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Photograph of Bryce Hospital
Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Alabama Insane Hospital

Built in 1861 (Renaissance Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

From the record

“Bryce Hospital opened in 1861 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is Alabama's oldest and largest inpatient psychiatric facility.”

Wikipedia article Bryce Hospital, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 47 National Register listings published here for Tuscaloosa County · listed in 1977 · category: Building · built in 1861, Renaissance Revival architecture, by Samuel Sloan.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. University Blvd., Tuscaloosa, 35401
  • When was it listed? April 1977
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Tuscaloosa
  • When was it built? 1861
  • Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
  • Architect. Samuel Sloan
  • National Register reference number. 77000216 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

63 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Alabama Insane Hospital between 1994 and 2020, burning about 467 acres in total. None started naturally. 17 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning18
Arson/incendiarism17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Railroad operations and maintenance8
Misuse of fire by a minor6
Recreation and ceremony2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Other causes1
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 September 1995Debris and open burning1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2020Debris and open burning2.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20200920-2
18 September 2007Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 2010Smoking2.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
30 August 2011Arson/incendiarism8.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission42 CR 82, AL
3 August 2011Arson/incendiarism120 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionCR 29, AL
26 August 2011Misuse of fire by a minor8.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission7600 CHARLIE SHIRLEY ROAD, AL
13 August 2004Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Every fire recorded in Tuscaloosa County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Alabama Insane Hospital: 5 producers, 2 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Titanium, Metal, Zirconium, Kyanite, REE. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Airport PitSand and Gravel, Construction, Titanium, Metal, Zirconium, Kyanite, REEProducerPlacer
American MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Holley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducerUnconsolidated Sediments
Holley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
No. 2 PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Plant No. 2Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Plant OperationSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Tuscaloosa County

