If you’re a fan of HBO’s streaming series, The Gilded Age, you know that the character Mrs. Bruce’s husband suffers from “acute melancholia,” now known as severe depression, and has been in an asylum since 1877, a period of seven years.
And where is poor Mr. Bruce’s fictional asylum? Larchmont, New York.
Mamaroneck Village Historian John Pritts tell the the Loop there is no record of any institution of any kind in our area— certainly not a mental asylum. The closest thing would have been St. Michael’s School for Wayward Women, c. 1900, at the site of what is now the Village of Mamaroneck Police Station.
According to Decider, “Acute melancholia is what 19th century doctors would have called severe depression and several other mood disorders back in the Gilded Age. Given Mrs. Bruce’s sorrow for her husband, it’s likely that he not only suffers from what we would now call depression, but an additional disorder like bipolar disorder.”
Why the writers chose Larchmont is anyone’s guess. Perhaps because Larchmont’s development as a summer enclave took place during the Gilded Age? Because much of the filming of the series took place in Westchester? What do you think?
featured photo at top: 20 Maple Avenue, Larchmont, 1893 courtesy Larchmont Historical Society
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Polly Kreisman founded and began publishing theLoop in 2007. She is a 15-time Emmy Award winning former television reporter and actress and lives in Larchmont.
