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

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|Title= Long Grove Hospital
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|Title= Agnews State Hospital
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|Image= Agnews5.png
 
|Width= 150px
 
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|Body= In 1903 building work began to the west of the Horton Asylum for the next mental facility planned by the LCC - the fourth institution of the Epsom cluster to be built on the Horton estate. Because of the damage caused to the local country roads by the constant delivery of building materials during the construction work on the previous Asylums, the contractors, Forster & Dickie, obtained a light railway order. They purchased 40 acres of land and the necessary sidings from the London & South West Railway Company at the cost of £10,000, and built a standard gauge railway to bring in workmen from London and building supplies. The first train-load of bricks and cement was delivered by the Long Grove Light Railway in April 1905.
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|Body= Today known as the world famous Sun Microsystems/Agnews Developmental Center, the campus-like setting of the former Agnews Insane Asylum consists of a grouping of numerous reinforced concrete, brick, stucco and tile buildings. They are constructed in large rectangular-shaped plans and designed in a Mediterranean Revival style. The buildings are formally placed within a landscaped garden of palms, pepper trees and vast lawns. The treatment of the insane in California dates from the earliest days of the Gold Rush. The first provisions for the insane were to lock them up with criminals in the ship Ephemia, purchased in 1849 by the City of San Francisco, and later to house them at the San Francisco marine hospital in 1850, used primarily for ailing seamen. In 1885 the Agnews Residential Facility was established by the California State Legislature as a neuropsychiatric institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Agnews, opened in 1889, was the third institution in the state established for the mentally ill. Twenty-one years later, the greatest tragedy of the 1906 earthquake in Santa Clara County took place at the old Agnews State Hospital. The multistory, unreinforced masonry building crumbled, killing over 100 patients.
  
Named after a nearby area of woodland, Long Grove Asylum opened in 1907. It had been built to almost the same design as the Bexley Hospital, as had its sister asylum, Horton Asylum. (Re-use of an already approved plan enabled the LCC to get swifter approval from the Commissioners in Lunacy than would a completely new plan.) Built of red brick with courses of yellow brick banding, the Asylum could accommodate 2000 patients. The improved financial situation of the LCC allowed more architectural embellishment and better standards of fittings and equipment than those at Bexley and Horton Asylums.
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The Institution was then redesigned in, what was then, a revolutionary cottage plan spreading the low-rise buildings along tree-lined streets in a manner that resembled a college campus. The Mediterranean Revival style buildings were constructed of concrete with tile roofs, decorative tile patterns, rustic wooden balconies, porch columns and banisters. Bands of decorative tile patterns reflect the Hispanic influence on the buildings. Now at the center of the Sun Microsystems/Agnews complex is the Clock Tower Building (formerly the Treatment Building) with its massive symmetrical clock tower. The auditorium is an outstanding building, which seems as beautiful today as it was in 1913. Agnews State Hospital was significant as the first modern mental hospital in California, and subsequently other State facilities, followed the example of Agnews. It embodied the distinctive characteristics of a progressive mental hospital in the early 20th century as it was intended to be a "cheerful" place with its decentralized specialized buildings for different treatment purposes and different types of patients. Its small, low-scale buildings were designed to bring light and air to patients.  [[Agnews State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
The central section of the Asylum contained the service buildings - the administration block, recreation hall, kitchens, main stores and staff quarters. The 3-storey administration building was flanked by 8 male and 8 female ward blocks. The female side contained the laundry, while on the male side were the boiler house and workshops. A large semi-circular corridor (open to one side) linked all the wards, while spur corridors linked the wards to the central blocks. The site also contained a water tower, a chapel, infirmary blocks and an isolation hospital. The Medical Superintendent had his own residence, as did other members of the senior staff.  [[Long Grove Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 03:55, 10 March 2014

Featured Article Of The Week

Agnews State Hospital


Agnews5.png

Today known as the world famous Sun Microsystems/Agnews Developmental Center, the campus-like setting of the former Agnews Insane Asylum consists of a grouping of numerous reinforced concrete, brick, stucco and tile buildings. They are constructed in large rectangular-shaped plans and designed in a Mediterranean Revival style. The buildings are formally placed within a landscaped garden of palms, pepper trees and vast lawns. The treatment of the insane in California dates from the earliest days of the Gold Rush. The first provisions for the insane were to lock them up with criminals in the ship Ephemia, purchased in 1849 by the City of San Francisco, and later to house them at the San Francisco marine hospital in 1850, used primarily for ailing seamen. In 1885 the Agnews Residential Facility was established by the California State Legislature as a neuropsychiatric institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Agnews, opened in 1889, was the third institution in the state established for the mentally ill. Twenty-one years later, the greatest tragedy of the 1906 earthquake in Santa Clara County took place at the old Agnews State Hospital. The multistory, unreinforced masonry building crumbled, killing over 100 patients.

The Institution was then redesigned in, what was then, a revolutionary cottage plan spreading the low-rise buildings along tree-lined streets in a manner that resembled a college campus. The Mediterranean Revival style buildings were constructed of concrete with tile roofs, decorative tile patterns, rustic wooden balconies, porch columns and banisters. Bands of decorative tile patterns reflect the Hispanic influence on the buildings. Now at the center of the Sun Microsystems/Agnews complex is the Clock Tower Building (formerly the Treatment Building) with its massive symmetrical clock tower. The auditorium is an outstanding building, which seems as beautiful today as it was in 1913. Agnews State Hospital was significant as the first modern mental hospital in California, and subsequently other State facilities, followed the example of Agnews. It embodied the distinctive characteristics of a progressive mental hospital in the early 20th century as it was intended to be a "cheerful" place with its decentralized specialized buildings for different treatment purposes and different types of patients. Its small, low-scale buildings were designed to bring light and air to patients. Click here for more...