Storms near this property

60 of 119 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tuscaloosa, the town this property stands in, in 119 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 49 hail, 39 thunderstorm wind, 15 lightning, 8 flash flood. The reports record 2 deaths and 17 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 1997Tornado (F2)Tuscaloosa1 killed, 10 hurt, $5,000,000no account filed
March 2000Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa1 killed, $900,000A large bow echo, accompanied by downburst wind of 70 to 100 miles per hour moved along Interstate 20/59 through the city of Tuscaloosa and ended near the city of Cottondale. The storm damage path was about 10 miles long and 4 miles wide. The most concentrated damage ran parallel to both Interstate 20 and US 11 in the city of Tuscaloosa. A 52 year old woman was killed when an advertising sign board was blown down onto her as she was approaching a hotel lobby. Numerous sign boards and trees were either blown down or snapped off. Numerous homes received varying degrees of damage, and area businesses also sustained major damage. One motor home was overturned on Interstate 20/59. Several automobiles were damaged or destroyed by falling trees. The Mimosa Park Country Club reported damage to several structures. Dime to golfball size hail was also reported with these storms. Thousands of customers were left without power for many hours.
November 2003Tornado (F1)Tuscaloosa2 hurt, $100,000A weak tornado began at approximately 11:47 am CST just northeast of the intersection of Interstate 359 and 20/59. For the first 1.7 miles, damage was very weak and sporadic with mainly a few trees topped or uprooted. As the weak tornado approached University Mall and the intersection of 15th Street and McFarland Boulevard, the intensity increased slightly with more significant damage in the form of shingles removed, more trees downed, and large signs downed. A number of commercial structures sustained some damage, and one commercial structure had a portion of a north-facing wall collapse while shingles were removed from the roof. The increased intensity continued for about 2.3 miles covering the area southwest and northeast of the 15th Street/McFarland Bouldevard intersection. The damage seemed to once again decrease for the last 2.3 miles of the tornado track. Only two very minor injuries were reported with the storm.Beg: 33 10.276/87 32.977 End: 33 14.534/87 28.843
April 1996Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa1 hurt, $200,000no account filed
April 2002Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa1 hurt, $5,000Several trees and power lines were blown down across the city of Tuscaloosa and also near Lake Tuscaloosa. One person suffered minor injuries when hit by a falling tree.
August 2006LightningTuscaloosa1 hurtA 23 year old male was struck by lightning, and was transported to the hospital for observation. The injuries were non-life threatening.
June 2004LightningTuscaloosa1 hurtA Tuscaloosa police officer was struck by lightning while attending to a car accident. The officer was at the intersection of I-20 and McFarland Blvd. The officer suffered minor injuries that did not appear life threatening.
July 2002LightningTuscaloosa1 hurtOne person was struck by lightning in Tuscaloosa and had sustained minor injuries.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$75,000Thunderstorm wind did minor damage to 17 homes and a business, just south of the Tuscaloosa city limits. Several trees were snapped and uprooted in a path that extended for about 11 miles. The area of the damage was from I-20 about 4 miles west of Exit 71 through the Taylorville area and along US 82 to about 2 miles south of Exit 77.
April 2004LightningTuscaloosa$70,000Numerous lightning strikes caused structure fires across the city. At one moment, all the city emergency vehicles were out responding to calls and volunteers were activated. Many trees were also damaged due to lightning strikes. No injuries were reported.
July 1996Flash FloodTuscaloosa$65,000no account filed
July 2005LightningTuscaloosa$60,000Lightning struck a home on Culver Road in Tuscaloosa. The lightning caused a natural gas fire. The home and the adjacent utility shed suffered significant damage.
May 2003LightningTuscaloosa$50,000A home was struck by lightning on the corner of 26th Street and 12th Avenue. The home suffered extensive damage. The thunderstorms also knocked several limbs out of trees and caused minor power outages.
March 1996Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$50,000no account filed
June 2005LightningTuscaloosa$48,000Lightning struck a home in Tuscaloosa leaving a 30 foot hole in the roof. The combination of a minor fire and water entering the home caused major damage.
August 2005LightningTuscaloosa$45,000One home was struck by lightning in Tuscaloosa. The home suffered minor damage. Two separate apartment complexes were also struck by lightning. The fire produced by the lightning caused minor damage.
February 2000Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$30,000High voltage power lines were blown down on CR 88 northeast of Tuscaloosa.
September 1996Flash FloodTuscaloosa$30,000no account filed
July 1997Flash FloodTuscaloosa$25,000Heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Danny caused flash flooding and mud slides in Tuscaloosa. Eight families had to be evacuated from rising waters in a mobile home park and several roads were closed across Tuscaloosa county. The heavy rains caused a mud slide over railroad tracks, which stopped the north and south bound trains just south of Tuscaloosa. The mud moved the track about 150 feet out of alignment.
July 1996LightningTuscaloosa$25,000no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$20,000Trees and power lines were down in Tuscaloosa. One fell on a home. About 1200 residents were without power.
