East Tennessee Hospital for the Insane was completed and opened in 1886. It would later become known as the Lakeshore Mental Health Institute, and now, many simply refer to it as the Lakeshore Asylum. Regardless of the chosen moniker, this location is one of the more famous haunts in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Most of the original buildings have already been demolished, but a couple, including the Administration building, still remain. In fact, the Administration building has been renovated for use by the city parks department.
During the peak of operations in the 1960’s, Lakeshore Asylum housed roughly 2,800 patients. And there were many positive outcomes from these facilities: many pictures show residents smiling, singing, and dancing, neatly dressed and living a comfortable life.
However, dark times also wracked the reputation of the institute. In the 1980’s, newspapers depicted overcrowding, dirty conditions, and lack of attention and activities for many residents. Funding and operations scaled back gradually from this point on until eventually shutting down in 2012.
Rumors of mistreatment and abuse plagued the Asylum for years. Claims of paranormal activity 
most certainly stem from these rumors. Many visitors have claimed to have seen shadow figures and light anomalies, and even more have heard disembodied voices and screams.
We visited the park in 2014 and took some pictures, but we did not investigate inside the buildings, though we would have loved to. Now, many of those buildings are gone, but the history (and administrative building) remains. Hopefully one day we can return and set up a proper investigation.
For more information on this location, here are a few good places to start:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local-news/complicated-history-horrible-times-but-also
Knox Paranormal Researchers 
The picture of the white building is where the swimming pool..I went into that place grasping a Bible..just like my long lost friend Melissa. Which I hope to know again one day.. she also came in grasping a Bible.
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I went to this hospital in 1981 it was the most beautiful place I was 6 years old I was a patient I stayed in one of the little cottages we used to have to walk up the hill to go to the cafeteria to eat and then we walked up to the same here or to go to the school house what’s goal every day like you normally would and then would come back to the lot of cottage hang out when we had activities that we had to do and then we go out and ride the bicycles and play outside but it was a most beautiful place back in the days it was actually fun there I went slowly went out sled down all the big hills what they had their
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I was admitted to this place in 1997, because all the foster homes were full. Strange that it’s closed now.
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I was there as a kid
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Well, lot of information missing.. multiple suicides.. 8 patients killed in a fire.. But this summary brushes it out..
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We lived in a house on those grounds for a year or two around 1964, as my father was the “Chief Engineer” and was on 24/7 call. The hospital was referred to as “Eastern State Hospital” at the time, and the house was part of his compensation. I was about 8-9 years old at the time. I see from photos that our house is long-gone, but I recognize the land where it stood and the big tree still standing. We lived across a little gravel road from what was called the “Men’s Annex,” and sometimes you could hear the poor patients yelling. I saw some years ago that our other house that belonged to Eastern State is gone too–it was a wonderful, white two-story house that stood at the crest of the hill directly across Lyons View Pike from the mental hospital grounds, where the Veterans Cemetery is now.
I’m not surprised if the grounds are haunted. I hope someone smudged the Admin Building and the entire grounds before they started to use it and turned it into a park. I’m coming to Knoxville in late April-early May, and I look forward to driving around and seeing what I can remember, but I’m bracing myself as well for a flood of memories.
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Thank you for the insight! It’s a beautiful area. But it’s changed so much even since we visited for these photos a couple years ago. We stopped in again around 6 months ago and the admin building was pretty much all that was left standing from the original compound, from what we could tell. It was mostly a huge mud pit, with all sorts of construction equipment around. Haven’t been back yet to see if they’ve completed the park or not.
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I actually work for the city! It’s now beautiful park!! And I am one of the people who take care of the grounds. Trust me you see some stuff lol!
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where would one find a list of patients during the 30’s/40’s
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My dad was night shift maintenance man there. I spent many nights during summer break in Every building on site even the vacant ones. but old guy who worked in boiler room swore a guy in flannel shirt checked gauges in control room frequently and would disappear
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I was a patient there. And the place had a weird deal to it, but i never heard or saw anything unusual. Randy B.
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I was to. It’s had a wing for children who was displaced foster children. Never got mistreated. It was crowed. All the older kids “teens” slept I’m one big room. Me being a younger kid was roomed with one other around my age in a private room. I remember being taken out side with everyone. We were told to search the big hill for a four left clover. Who ever found one got a quarter. The nurses were not friendly. You can tell they hated their jobs. The hallways were cold. And I remember busting head on a chair and went to an operating room for stitches. It was a werid place. The night was the worst.
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