The imposing hallways and dark staircases of the Fremantle Arts Centre building have long sparked the curiosity of the public, including claims it is haunted and stories of paranormal experiences.
Built in the 1860s, the former "lunatic" asylum and centre for "poor" women at times housed hundreds of patients in cramped conditions for anything from sunstroke to sexually transmitted diseases and alcoholism.
Arts centre director Anna Reece said the building had a strong presence — but she was not afraid to put the spotlight on its dark past.
Ms Reece is asking people with stories and connections to the building — or the land where it was built — to contact the centre as part of an effort to make its history more accessible.
"I think it's a really important and very powerful way of understanding the history of this place and I think it gives people that opportunity to interpret things in their own way."
Ms Reece said the centre wanted to collect stories from people with connections to various chapters from its past.
Built by convicts, she said the so-called lunatic asylum became a prison of sorts for anyone who was considered a problem in society.
Alcoholics, people who suffered from diseases that weren't properly diagnosed at the time, or anybody considered to be mentally unwell, might have found themselves under the prison rules of the asylum, she said.
By 1900, up to 20 people were being held in a single room at the asylum.
According to the arts centre, the death of a woman at the hands of a violent patient led to a public scandal and a resulting inquiry led to the appointment of a medical superintendent and a trained mental health nurse.
From 1909 it became a home for "poor" women.
"It could have been women who were going through menopause, it could have been women who were absolutely struggling with mental health issues, women who were struggling from depression, women who were struggling with psychosis after traumatic births."
Ms Reece said the building was uninhabited and at risk of being bulldozed by the late 1960s.
It was saved by a group of passionate Fremantle residents and became an arts centre and museum in 1973.
The museum element has now closed and the building is home to a contemporary arts centre that holds exhibitions, festivals and concerts on the lawn.
Ms Reece, who grew up near the building in Fremantle and learned about its past from her historian father, said it was time the arts centre did more to acknowledge the building's history.
"I would say openly, I don't think Fremantle Arts Centre has done a particularly good job in the past of telling our story," Ms Reece said.
She said public interest in the building also related to the supernatural.
The building that housed so many had a padded cell and a morgue — now an office — and sections known by staff to change temperature without explanation.
Ms Reece said she was not interested in allowing ghost tours at the centre because she did not want to sensationalise its troubling past.
But she said efforts were being made to open up some parts of the building that were closed to the public.
She said she would rather people took audio-guided tours of the building and grounds and listened to the perspective of people connected to it.
Ms Reece said any attempt to explore its history would be carried out respectfully because there were still people with significant connections to the history of the building.
"It demands that respect," she said.
