Were People Once Locked Up in the Kalamazoo Asylum Water Tower?

Perhaps this is an urban legend you remember from your childhood. Were people once held in the iconic tower at the Kalamazoo State Hospital?

Short answer - no. It's just a water tower. Always has been. And one look inside would tell you there's no way anyone could inhabit the tower.

But let's have some fun with the idea anyway. The legend was shared on the popular Vanished Kalamazoo Facebook group with the question, "Remember the old rumor that people were locked up in the Tower of the State Hospital?" Several commentors do indeed remember hearing that urban legend.

The tower is completely off limits to the general public as its in the courtyard of the Kalamazoo State Hospital and surrounded on all sites by that building. That of course, adds to the structure's mystique.

Other legends surround the property like the longstanding rumors of tunnels running to Asylum Lake.

Nearby, and often confused for the State Hospital, is the former Kalamazoo Sanitarium. Before it was demolished and stood abandoned, it was the subject of legends and reported hauntings, including the story of a single mirror that was the only un-broken thing in the entire building.

So even though there were never any inmates or patients allowed

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