Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Orillia Asylum
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|Title= Rochester State Hospital
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|Image= 10-18-2007-13a.jpg
 
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|Body= The history of the Huronia Regional Centre dates back to the purchase of an almost completed hotel building situated on approximately 13 acres of land at today’s Couchiching Beach Park and the opening of the “Convalescent Lunatic Asylum” in 1861. This became home to people both with mental illness or developmental handicaps as the third branch of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum (today the Centre For Addiction And Mental Health at 1001 Queen Street West in Toronto) for 9 years. It was closed in 1870 and reopened again in 1876 at the same site due to overcrowding of the other facilities. Within 6 months there were over 100 residents. In early 1877, Dr. Alexander Beaton was appointed as the new superintendent. He was a dynamic pioneer who was twice elected president of what was later known as the American Association on Mental Retardation (.A.A.M.R.). Dr. Beaton was interested in the training of developmentally handicapped people rather than custodial care and, by 1888 a school was formally started.
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|Body= By a special law passed by the Legislature of 1873 and amended in 1874 a tax of $10 on all liquor dealers was assessed to raise a fund for the establishment of a state inebriate asylum which, when completed, was to be maintained by a continuation of the same tax. As soon as a sufficient fund was accumulated the Inebriate Asylum Board purchased a farm of 160 acres, within a mile and a half of the City of Rochester, for $9000, secured plans and began building in 1877. Strong opposition was raised by liquor dealers against this tax as discriminating and unjust. Test cases were tried in the courts and the constitutionality of the law was sustained. At the same time it became apparent and was admitted generally that additional room was much more urgently needed for the care of the rapidly increasing insane of the state than for the care of inebriates. The Legislature of 1878, in view of this and of the determined opposition to an inebriate asylum to be built and maintained on such a plan, repealed the act levying the tax and changed the inebriate asylum to the Second Minnesota Hospital for Insane, which title was later changed to the Rochester State Hospital (in 1883), with the proviso, however, that inebriates should be admitted and cared for and treated at the expense of the state on the same basis as the insane. Accordingly a separate ward was maintained for inebriates until the department was abolished by the Legislature in 1897.
  
To alleviate the overcrowding, 151 acres of land at the edge of Lake Simcoe were purchased in 1885, complete with a stone farmhouse and some outbuildings. Initial construction included a female residence (opened in November 1887), a male residence (opened in February 1888), a central building serving as a water tower, boiler house and kitchen and, about a quarter mile distant, a small plant to create coal gas for lighting located near the railway tracks. The present Administration Building, added to the front of the existing complex, was opened in April 1891, at which time both the remaining resident group and the school was moved to the new site and the building at the Park closed. The park site was later sold to the Town of Orillia. Dr. Beaton continued to fight for the rights of the residents by attempting to dispel the ignorance and apathy directed toward them throughout his 33 year career. This included his request to rename the facility to “Hospital For The Feebleminded” from “Asylum For Idiots”. In his time (1908) the resident population stood at 775 with a staff of 80.  [[Orillia Asylum|Click here for more...]]
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The building was in an unfinished condition, and consisted of a center and small east wing, then only under roof, without inside finish, and without outbuildings, such as laundry and engine house.  [[Rochester State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:51, 10 February 2014

Featured Article Of The Week

Rochester State Hospital


10-18-2007-13a.jpg

By a special law passed by the Legislature of 1873 and amended in 1874 a tax of $10 on all liquor dealers was assessed to raise a fund for the establishment of a state inebriate asylum which, when completed, was to be maintained by a continuation of the same tax. As soon as a sufficient fund was accumulated the Inebriate Asylum Board purchased a farm of 160 acres, within a mile and a half of the City of Rochester, for $9000, secured plans and began building in 1877. Strong opposition was raised by liquor dealers against this tax as discriminating and unjust. Test cases were tried in the courts and the constitutionality of the law was sustained. At the same time it became apparent and was admitted generally that additional room was much more urgently needed for the care of the rapidly increasing insane of the state than for the care of inebriates. The Legislature of 1878, in view of this and of the determined opposition to an inebriate asylum to be built and maintained on such a plan, repealed the act levying the tax and changed the inebriate asylum to the Second Minnesota Hospital for Insane, which title was later changed to the Rochester State Hospital (in 1883), with the proviso, however, that inebriates should be admitted and cared for and treated at the expense of the state on the same basis as the insane. Accordingly a separate ward was maintained for inebriates until the department was abolished by the Legislature in 1897.

The building was in an unfinished condition, and consisted of a center and small east wing, then only under roof, without inside finish, and without outbuildings, such as laundry and engine house. Click here for more...