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
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 facility is made up of a single three-story stone building with two wings, enclosed by a high basalt wall. Outside the wall on the eaves of the forest is a small cemetery where indigent women and girls who died at the Asylum were buried.
In 2018, the Hensley Foundation sold the asylum land to a development company that intended to build a vacation home village at the location. A condition of the sale required the graves to be relocated the Bluebunch Glen Memory Garden outside Samuelton.