If only the walls could talk.

Walking through the now-dilapidated facilities of the former Northern State Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, the eerie stillness of the hallways lets one’s imagination bring the hallways to life.

Pink, yellow and green paint once used to ease patients’ minds peels back from the walls that contained them from the outside world.

The vision of a patient sitting in their rectangular, colorful room comes to mind while peering through a circular peephole located on the door.

One can envision the bustling of nurses, doctors and patients shuffling through the hallways, excusing each other should they bump shoulders.

Around the corner a doctor performs a lobotomy as colleagues observe through the viewing window, studying his every move. Next door, a large, circular operating light is adjusted to provide appropriate lighting for another operation on a patient.

Outside in a courtyard, enclosed by the building’s walls, tall grass overtakes the space where patients used to wander. Only one door allowed patients to enter or exit the yard.

If the walls could talk, they could share stories about the patients and employees that took care of them.

Sedro-Woolley resident Mary McGoffin has plans to speak for the walls by recording others’ personal descriptions through an historical narrative. By conducting interviews with people who have direct experience with the facility, McGoffin’s narrative will share first-hand experiences of the former mental health care facility.

Northern State Hospital was once home to 2,000 mentally ill patients and provided work for 14 percent of Sedro-Woolley residents.

In 1910, the property served as a farm-annex to Western State Hospital near Tacoma. Hospital patients maintained the vegetable gardens, dairy cattle, poultry and swine.

The facility operated from the early 1900s until its closure in the fall of 1973. The remaining patients of the time were transported to Western State Hospital, nursing homes or released.

Raised in Sedro-Woolley, McGoffin said she remembers when the facility operated as a hospital when she was a child — a part of the community’s history younger generations cannot relate to.

McGoffin said she’s concerned about the fate of the hospital’s history if people’s experiences of the former hospital are not recorded.

“I’m doing (the project) for historical reasons and so a piece of history isn’t lost,” McGoffin said.

Those who worked at the facility have started to pass on, she said, making it a priority to capture their stories.

There’s a younger generation that doesn’t know the history of the campus, said Dan Singleton, facility manager of the property.

Since 1979, Singelton has worked on the campus — now called the North Cascades Gateway Center. He has been instrumental in helping McGoffin learn about the hospital’s history.

“He pretty much opens the doors for me — literally and figuratively,” she said. “He’s the key person.”

Singleton said his contribution to her project is his way of helping someone with their interest in the facility.

“You should always know your own history,” he said. “It’s part of what makes us who we are.”

McGoffin has held four interviews so far and plans to have at least 50 more by the end of the year.

McGoffin said she is not sure about the format of the finished project, but that she “just feels compelled to get the stories down on paper.” She hopes to finish the project within a two-year time span.

McGoffin was inspired to write the historical narrative after spending time walking the property’s trail system created by Skagit County.

There’s something melancholy about the facility that’s intriguing, she said. As a nurse, she said she is interested in learning the history of mental health care and that Northern State Hospital is a piece of that history.

People forget about the Northern State Hospital campus if they don’t come out and see it, McGoffin said.

“It inspired me to do something,” she said.

Singleton said McGoffin is part of a “transitional generation” of the Northern State facility. She can relate with what the facility used to be rather than what it currently is, he said.

Some of the younger generations can only relate to the campus as a facility for the Cascades Job Corps Center, he said. McGoffin, however, can appreciate the history because she’s aware of when it used to be a hospital.

Her project is a way to create awareness of the facility, Singleton said.

The architecture of the old buildings and landscaping are stunning, McGoffin said. Northern State Hospital’s campus was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, the same people who designed Central Park in New York.

Several agencies currently occupy a portion of the buildings, but other structures stand vacant and are in need of repair.

The state owns the property, which is currently being evaluated for a possible listing on the National Historic Registry of Places.

If listed, the state would become responsible for maintaining the property by law, Singleton said.

That could potentially increase opportunities for funding and allow more people to become involved with restoring the facility.

Both McGoffin and Singleton said they hope the property finds a new purpose in the community.

“It’s people like Mary who make the difference of whether a place is here 100 years from now or it isn’t,” Singleton said.

To help contribute to McGoffin’s historical narrative of Northern State Hospital, contact her by e-mail