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 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 a development company that planned 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.