed to project stability and institutional confidence. Contemporary accounts described it as one of the finest structures on the Pacific coast. The Kirkbride model fell out of favor by the early 20th century, and the original building has since been demolished and replaced with more utilitarian facilities.
The hospital maintained two on-grounds cemeteries where patients were buried from 1891 through 1954. FindAGrave documents 913 recorded burials in the Eastern State Hospital Cemetery. As with most state psychiatric institutions of the era, many patients died far from family and were interred on the grounds without a return home. The cemetery records and the individuals buried there represent the human cost of long-term institutionalization under conditions that were austere by modern standards.
Eastern State Hospital continues to operate as an active inpatient psychiatric facility administered by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Sources
Eastern State Hospital entered the paranormal popular imagination in 2016 when it was featured on a television program that claimed to document ghost activity on the campus. The Seattle Times reported that the broadcast produced a significant surge of public interest in the site. In response, the hospital organized and briefly operated haunted ghost tours — a rare move for an active inpatient psychiatric facility — before the program concluded in 2018.
The premise of the hauntings is grounded in the site's documentary history: 913 burials over six decades, the austere conditions of 19th- and early 20th-century institutional care, and the sheer weight of human suffering that accumulated on the grounds. The original Kirkbride building, with its long corridors and institutional severity, would have provided a classic setting for atmospheric accounts even if the paranormal interest had never been ignited by television.
Accounts collected by regional investigators and former staff members describe cold spots in the older sections of the facility, disembodied voices in corridors, and the occasional sense of being watched in the vicinity of the cemetery sections. These reports predate and postdate the 2016 television coverage, suggesting that the site had a paranormal reputation in the local community independent of the broadcast.
Media Appearances
Eastern State Hospital maintains two on-grounds cemeteries where 913 patients were buried between 1891 and 1954. The original Kirkbride Plan building — a grand four-story red brick structure described at its 1891 opening as among the finest on the Pacific coast — no longer stands, but the campus retains its institutional character. The cemetery sections are accessible during regular visiting hours.
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