The Kirk Bride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirk bride in the mid-1800s.

The establishment of state mental hospitals in the U.S. is partly due to reformer Dorothea Dix, who vividly testified to the New Jersey legislature in 1844, describing the state's treatment of people with mental illness: they were being housed in county jails, private homes and the basements of public buildings. Dix's effort led to the construction of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, the first asylum built on the Kirk bride Plan.

Kirk bride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged "en echelon" (staggered, so each connected building still received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect, meant as "a special apparatus for the care of lunacy," and Kirk bride wrote that their grounds should be "highly improved and tastefully ornamented."

These asylums tended to become large, imposing, Victorian-era institutional buildings within extensive surrounding grounds which often included farmland. While the vast majorities were located in the United States, there were also some in Canada, and a psychiatric hospital in Australia was influenced by Dr. Kirk bride’s recommendations. By 1900 the notion of "building-as-cure" was largely discredited, and in the following decades these facilities became too expensive to maintain. Many Kirk bride Plan asylums still stand today. Most are abandoned, neglected, and vandalized, though several are still in use or have been renovated for uses other than mental health care.

One interesting example is Broughton Hospital in Morganton, NC. It is now under renovation (as of July 2008), using the north wing for a Forensics Unit. It will use all three floors to house patients that are incapable to precede with court. Technology is state of the art on many levels for the safety of patients, as well as staff.