Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) crazy; thus pipe-house n., a psychiatric institution.

1903

H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 262: Jimmy, is it true, that you are pipes (crazy)? I heard you got buggy (crazy) in your last bit [...] ‘If you are going to carry the hod,’ he said, ‘you might as well go to the pipe-house, and let them cure you.’.