Img 8331 Scaled E1720471735188 — Bryce Main on the University of Alabama campus. (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Part of the $121 million renovation to the old Bryce Hospital campus at the University of Alabama is officially open to the public.

You can head to Tuscaloosa to visit parts of the historic building and learn more about the history of the patients + staff who lived at the institution before it was bought by the university in 2010.

We took a tour of the museum, located on the second floor of the new Catherine and Pettus Randall Welcome Center at the historic Bryce Main property. Keep reading to find out more about the museum + find out how you can visit to learn more.

Bryce Hospital Museum

You can find the museum by turning on to a road that was blocked off to visitors for many years. Bryce Lawn Drive is located just off Campus Drive on the northeast side of the university’s campus.

You can’t miss the main building’s entrance with the historic columns still standing to welcome you to the campus. Once you’re inside, you will be directed to a stairwell in the center of the main building, leading you to the small but thorough museum on the second floor.

Lobby + first room

You’re greeted by a bust of the hospital’s first superintendent, Peter Bryce, who the hospital was later named after. The history lessons begin just to your right, with an introduction to Dorothea Dix and her plea to the Alabama legislator about the need for mental health care.

The first room includes a look at:

History of mental health treatment in Alabama
Founding the Alabama Insane Hospital
In-depth look at who was treated
Record keeping at Bryce Hospital

You turn the corner and you will find a closer look at the lives of the patients including their treatment + how different tools were used, dating back to the 19th century.

There was also a closer look at how patients + staff spent their leisure time. Some things were quite popular on the hospital’s campus including:

Farming
Tennis
Music lessons
A campus newspaper

The first room wraps up with a timeline from the Alabama Department of Mental Health that includes a look at the infamous Wyatt v. Stickney case + other important factors in the history of mental health treatment.

A timeline of mental health treatment in Alabama. (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Second room

When you walk out of the first room, just cross the hallway to continue your educational journey with a closer look at the history of the grounds.

You can learn about when construction began, why it was expanded + how each building played a role. This room includes a look at:

How the main hospital was built
A patient-made model of the full Bryce campus
Architectural artifacts

Before leaving the room, you will find a section dedicated to Searcy Hospital in Mount Vernon which opened 1902 for Black patients before being integrated in 1969. It continued to serve as a mental hospital for lower Alabama until it closed in 2012.

The final portion of the museum is dedicated to the people who were buried on campus. Records show around 6,200 people, including Bryce and his wife, are buried across four cemeteries on the hospital grounds.

A closer look at grave markers used at Bryce Hospital. (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Many graves were marked with numbers to protect the privacy of patients but the Department of Mental Health has kept records to help families with loved ones buried at Bryce find closure.

“Many of these people were marginalized in life and they at least should have the dignity of the death that everybody else has.”
~ Steve Davis, Historian at Alabama Department of Mental Health