After Susan and I spent the night in the apple orchard, and were driving out of the vineyard, we waved to a gentleman who was preparing his bike to also join today’s ride. Turned out that this was Darell, the owner of Eagle Haven Winery. Our host.
We drove the two tenths of a mile to Willowbrook...
...down the lane to the house.
Gradually the other riders arrived and we collected in the house for our pre-ride tea and scones. The woodwork and doors are interesting and artistic.
Terry welcomed us, gave us a bit of history of the house and seated us for tea time. She and her (now ex) husband bought this property years ago and he did all the beautiful woodwork throughout the house. Terry looks a bit stern here, but she is anything but! A very warm outgoing person who seems to love what she does, and having us as guests.
Having just lost her own beloved cat, Liz found a sweet one to share some love with.
Except for Liz, we all opted to use the bikes that are provided by Willowbrook. At first glance I was a bit skeptical and wondered if I should have brought my own.
A “cruiser” type bike with “crank forward” pedaling. Hmmmmm... I have ridden a crank forward bike once for about 100 feet! this will be an experience in itself.
We gathered up with our leader Elsa, chose our bike and headed down the trail. I found that this is a perfect bike for this tour, with perfect ‘balloon’ tires that easily took us over grassy fields, some loose gravel, pavement and (mostly) hard packed trail. It was a very comfortable ride.
Elsa, a knowledgeable, patient and great bike leader, took us to the campus of the old Northern State Hospital. This was a hospital for mentally ill patients and once bore the ancient title of “insane asylum”. Some of the buildings have been abandoned and are deteriorating and falling down. Others are in use for housing and training mainly youth who are at risk or have been sent here for some rehabilitation, others yet remain standing for future rehabilitation of their own. There are, of course, some sad stories about the treatment, that at the time seemed state of the art, and we now think of as being cruel and somewhat barbaric, some patients received, but some good stories as well.
The grounds here were first used for farming and providing food to Western State Hospital located south of Seattle in the town of Steilacom. After a few years it was determined that an additional hospital was needed and building began for Northern State Hospital. The nurses were trained here and lived here on the campus.
Elsa gave us much history at several stops on campus and at the farm and cemetery. It had been a self sustaining farm as the residents and patients did all the farming and tending of the stock.
There were never headstones at the cemetery. This was to preserve privacy of those who had been a patient here and died here. There are ground markers with the patient’s initials and patient number.
Records were kept at the time, but have since been lost and there is no way of finding the names of those interred here. Some of the markers are sunken and covered over with grass and are not visible. There is an historic group that are working at uncovering those markers and trying their best to also uncover the name of those buried here. A daunting, and perhaps impossible task.
Quite a piece of history here and Northern State Hospital.
Terry had packed us a picnic lunch that we enjoyed before heading back “home” after this delightful day.
