Description:

Highland Hospital, located in the Montford Historic District of Asheville, has a storied past. Asheville’s treatment center for psychiatric patients was formerly located in the downtown area of Asheville operating under the name of Dr. Carroll’s Sanitorium-the namesake of its primary physician Robert S. Carroll. In 1912, it was renamed Highland Hospital. At a time in this country when mental illness was treated in diabolical ways as if in punishment, Dr. Carroll’s treatment was completely different in its humanity even in the absence of the pharmacological advances psychiatrists can now rely on. Fresh air, good diet, meaningful activity, and directed patient care was atypical at the time – but here, it was the standard of care. In 1939, Dr. Carroll presented this building to Duke University’s Neuropsychiatric Department which it held until 1980 when sold to Genova Diagnostics. It is on the Asheville Trolley tour and is currently on the market again.

Actually, amid the hospital grounds, taking up a good bit of Zillicoa Street, an entire hospital campus sprung up. The nearby administrative building, a.k.a. the Rumbough House and also the structure now known as Homewood (0an events facility) stood as Dr. Carroll’s home residence.  The mental hospital sadly became the headline grabber.

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, seemingly the hospitals patient of most notoriety, had her first foray into mental illness in 1930.  She was briefly hospitalized in Paris while her husband and noted author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was battling demons of his own at the bottom of endless bottles of alcohol.

At age 27 Zelda vigorously pursued her earlier love of the ballet seeking to become a ballerina with such compulsion that she danced and studied this craft under the tutelege of Madame Lubov Egorova-often dancing more than eight hours a day. Some blame this, the first of a series of hospitalizations, on exhaustion created by training.  Other hospitalizations have been attributed to her husbands maddening and much discussed descent into alcoholism.

Born in Alabama in 1900, Zelda spent years hospitalized in Switzerland, Paris, and the U.S. finally entering Highland Hospital in April of 1936. She was in and out of this facility repeatedly throughout her time in Asheville. Sadly, this very talented, published author, also a dedicated and talented dancer, remained there for the rest of her life.  She died in the same fire that claimed the lives of 9 women Highland Hospital on March 10, 1948.

Unbelievably enough, the Fire Chief responding to the fire engulfing Highland Hospital was none other than Chief Fitzgerald. There are reports by some that this area is haunted. Screaming, wailing and visages of women are reported by some to be seen. It is listed as an Asheville’s Paranormal Site due to these reports.