The original plan for patients was to relieve crowding from the hospital at Mount Pleasant and to hold alcoholics, geriatrics, drug addicts, mentally ill, and the criminally insane.

Overcrowding was quickly becoming a problem at the Mount Pleasant State Hospital.

Realizing that the need for another asylum in the state of Iowa was growing at a surprising rate, the state commission quickly rallied for another hospital to be built at the city of Independence, Iowa.

It continues to serve as a psychiatric hospital with a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program as well as a training school for nurses.

Although some areas of the Kirkbride are now unused, the building has been kept in good shape and has recently undergone some renovations.