(WWJ) -- When you mention Wayne County’s Eloise Psychiatric Hospital, it elicits a variety responses.
The facility’s history is as complicated as it is long, and it’s continuing to evolve now that one of the remaining buildings has been transformed into a haunted house attraction.
Though many Metro Detroiters believe Eloise to be the home of paranormal activity, WWJ’s Zach Clark and Annie Scaramuzzino discovered on this episode of The Daily J podcast that real story of the former psychiatric hospital is much more nuanced.
First opening in 1839 as the Wayne County Poorhouse, the facility eventually expanded into an asylum, sanatorium and hospital.
By 1913, the complex became collectively known as “Eloise,” named after daughter of Detroit postmaster Freeman B. Dickerson, who worked to improve conditions for the poor.
Eventually, the Eloise grounds became entirely self-sufficient, and operated like an independent town with 75 buildings on 902 acres which included fire and police departments, a post office, power plant, bakery, a fully-functioning farm, and even a railroad and trolley system.
A teaching hospital for students of Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, Eloise was considered to be at the cutting edge of new medical technology, and was one of the first facilities in the country to utilize x-ray machines, as well as music and art therapy.
Despite its forward-thinking, Eloise also practiced now-controversial methods such as lobotomies, hydrotherapy and insulin therapy on some of its patients, and also drew criticism for overcrowding and sometimes poor conditions due to a lack of funding from the state.
After ballooning to an estimated 10,000 residents during the Great Depression, population began to decline over the next four decades as funding for mental health wained, and the Eloise Psychiatric Hospital shuttered in 1979.
Wayne County General Hospital remained operational on the grounds for several more years before also closing its doors in 1986.
In the years that followed, parts of the Eloise grounds were sold off, and turned into strip malls, condos and a golf course.
The most well-known remaining structure is the Kay Beard Building, which once served as the Eloise admission and post offices, but also housed about 400 patients and staff living quarters.
Wayne County used the structure for administration purposes until 2016, and the building and other remaining Eloise property was later sold to a developer for $1.
A portion of the Kay Beard Building has now been turned into the Eloise Asylum haunted attraction.
The Eloise site has long been a hot spot for paranormal investigators and urban explorers, and ghost tours of the upper floors continue to be offered to the public.
Still, some have taken issue with the haunted house, believing it to be insensitive to the patients who once lived there.
Many local groups, including the Friends of Eloise, have spent years working to preserve the history of the facility, including the ongoing efforts to identify several thousand patients who were discovered in a nearby burial ground.
Meanwhile, those who run the haunted attraction argue that they too are preserving the building by making it operational, and say they work to ensure that they never depict “real-life” events in their theatrics.
Just as mixed are the feelings about whether or not Eloise is actually haunted, with many insisting they have had paranormal encounters, while other say they have spent years on the grounds and have never witnessed anything unusual.
The one thing that holds true is that Eloise has been cemented into the history of Metro Detroit, and will continue to hold different meanings for different people.
Whether you believe there’s something more spiritual residing somewhere on those expansive grounds in Westland…well, that’s entirely up to you.
Listen to the latest episode of The Daily J’s Spooky series, and check out our features on the hauntings of Mackinac Island, Detroit's Two Way Inn and The Whitney.