Once known as one of the nation’s finest medical facilities to treat the mentally ill, the old Bryce Hospital building now houses a state-of-the-art student Welcome Center on the Tuscaloosa campus of the University of Alabama.

In 2016, I toured the facility after the majority of buildings were razed, leaving only its original administration building and four wings. It was creepy and fascinating to see its features taken down to the studs and being restored for a new purpose. Obsolete medical equipment was scattered, patient rooms were stripped, floors had been removed and piles of bricks were everywhere.

At the time, the university’s facilities planner hoped the $121 million renovation would be completed by 2020. The pandemic and other issues delayed progress and Randall Welcome Center and a Museum of Mental Health opened in January 2024.

I recently was able to tour the main building again and was impressed with the rescue of this important building that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eight years after my first tour, much of the work is completed but the massive rotunda and the wings sprouting from the main building are still under construction. Some of that space will be used for offices of faculty and staff for UA’s Department of Theatre and Dance, said Matthew McLendon, Ph.D., executive director of UA Enrollment Management, whose department is housed in the building.

Bryce Hospital gets new life

The hospital opened in 1861 as the Alabama Insane Hospital, sometimes written Alabama Hospital for the Insane, and was later renamed for its founding physician Peter Bryce. Legend says Bryce and his family watched from the building’s rotunda as Union troops burned the campus in 1865.

Peter Bryce was a progressive doctor and his hospital was established as a place where patients with mental illness or addiction were housed in beautiful surroundings and performed therapeutic work in a pastoral setting. It was designed using the then-popular Kirkbride Plan, with staggered wings to allow the maximum sunlight for patients.

To provide a sense of purpose, patients would do chores on the farms or in other areas of the hospital until, in the mid-20th century, courts ruled that patients could not be made to work. The hospital was named one of the five best in the world in the 1880s.

At its largest in the 1970s, the 168-acre hospital compound included farms with crops and livestock, kitchens, doctors’ and nurses’ quarters, parlors for visitors, patient rooms, a community room for dancing and parties, and quarters for the superintendent. Bryce and his family lived on the top floor of the administrative building during his time there. “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” once listed Bryce Hospital as having the longest roofline in the world.

The hospital closed in 2014 and patients were moved to a new mental health center nearby. The old property and buildings were purchased by the University of Alabama for use as a welcome and for office for the performing arts department.

MORE: A look at Bryce in historic photos

The majority of the 1861 administration building was used to create the Randall Welcome Center, where students come when they first visit the university.

The center is named for the late Pettus Randall and his wife, Dr. Catherine J. Randall. It features “areas for prospective students to gather for campus tours, a lounge, theater and UA admissions offices” in its 15,000 square feet, the UA website says.

McLendon said the center has been well-received.

“The response from prospective students, families and guests have been overwhelmingly positive,” McLendon said. “The Randall Welcome Center provides the opportunity for guests to learn about many different aspects of the university through engaging and interactive content delivery platforms. Both students and guests have commented on how impressive the facility is and how the information provided in the interactive space is helpful to learn more about UA.”

In 2016, the hospital’s original administration building and wings were taken down to the studs to begin renovation for the Welcome Center. See the 2016 photos here.

Honoring the history

The hospital’s exterior has been lovingly restored and the original wrought-iron stair railing with a rose design was saved.

“Throughout the building, many of the original features were either preserved or recreated,” McLendon said. “There was a lot of effort and planning that went into the overall project. In the central pavilion is a cast iron staircase from the early period of the hospital’s existence that has been refurbished and relocated within that part of the building. Throughout the building, reclaimed wood from the original building now makes up several areas of flooring and was even used for office signage. Most of the central part of the building along with the space in the west wings were preserved in the same floorplan that was in place when the hospital was operational.”

The museum, created to honor the building’s history, was beautifully designed and curated by the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

“Everyone from prospective students and families to general visitors to the building have taken advantage of being able to visit that space,” McLendon said.

Steve Davis, historian for the ADMH, was largely responsible for the museum, McLendon said. In a 2016 interview with AL.com, Davis said when he worked at Bryce in the 1970s, people would arrive asking for tours of the hospital that was the subject of many local tales. When visitors began interfering with the staff’s work, Davis set up a small museum in the parlor and dining room of the old superintendent’s home, which is now gone. The collection was later moved to the main building in the 1980s and now much of it is on display to allow the public to come in and learn about the history of mental health in Alabama.

The museum is free to visit and well worth your time.

Exhibits include a vintage nurse’s uniform, a set of silverware engraved “AIH,” an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) shock machine used at Bryce Hospital in the 1960s when doctors thought this type of treatment was beneficial in treating mental illness, an antique wooden wheelchair, metal markers removed by vandals from patients’ graves at Bryce Cemetery, medical kits, models of the hospital property, architectural remnants and much more.

The museum also includes a piece of an original door jamb from the main buildings that was signed by carpenters. It said: “A. Anderson, superintendent of Philadelphia carpenters who worked on this institution in the month of August 1860/T. Districh/T. David/W. Whellan/Jeff Jacham/Jackson Bryers.”