12 Staggering Photos Of An Abandoned Asylum Hiding In Iowa
By Kim Magaraci|Published January 16, 2018
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Kim Magaraci
Author
Kim Magaraci graduated Rutgers University with a degree in Geography and has spent the last seven years as a freelance travel writer. Contact: kmagaraci@onlyinyourstate.com
It’s not uncommon to find abandoned buildings in Iowa. In fact, if you drive anywhere through rural Iowa, you’re almost guaranteed to see an abandoned barn or farmhouse. In our ghost towns there are abandoned factories and schools, and in some towns, there are abandoned asylums. One in particular is incredibly eerie – check out these photos of the shuttered Edinburgh Manor in Scotch Grove.
From 1850 to 1910, Edinburgh Manor was described as a "comfortable retreat for the lazy, able-bodied and willingly dependent applicants," It was, in all reality, a "poor farm".
The deal was that the poor, incurably insane and disabled tenants were given shelter and food, and in return, they would work on the agricultural farm.
There are over 80 graves on the site, and many of the workers died under preventable, labor-related circumstances. It is said that their spirits still haunt these grounds.
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When the "poor farm" was shuttered and demolished, a new building appeared on the site.
Edinburgh Manor was constructed in 1910, and opened in 1911. It was announced that the property would be home to the incurably insane, the poor and the elderly.
Like many of the earliest "mental institutions", treatment of patients at Edinburgh Manor was often cruel.
