Highland Hospital Site

Highland Hospital was a psychiatric facility where many notable patients received treatment, including Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald. On March 10, 1948, a fire that began in the kitchen spread through the building via a dumbwaiter.

Highland Hospital began as Dr. Carroll's Sanitarium, founded in 1904 by psychiatrist Dr. Robert S. Carroll, who pioneered treatment for nervous disorders through exercise, occupational therapy, and fresh mountain air rather than the custodial confinement common at the time. The facility relocated to Asheville's Montford neighborhood along Zillicoa Street in 1909 and was officially renamed Highland Hospital in 1912. In 1939, Carroll donated the institution to Duke University's Neuropsychiatric Department. Among its most famous patients was Zelda Fitzgerald, the iconic Jazz Age figure and wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda first arrived at Highland Hospital in 1936, diagnosed as a chronic schizophrenic -- though modern psychiatrists believe she may have suffered from bipolar disorder. She spent portions of nine years there, painting, dancing, and participating in occupational therapy between periods of release and readmission.

On the night of March 10, 1948, tragedy consumed the Central Building. A fire that started in the kitchen spread with devastating speed through a wooden dumbwaiter shaft, climbing floor by floor through the women's ward. Night nurses Doris Anderson and Ruth Dunn had come on duty at 10 p.m., responsible for the 29 female patients housed in the building. Anderson managed to lead four patients on the lower floors to safety before climbing to the top floor, where Zelda and ten other women were confined. Before she could wake any of them, smoke pouring through the dumbwaiter shaft overwhelmed her and she was forced to flee. The building's chain-shackled windows and barred screens -- installed to prevent patients from jumping -- now trapped them inside. Nine women, including Zelda Fitzgerald, perished in the blaze. Zelda was identified first by a single charred red slipper found beneath her body, then confirmed by dental records. The fire's origin remained disputed, with suspicion falling on night supervisor Willie Mae Hall, though the cause was never definitively proven. The tragedy exposed dangerous conditions in psychiatric institutions and catalyzed nationwide scrutiny of fire safety in mental health facilities.

Though the original Central Building is gone, three historic structures remain on the property: the Rumbough House, built in 1892 and formerly the administration building; the Goodale School at 75 Zillicoa Street, now a therapeutic boarding school for adolescents; and Homewood Castle at 19 Zillicoa Street, Dr. Carroll's former residence, which now hosts special events. Visitors to the grounds report encountering paranormal phenomena that many attribute to the nine women who died that night. Some claim to have seen the ghost of Zelda herself strolling the property -- a tall woman in mid-century attire, pale and silent. Others describe figures captured in photographs that were not visible to the naked eye. Disembodied screams have been reported along Zillicoa Street, along with echoing footsteps, distant voices, and the sound of doors clicking shut where no doors stand. Cold spots and sudden drops in temperature occur without explanation, and visitors frequently describe an overwhelming sense of sadness or the feeling of being watched. On the anniversary of the fire, some claim to smell smoke drifting across the grounds where the Central Building once stood -- a phantom reminder of the night that the locked doors and barred windows of Highland Hospital sealed the fate of nine women who could not escape.