Howling Hollow Insane Asylum and Cemetery
established 1908
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Howling Hollow Asylum first opened it's doors on October 31st, 1908. Named after the undeveloped tract of land and surrounding woods that it was constructed on. It was heralded as the most modern and up-to-date psychiatric facility for it's time. Dedicated to the treatment of the criminally insane, and those persons deemed hopelessly incurable. Under the supervision of Administrator and renown Psychiatrist, Dr. R.V. Foley, Howling Hollow Asylum quickly filled to capacity with patients from various established institutions, poor houses, and prisons.
After several years of quiet operation, Dr. Foley and his hand picked team of psychiatric professionals seemed to drop off the radar of the psychiatric community. The many anticipated articles and journals of his various treatment programs and expected successes were never submitted for publication anywhere. In fact, the Doctor became reclusive and secretive about his work. His family and personal staff took up residence at the asylum and were rarely seen in town.
Even before the asylum was constructed and speculation about Dr. Foley's treatment practices began to circulate, the local rural residents believed Howling Hollow to be a cursed place. This superstition was in large part due to the number of children, and even adults, that had vanished into those woods. Logic indicated that they had fallen prey to a hungry pack of wolves that inhabited the Hollow - as evidenced by the wolf tracks and nocturnal howling. However, even the most experienced wolf trackers and hunters in the area failed to return with any carcasses - even during times when wolf hunting was legally permitted, and pelts brought top dollar.
In early 1928, Dr Foley and the asylum came under the suspicion of the towns folk when, again, local children began to vanish inexplicably, and it was noted that the population of the asylum cemetery was expanding at an alarming rate. When a bloody and catatonic patient was found wandering the streets of a nearby town, the Board of Psychiatric Medical Practitioners demanded a tour of the facility. A fact finding team of four doctors was granted access; However, Dr. Foley and his staff insisted that they never arrived. Mysteriously, they were never heard from again.
By mid - September, of that year, nearby towns people were angry and near hysterics refusing to make deliveries to the Asylum. Rural residents refused to go near, or even speak of the place; many opting to remain inside at night with their doors and windows locked.
On the morning of October 31st 1928, a mysterious fire broke out in the east wing of the Asylum. Although it was rumored to be set by the patients, the source of the blaze was never officially ascertained. By the time local and volunteer fire fighters arrived on the scene, the building was pronounced a total loss. However, what remained of the facility was described as "horrifying"and "beyond imagining." Evidence of bizarre and inhumane treatment practices were clearly visible amid the rubble. Even more disturbing, a hopelessly small number of human remains were to be found. Among the missing were Dr.Foley, his wife and family, and most of his private staff. As a result, state law enforcement authorities were called in, as well as officials from the American Board of Psychiatry.
By Sun up on November 1st, the entrance gates to Howling Hollow Asylum were unceremoniously closed and chained. The fate of Dr. Foley's family and staff, as well as the pitiful few patients that may, or may not, have escaped death, remains unknown to this day.
Historical documentation regarding Howling Hollow Asylum and it's 20 years of operation, and the reasons for it's mysterious closing, have been almost entirely erased. Even Members of the Psychiatric Community were either unaware of it's history, or unwilling to discuss it.
For years, all that remained were the rumors and whispered legends among the towns folk. Stories of "horrors beyond imagining." Legend handed down through the years of an Asylum run by a deranged Doctor, more insane than his patients.
The deed to the land on which Howling Hollow Asylum and Cemetery once stood has changed hands countless times over the decades; although, most of the surrounding 60+ acres of the original Howling Hollow have been parceled out and developed, the remaining 20 acres, the site on which the asylum and cemetery once stood, has found it's way back into the the hands of the newly established City of Olathe , KS. While for the most part, all the rumors and legends have been forgotten, the land has returned to it's original, pre-asylum state. A spokesman for the city council has gone on record stating that the land is currently for sale, and they are searching for the right buyer, with the right vision. "Someone who will use and develop the site in ways that will bring prosperity and pride to the city."
(Excerpt from The Kansas City Starr Newspaper, April 17, 1952.)
