Katie Carlisle

Katie became interested in state hospitals in high school; her fascination grew while in college as she lived near Madison State Hospital, a cottage-style hospital, where she was allowed to roam and satisfy her nosiness to her heart's content. While completing her education, she learned about Kirkbrides and became fascinated with them, especially the time period from the late 1800's until the 1960's. After years of scouring the web and stalking these beauties on Google Maps, she had the opportunity to do a photography tour with PreservationWorks at Traverse City State Hospital in 2017. Not only was it a huge bucket list trip, but she also got to meet and make friends with amazing people who cared about these gorgeous buildings and were fighting to preserve the ones that are left. Katie believes that not only should Kirkbrides be preserved and adaptively reused for their architectural beauty and meaningfulness to the local community but also to serve as memorials for those who lived and worked there, to remember both the positives and negatives, and allow those memories to influence how society cares for and treats people with mental illness. Katie lives in Michigan with her husband and fat cat. Professionally, she works in the housing department for a nonprofit in Detroit that assists people who are homeless.