Hensley Asylum for Infirm Ladies and Needful Girls

Hensley Asylum for Infirm Ladies and Needful Girls is a location in the Melisende Dulac Series.

Details

Sign for the Dn. Hensley Asylum for Infirm Ladies and Needful Girls, Established 1921

Founded in 1921 by the lumber and mining baron Dalton Hensley, the asylum's original mission was the care of young, unwed mothers and elderly women no one else would help. After Hensley's death, the institution was overseen by the Hensley Foundation, which also did philanthropic work throughout Oregon. In time, the Foundation decided split the asylum into two facilities, the Hensley School for pregnant teens) and Crestview Assisted Living for elderly residents. The original asylum was closed in 1942 and left to fall into ruin for many decades.

The asylum consists of a U-shaped, three-story stone building with two wings, enclosed by a high basalt wall. A water tower and maintenance building which included a steam heat plant are located behind the main building.

Outside the wall at the edge of the forest is a small cemetery where indigent women and girls who died at the asylum were buried. In addition, both Alice Hensley and Grace Hensley are buried here. Their untimely deaths inspired Dalton Hensley to found the institution.

In 2018, the Hensley Foundation sold the asylum grounds to High Country Ventures,a development company with plans for a vacation home village at the site. A condition of the sale required the graves to be relocated to the Bluebunch Glen Memory Garden outside Samuelton.

Hensley Asylum Grounds

Map: Hensley Asylum for Infirm Ladies and Needful Girls
This maps shows the Hensley Asylum grounds during the summer of 2018 as the cemetery relocation was underway. The position of identified graves is indicated, as are the foundations of the burned out asylum building.

At this point, only the roads servicing future homesites have been constructed in the forest on the north side of the Palmer River. Plans for additional development on the south side of the river await completion of the cemetery relocation to Bluebunch Glen Memory Garden.

Gravesites are shown in tan, with the graves of Alice and Grace Hensley in pale orange.

In addition to homesites on both sides of the river, a lodge/community center is planned at the site of the former asylum. The original asylum wall will be removed, except for portions which will be integrated into the new facility design.

Cemetery
During its years of operation, the Hensley Asylum saw many deaths due to the effects of age and illness among the so-called "infirm ladies" or complications of childbirth among the "needful girls." Because most of the residents of the asylum were indigent, they had no one to arrange funerals and thus were buried in a small cemetery adjacent to the asylum grounds. 318 women and girls were buried here between 1921 and 1942, when the facility closed. In addition, nearly a hundred infants—newborns and stillborns—were buried.

Alice Hensley, wife of Dalton, and his daughter, Grace are also buried in the cemetery.

Appearances

• Crossroad
• Memory Garden