Here’s a stupid question: Was Lothrop a loony bin?

I’ve heard that Lothrop Hall used to be an insane asylum and Forbes Hall used to be a… I’ve heard that Lothrop Hall used to be an insane asylum and Forbes Hall used to be a nursing home. Is there any truth to that?

What do you mean “used to?” Have you seen the people who live in Lothrop? Because I lived there freshman year and damn, man.

The part about Forbes is definitely true. After a small battle for Forbes Pavilion, which was the name of the nursing home at 3517-21 Forbes Ave. (I guess nursing homes get lots of addresses), Pitt got Pittsburgh City Council to pass a 7-1 bill allowing the University to house 256 students in the complex. Pitt bought the Pavilion with a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for – any guesses? – $1.7 million.

For the record, $1.7 million was the average salary of a major league baseball player on opening day in 1999. A dollar doesn’t go quite as far as it used to, it appears.

The new dorm – sorry, residence hall – was dedicated on October 20, 1978, with speeches by then-Chancellor Wesley W. Posvar and then-Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri. There is no mention in the Pitt archives of whether or not Posvar referenced the fact that the mayor’s name sounded like a pasta.

As for the ‘Throp, as we affectionately deemed that monstrosity of a living space, the only insane people it ever housed were ones that had not been committed.

It began as a residence for nursing students – not to be confused with a “nursing home.” Ground was broken in a ceremony held October 12, 1950. The Honorable David L. Lawrence, after whom our Lawrence Hall is named, spoke about the significance of 190 Lothrop St. and what the Nursing School meant to the City of Pittsburgh.

While I don’t have a copy of his speech, Pitt Magazine reported on May 11, 1953, on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s death, the Nursing School had ceremonies dedicating the building. Included in that ceremony was Clifford Heinz, “a loyal and devoted friend of the University,” presenting a brick from Nightingale’s old house. Yes, that’s right, Heinz liked Flo so much that he took a brick from her house and rededicated a room in Pitt’s shining new facility to the mother of nursing.

Anyway, after he handed the masonry off to the University, nursing students lived and worked in the 16-story complex for many years, all with relatively normal levels of insanity. And no, before you ask, it’s not haunted. Unless you count really creepy guys who aren’t all there all the time, in which case it’s very haunted.

Stupid Questions was delayed for a while thanks to silly dining guides and such. If you have a question that you’re afraid to ask, just remember what Chris Berman said: “There’s no such thing as stupid questions, there’s only stupid people who ask questions.” Then e-mail your question about Pitt, the world or secret societies to editor@pittnews.com.