August 2005Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$16,000Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across central Tuscaloosa County. Most of the downed trees were in and around Tuscaloosa. At least 5000 customers were without power.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$15,000A portion of the roof of a building at Sheldon State Community College sustained damage during a thunderstorm.
July 1996LightningTuscaloosa$15,000no account filed
March 1996HailTuscaloosa$15,000no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$14,000no account filed
August 2005Flash FloodTuscaloosa$13,000At least a dozen vehicles were submerged in high water in the city of Tuscaloosa. At least two feet of water covered the roadway near old Central High School in the Taylorville community just south of Tuscaloosa. A few roadways were closed near the University of Alabama due to high water. One business received over one foot of water on the floor.
April 2005HailTuscaloosa$11,000Quarter to golf ball size hail fell south of the city of Tuscaloosa from near the Englewood community to near the Hale County line. The large hail completely covered the ground in several locations.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$11,000A few trees were blown down across the county. One tree landed on a mobile home in Tuscaloosacausing minor damage.
March 2009Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$10,000Trees and power lines were blown down at several locations around the city of Tuscaloosa.
July 2006LightningTuscaloosa$10,000Several lightning strikes occurred across the city of Tuscaloosa, knocking down a few trees and causing a few fires.
August 2005Flash FloodTuscaloosa$10,000Several roads in the city of Tuscaloosa were flooded. The high water made the roads temporarily impassable and a few of the roads were closed.
June 2003Flash FloodTuscaloosa$10,000Several inches of rain in a short period of time produced flooding in Tuscaloosa. Several roads were temporarily impassable due to the high water.
July 1998LightningTuscaloosa$10,000A downtown framing store was struck by lightning, causing a fire in the attic. The building had some water damage as well.
July 1996LightningTuscaloosa$10,000no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$10,000no account filed
September 1996Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$10,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$8,000Trees were blown down on 8th Street in Tuscaloosa.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$8,000Trees were blown down on Pruitt Road.
May 1997Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$8,000Power lines were down along Highway 11, just west of Tuscaloosa.
June 1997LightningTuscaloosa$8,000Lightning struck a house in Teal Circle and Rose Towers at the University of Alabama. Damage was described as light at both locations. Lightning also struck a tree and a dog at the Bear Creek Trail Park, killing the dog.
January 1997HailTuscaloosa$7,000no account filed
January 1997HailTuscaloosa$7,000no account filed
June 1999HailTuscaloosa$6,000Quarter size hail was reported in Tuscaloosa. Trees were blown down near Northport.
February 2004Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$6,000no account filed
June 2004Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$6,000no account filed
February 2007HailTuscaloosa$5,000Baseball sized hail was observed just south of Tuscaloosa, which broke several vehicle windows.
February 1999Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$5,000Several trees were reported downed in the city of Tuscaloosa.
June 1999Flash FloodTuscaloosa$5,000Heavy rains with slow moving thunderstorm dropped over 3 inches of rain on Tuscaloosa, Northport, and the surrounding area. Numerous streets were flooded. Most of the flooding was confined to roads creating an inconvenience more than anything else. Several cars were flooded out by the flash flooding in the Tuscaloosa and Northport.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$5,000Several large tree limbs were snapped off and a few landed on vehicles underneath. The vehicles sustained minor damage.
May 1998HailTuscaloosa$5,000Hail the size of half dollars was reported in Tuscaloosa.
July 1997Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$5,000A couple of trees were blown just north of the Tuscaloosa city limits.
March 1994Tornado (F1)Tuscaloosa$5,000A tornado struck in an unpopulated area of Tuscaloosa County about 15 miles northeast of the center of Tuscaloosa. A 115 kilovolt power transmission line operated by Alabama Power Company was broken when two power structures were downed; a third was leaning.
June 1998HailTuscaloosa$5,000no account filed
January 1997HailTuscaloosa$5,000no account filed
December 1996HailTuscaloosa$5,000no account filed
January 2007Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$3,000Several trees were blown down across the county, especially near the city of Tuscaloosa.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$3,000A few trees were blown down by gust front winds.
February 2001Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$3,000The glass windows in front of the Home Depot were blown in and broken.
February 1998Thunderstorm WindTuscaloosa$3,000A tree fell on a house in Yellow Creek and damaged the porch.

Every storm recorded in Tuscaloosa County

Newspapers printed here

260 digitised pages

2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 65 issues, 260 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
State Journal & Flag1843 to 1846
Alabama State Intelligencer1829 to 183?

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Gorgas-Manly Historic District0.5 miles1971
Foster Auditorium, The University of Alabama0.7 miles2005
President's Mansion0.7 miles1972
Old Observatory0.7 miles1972
Alabama Book Store, The0.9 miles2020
Caplewood Drive Historic District1.0 miles1985

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 77000216 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Tuscaloosa CountyAll 47 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.