Valleyview Building: A Forgotten Wing of Manitoba’s Mental Health Legacy
Nestled in the northern reaches of Brandon, Manitoba, the Valleyview Building is one of the lesser-known, yet historically rich structures of the former Brandon Mental Health Centre, originally established as the Brandon Asylum for the Insane. While its more prominent counterpart, the Parkland Building, often receives the spotlight, Valleyview played a critical role in the day-to-day care of thousands of patients throughout the 20th century.
Today, Valleyview stands mostly quiet, a witness to over a century of shifting mental health practices, institutional care, and architectural evolution.
By the early 20th century, the Brandon Asylum had become one of the largest mental health facilities in the prairie provinces. After the devastating fire of 1910 that destroyed the original asylum buildings, the campus was rapidly rebuilt with modern designs and improved patient capacity.
One of the key additions in this new phase of development was the Valleyview Building, constructed between 1920 and 1924. It was part of a broader effort to decentralize patient populations across multiple buildings, reduce overcrowding, and provide specialized spaces for treatment.
The Valleyview Building’s design echoed the prevailing philosophies of the time, moving toward a more therapeutic, less prison-like atmosphere. While it still followed the institutional norms of symmetry, long corridors, and controlled access, there was a clear intention to create a more humane environment.
Though specific architectural plans for Valleyview are less frequently cited than those of the Parkland or Nurses’ Residence, the building was designed to complement the broader campus aesthetic: red brick facades, tall sash windows, and practical layouts for large-scale care.
Its purpose evolved, but Valleyview primarily served as a patient ward, housing individuals requiring long-term or chronic care. It may have also been used at various times for more acute psychiatric needs, as the institution adjusted to population pressures and evolving treatment philosophies.
The building was fully integrated into the campus infrastructure, with connections to central heating, laundry services, and access to outdoor courtyards where patients could get fresh air. Like many of the centre’s facilities, Valleyview was both a place of care and confinement, part of a system that was both supportive and deeply institutional.
By the late 20th century, attitudes toward mental health care had changed dramatically. The era of massive psychiatric institutions was coming to a close across Canada, as the government began investing in community-based care and smaller, more integrated facilities.
The Valleyview Building officially closed in 1992, making it one of the first major buildings on the Brandon Mental Health Centre campus to shut its doors ahead of the full decommissioning of the facility in 1998.
After its closure, the building was left largely vacant. Unlike the Nurses’ Residence or Pine Ridge Building, which found new life through adaptive reuse, Valleyview has remained in a state of suspended time, its future uncertain, its hallways untouched by renovation.
Though it never achieved the architectural fame of the Parkland Building, the Valleyview Building remains an important part of Brandon’s institutional history. It represents a moment in time when mental health treatment was centralized, segregated, and evolving. It is a physical artifact of both the hope for healing and the harsh realities of institutional life in the 20th century.
As discussions continue regarding the redevelopment and historical preservation of the Brandon Mental Health Centre site, Valleyview stands as a quiet yet critical reminder of where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come in mental health awareness and care.
The Valleyview Building may not be in use today, but its story is worth remembering. It’s more than bricks and mortar; it’s a piece of Manitoba’s social history, wrapped in architecture and silence. As Assiniboine Community College expands its North Hill campus and considers the future of these historic buildings, one hopes Valleyview’s legacy will be preserved either through reuse or remembrance.
During a visit in 2025, we noticed that both Parkland and Valley View were undergoing abatement. Although this is a destructive process that tears apart the interior, it does bring hope that the campus will remodel and reuse these historic buildings.
